Red Dragons are similar to typical story book dragons. They shoot flames, can fly, etc. However, they aren’t evil creatures as depicted in myths and won’t go around raiding castles, killing knights, or kidnapping princesses. They live in a variety of habitats, from forests to coastlines to abandoned castles, usually in warm climates, and eat whatever living creatures they can find.

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.

Pakyve likes to keep a souvenir from each knight who attacks her. Sometimes it's a sword, sometimes it's a helmet, and sometimes it's just a horseshoe (and it's best not to ask what happened to the rest of the horse). The horseshoes become part of an elaborate mosaic, while the armor gets saved up until she has a complete set. Full "knights" get added, once structurally sound, to a giant artistic display in the next weyr over. Pakyve positions each one as she welds the parts together, and as she likes dynamic poses, the effect is quite creepy in a dimly-lit cave. She might ramble on about how her art reflects the hollow shell that is a knight's life, but what her art represents to most dragons is the source of most of their nightmares when they were young hatchlings.