Skystrider Dragons are known for almost never leaving the air as they have no other means of defense if attacked. The main exception to this rule is when they nest in the branches of ancient trees to sleep. This airborne tendency can make raising and keeping Skystrider Dragons an extra challenge. Males have a row of poisonous spines along their backs while females have a venomous bite. Skystrider Dragons mostly prey on birds and flying insects, leading their presence to be welcomed by farmers who often leave out treats hoping to lure a group nearby.

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.

Skyballoonwing wants to live forever. He knows the required advances in alchemy are nowhere near, but he has a plan of how to live long enough to enjoy the enchantment when—and he is convinced this development will be a 'when', not an 'if'—an elixir of eternal life is finally developed. He has uncovered a little-known and much-maligned recipe for a concoction that will turn any living tissue submerged in it into white marble for around three years, then revert. So every three years, Skyballoonwing emerges to survey the latest in magical and alchemical research to see if immortality has been invented, and if not, he returns to his hidden weyr and throws himself back into his alchemical bath to "sleep" for another three years. The convention-going alchemists he always visits with joke that if he were to breed, he would likely produce nocturnes.