Hellfire Wyverns are so named for their foul tempers and fiery visages. Their social structure places all females above all males, due to superior physical characteristics and violent dispositions. Forced subservience of the males causes them to become vicious, petty, antisocial, and passive-aggressive compared to the aggressive and social females. However, orphaned hatchlings raised by foster parents of another species can develop surprisingly even tempers and mellow dispositions, proving that their defining unpleasant nature is, in fact, a learned behavior.

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.

Nienke Fyreborne is one of the few dominant females of her cave, since most of the males frequently change mates. Nienke shares this status only with the Purple Ilatrya. Nienke's mate is the brazen Ember, Corian Fyreborne, and while both have mated with other dragons in the past they have found a lasting mate in each other. Nienke does live up to her species' behavior, with one difference- while she is aggressive and bullies around the males in the cave, she never attempts to abuse her mate.