Yellow-Crowned Dragons are found in the hottest, driest regions of the desert. Although they thrive in these conditions, they do very poorly in cold or humid climates. These dragons are very fast fliers and skilled hunters, and usually feed on small, quick desert antelope. Yellow-Crowned Dragons are diurnal, and spend the night in underground burrows they dig or steal from other creatures. They are often seen out sunning themselves in the early morning sun, waiting for the heat of the day to set in.

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.

In the Vampire Clan, Toxic, the Alpha Vampire, has decided to conduct an experiment using ten "regular" dragons and train them to act like Vampires. This way, the Vampire Leader's dark deeds can be accomplished by non-turned dragons, which will hopefully avoid suspicion from others. He has chosen ten different dragons, breeds that are preferably either large or bad-tempered, to experiment with.

Zzyzex is a rather sour dragon. He is constantly pitying himself because of the situation he's in. Toxic, having grown tired of the Yellow-Crowned's moaning, attempted to scare the bitterness out of him by causing him to have vividly gory nightmares while he slept. This didn't do much, except possibly increase Zzyzex's complaining.

Despite being self-pitying, Zzyzex is quite the hypocrite. He hates when his hatchmates begin to fuss and complains even more because of their distress. He is quite churlish when it comes to dealing with others, and has been known to fly into rages over small things.