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.

As a hatchling, Gilus was kept by a different dragon tamer than his current master. This dragon tamer raised Gilus for a brief time before he discovered the tendency of humans to hunt gold dragons for their scales. Afraid that he would be targeted by dragon slayers, that dragon tamer abandoned Gilus in the wilderness where the young dragon was found and taken in by his current tamer, Marcato. Because of this history Marcato has a tendency to be overprotective of Gilus, even though the full grown gold dragon is fully capable of fending for himself. It is rare to see Gilus without either Marcato or another of Marcato's dragons nearby.