Caligene Dragons have long been considered omens of death—reinforced by the skeletal markings on their bodies. They exert a malignant force on the world around them, causing other living things to slowly waste away in their presence. Caligenes favor the seasons of summer and autumn, disappearing entirely from the forests they inhabit during winter and spring. These malevolent dragons are physically weak, though this is countered by their natural stealthiness and alarming speed—enabling them to close in on large targets quickly and silently to create ambushes from which prey cannot escape.

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.

Caligene magic is often tragic, yet JrBas is an exception. For a long time, he struggled because his true love was a nihostrife, and Psne's typically-poor heath rapidly failed when the two were together. They seemed destined to a classic tradgedy, until a series of misfortunes led to Psne and a dead cassare in JrBas's dead woods. She was verging on suicidal, but JrBas managed to stay her depression. He saw the opportunity before him and salvaged the bone and scales of the corpse to make repressive barding to prevent his life-sapping aura from keeping himself and Psne apart. No longer forced into isolation by his own magic, he is now able to stay with Psne even in highly populated cities. They now travel the world together and the only problems they cause are the same that cassares do: jamming automagic doors, dousing magical illumination and suppressing the displays of enchanted signs as they go about bustling downtowns.