Hellfire Wyverns are so named for their foul tempers and fiery visages. Their social structure places all females above all males, due to superior physical characteristics and violent dispositions. Forced subservience of the males causes them to become vicious, petty, antisocial, and passive-aggressive compared to the aggressive and social females. However, orphaned hatchlings raised by foster parents of another species can develop surprisingly even tempers and mellow dispositions, proving that their defining unpleasant nature is, in fact, a learned behavior.

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.

Winddancer started out as a sweet, gentle little wyvern, raised by her father, who was in turn raised outside of the species. That all changed, though, when a group of hellfire wyverns, migrating for the year, flew over the nursery, and attacked. Numerous dragons were hurt in the chaos, but it was only afterwards that everyone noticed that the most energetic hatchling of the season was missing. One of the female dragons, angry at having lost her own daughter to humans, flew off with Winddancer. Almost more than two years past before anyone heard from the dragon, though the searches never stopped, nor did the raising of more dragons. One day, she returned on her own, as a fully grown adult dragon, remembering that her home was with Kurei and her mother and father, but the damage was done. She was a true hellfire wyvern, and her temper and aggression showed it.