Named after their cloudy, ashen scales, Ash Dragons are large, gentle beasts, although their faces can give unaccustomed folk a fright. Their tough scales and sheer size make them infrequent attack targets, traits that explain why pygmy dragons and other small dragon breeds can often be seen riding on their backs, hiding amongst their large spiked scales. Though they tend to be mostly quiet, Ash dragons have a low, deep roar that is typically only used to threaten or call to others of their kind.

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.

Knitwear is named Knitwear because he loves knitted goods enough to have changed his much longer and "less appropriate" birth name. He's too large to knit himself—yarn is to him like spiderweb is to an imperial fleshcrowne—but he happily wears or displays any knitted goods that others give him. Never mind that the weather usually quickly wears things down; the individuals Knitwear protects do not mind creating more to replace the ones that have fallen apart. At any given time, at least a dozen of his spikes are outfitted in knitted coverings, mostly undyed. The colored ones are usually red since red dyestuffs are easy to come by and happen to be Knitwear's favorite color.