Black Dragons are warriors. They are strong and capable in battles of force, but also ample magic users, capable of devastating opponents with their spells. Their bright eyes give them excellent night vision, which is why they generally hunt during the night.

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.

So long as the Dragon is asleep, the Nowhere Islands are free from disaster. The Magypsies went on to tell that "someone to wake the Dragon will appear when its power is needed." However, there is no precedent in who may wake the Dragon. As long as they have the power to lift the Needles, the Dragon will obey their intentions, good or evil. The examples set by the Magypsy Ionia to illustrate this are that "the fate of all evil can be washed away, and life as we know it will shine brightly," or "everything could be completely destroyed simply to satisfy wicked ambition." Itoi has revealed a third possibility in an interview, that if the Dragon is summoned by a person with no heart, then all life would simply cease to exist. Because the Masked Man, who Lucas was competing with to pull the Needles, is described several times by the Magypsies as heartless, it is likely that Itoi's implication was the fate of the world Lucas and friends were campaigning to prevent.