Dragons are creatures with nearly unlimited life spans. They can survive for long periods of time, and no one has found a dragon that has died of old age. Adolescence 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. Once they hit adolescence, hatchlings change quickly, maturing to their full forms in only 2 years.

Dragons don't communicate with each other verbally, but they will growl to scare off predators and frighten prey. Young dragons will emit an extremely high-pitched squeal when they are frightened. To communicate, they use telepathy with each other and to speak to other creatures.

Gold dragons are the ones most often killed by humans, who consider their scales to be extremely valuable. These golden scales grant them a high level of protection, similar to armor, and they use this to their advantage in battle.

Blachylles (Black Hills) is a slightly jittery fellow. As he is naturally nervous, he fidgets a lot, and looks rather thin and weedy for his breed, despite his prodigious appetite. Although he is a worry-wart about virtually everything to some degree, a major reason for his nervousness is that he puts a great deal more stock in the tales he's heard of dragon hunters than most.  He is therefore wary of any human but the Keeper, despite having been human-bred, himself.  Blachylles has tried to hone his natural defenses, even though it's debatable whether he would actually try to fight, or would flee an encounter with dragon hunters.

Like many Gold dragons, though, he is still rather vain, and absolutely loves to be scrubbed, bathed, and preferably oiled until his scales shine like the sun. This is a weekly ritual for him, and usually follows feeding upon a fresh kill. He also has a spot behind his left horn, which, when scratched, will make him kick his hind leg like a dog.