Arsani Dragons place a heavy emphasis on community. They are born with the innate ability to sense the emotions of others in their own species, and therefore take great care to ensure the happiness of their brethren. It’s not uncommon for them to give gifts and affection to those around them without warning. This good-natured giving extends far beyond the reaches of their own kind. Anyone who gains the friendship of a Arsani Dragon is likely to receive food, pretty rocks, and occasionally even flowers at regular intervals. The shared connection of the Arsani Dragons also allows them to draw on each other’s strength when performing feats of magic, making them some of the strongest spell casters yet discovered.

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.

Once upon a time, there were two magical pools uncharacteristically close to each other. This was fine until some unknown fool diverted a stream from the darkness pool into the time pool, which destabilized and caused the unnatural rift now known as the Submachines.  Elizabeth was caught in this fissure, although the magic somehow changed her—she seems to know parts of her future as if they have already happened. She works with a number of the other creatures that have been caught in the Submachines—there is a way in but no known way out—in an attempt to find the what she calls the Core: Liz believes that somewhere in the Submachines the original two pools still exist, and she is certain that if the channel is filled the whole region will return to normal.

Liz has an arch-rival, Mur, who often finds new individuals who have fallen into the Submachines accidentally. A number of them will defect from helping him force his way out of the Submachines to helping Liz fix it.