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.

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.

Some dragons may boast about how fast or agile they are. Rukhtar considers endurance, the ability to keep going long after other dragons have dropped from exhaustion, far more important. Day after day he scouts the terrain around Ferwe Weyr, looking for anything out of place and reporting to the other dragons. Rukhtar is of no better than average intelligence, but is still highly respected for his perseverance and ability to realize when he needs help. Rukhtar may not always know what to do, but it's rare for him to make a situation worse than it was when he found it. Rukhtar is also fascinated by stories about humans. (He's never actually seen one.) These "hands" they have sound fascinating and he wishes he could have a human to carry around with him.