Vampire Dragons are members of the undead. They sustain themselves by drinking the blood of others. It is said that they are only “alive” at night, and seem dead or asleep during the day, as they cannot endure sunlight for long periods of time. Vampire Dragons can only reproduce by changing the eggs of other dragons, puncturing the shell with their fangs and injecting venom that kills the baby inside.

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.

Hex is a publicist for the Vampire Science Foundation. She knows they are a quack organization, putting out pamphlets with titles like "CURE FOR EVERYTHING DISCOVERED IN LAB, RESEARCHERS WON'T SHARE," but her job is to do her best to keep anyone else from knowing it. Unfortunately for many less-skeptical dragons, she is very good at her job, and is personally responsible for about a quarter of the VSF's yearly income. Thanks to her, though, their bimonthly notices contain more actual scientific news than in previous years, partly because she works harder keeping their notice-writers up-to-date, and partly because she is generous with bribes. This is the whole reason she works with them, to change the Foundation from within, bolstering the spread of true scientific knowledge across the continent and cutting out dangerous misinformation.