Feisty and energetic, Whiptail Dragons pride themselves on their speed and agility. It is not unusual to see several whiptails racing each other. Though fragile, they can easily evade attacks with their superior speed, and often use their long tails as a weapon, giving rise to their name.

Dragons are highly-intelligent reptilian creatures that—from a human perspective, at least—appear to live forever. Many different varieties of dragon exist, each with their own unique qualities, habitats, and behavior. Adolescence in dragons is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. In Galsreim, dragons and humans coexist peacefully.

Atalanta is a very swift dragon, even for a whiptail. She has occasionally had trouble breeding because she tends to get carried away in her mating flight and turn it into a race—until the male, exhausted, gives up. Clever males have learned that the best way to slow her down is to throw a tasty carcass (deer, perhaps, or cow) in front of her and wait until she stops to eat. (She does this on the wing, snatching bites in mid-swoop, but it does slow her down. A bit.) She is an independent and feisty dragon with a sharp and witty tongue, but is never deliberately malicious. She gets along very well with her fellow whiptail Selina, and they often play games of tag that are almost too fast for a human eye to follow.