Thunder Dragons are the masters of electricity. Their wings gather energy as they soar through the clouds, and when they clap their wings together they can create devastating arcs of lightning. They can stay airborne nearly indefinitely, landing only to sleep and breed; they catch their prey from the air and take moisture from the clouds. A thunder dragon’s roar is considered to be an omen of misfortune.

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.

Strykster is a Thunder dragon. When his egg was found, his owner surprised the other dragons by immediately grabbing it and running off babbling about something called "electricity". The family head Duskglider the Black managed to pry it out of her grasp and place it with the other eggs in the hatching chamber. It soon hatched into an odd hatchling who seemed to be able to breathe lightning, and because of his astounding lack of aim and his owner's penchant for irony, he was named Strykster. He worried his new family a lot at first, because he seemed to be afflicted with a constant cold. All the other hatchlings and their babysitters were zapped at least three times before he was placed in a separate cave. The streaks of lightning would still occasionally bounce off the walls and stun passerbys. Luckily, as Strykster grew older, his sneezing fits stopped, his aim improved and he turned out to be a good natured, rather cautious dragon with a paranoia of something called a "plug hole".