Black Marrows are named for their dark colored hides which are encased in a distinct exoskeleton. Their skull and the top edges of their spine push out from under the skin as they age. As such, their young need excessive amounts of calcium for this armor to develop. The older a Black Marrow dragon is, the more skeletal their appearance. They often use their skeletal looks to lure in foolish scavengers or terrify predators. These vicious dragons love nothing more than to crack open bones with their stony beaks and eat the marrow inside. Voracious scavengers, Black Marrows will swarm and devour corpses both old and fresh, sometimes even dragging larger finds to the water to allow them to “ripen.” Despite their dreadful demeanour and often horrid stench, Black Marrows are devoted mates and parents.

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.

When Oroena first approached the small band of starving dragons, she was more inclined to hasten the inevitable than to help, but the look in Guardian Tawn's eyes made her hesitate.  Rather than challenge the guardian dragon, she instead agreed to help feed the travelers for a couple of days—a length of time which kept expanding, to the point where it seemed perfectly natural for Oroena to become one of the primary hunters for Bonescale Weyr.  Oroena still grumbles about the intruders, even though the youngest of the original group is now a proud grandparent, but for all her caustic remarks she is the best hatchling-tender a dragon parent could wish for.