Deep Sea Dragons, as their name suggests, spend most of their time in the darkest depths of the sea. They have a bioluminescent dorsal spine that serves to attract prey and communicate with their own kind. As with many deep sea animals, they generally eat whatever they can manage to bait. They rarely leave the ocean floor, surfacing only during breeding season. When they do choose to travel to the shallower depths, they avoid bright lights and will only come up far away from shore.

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.

Ivy O4 is the mate of V7pie, and likes to listen to the stories that the non-deep water dragons tell of the shore and the surface. She wishes she could go herself, but the lack of pressure prevents her from getting that close to the surface of the ocean. When her mate breaks ships open looking for food, she scavenges treasures with plant-patterns in them. These she admires, dreaming of the over-the-waves versions of hydriods and corals that she will never see with her own eyes. She cannot imagine the tales about dozens of types of air-breathing dragons, and doesn't believes any of them could possibly exist at all. The air is so much thinner than the surface-water, which itself is too thin for her: it is hard for her to comprehend even a coral-like creature withstanding it.