Fire Gem Dragons are a colorful, flamboyant breed often found in hot climates, particularly around active volcanoes. Their broad tails store the flames they breathe, which are colored by the heavy amount of minerals in the water they drink. These dragons come in a variety of colors, and will collect shiny trinkets and stones that match their own coloration. Despite their hoarding tendencies, though, Fire Gem dragons are social and will often congregate in groups and show off their collections while fawning over the stones their friends and rivals have gathered, occasionally arranging trades.

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.

What Are Gems moved away from her volcanic birthplace to a temperate plain once she realized her dream job is writing stories for theater. It's risky, given her fieriness, but away from the volcano, she's the only source of fire and just has to move carefully around her plant material and inks. Gems does a lot of work at home and transfers manuscripts via couriers, so her friends look to her when they need a sitter for their children. Not only are the young ones enthralled by her bright scales, since they've never seen a fire gem dragon before, some of them believe she has crazy-cool powers and fights evil. The evil, in this case, is the couriers, whom the kids think are invading the hero's base. Whenever Gems has a friend's hatchling to watch over and courier service on the same day, she is expected to go outside and fight the enemy. She furtively bribes the messenger to play along and allow her to "defeat" him. She is pretty sure the guys all draw lots to not have to go to her cave.