Witchlight Dragons are silent, secretive beasts that haunt the most remote corners of the wilderness. They beguile their unsuspecting prey into peril by assaulting their perceptions of reality and stoking the fires of paranoia with masterfully-conjured illusions. Unwary travelers have been led astray by the soft, inviting glow of their eyes amidst a sea of encroaching darkness, never to be seen again. Those that survive a Witchlight Dragon’s psychic onslaughts do not escape unchanged: some believe that the apparitions these dragons summon to tempt or torment their victims awaken them to hidden truths about themselves.

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.

Anyone who wanders into a certain stretch of wilderness will face four witchlights, each with the alleged goal of bringing redemption to a poor lost traveler. After Hilpek, who forces his victims to remember every single past misstep, it's Tiofsu's turn in the morality play. She shows how utterly undeserving of redemption a dragon is, conjuring up visions of friends, family, and weyr to torment them with the knowledge of every possible flaw in their character. To her credit, if a dragon manages to defy her or peacefully accept their flaws, she will let them proceed to Jaekath without taking any further action against them.