Caligene Dragons have long been considered omens of death—reinforced by the skeletal markings on their bodies. They exert a malignant force on the world around them, causing other living things to slowly waste away in their presence. Caligenes favor the seasons of summer and autumn, disappearing entirely from the forests they inhabit during winter and spring. These malevolent dragons are physically weak, though this is countered by their natural stealthiness and alarming speed—enabling them to close in on large targets quickly and silently to create ambushes from which prey cannot escape.

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.

Baati likes the sound of crackling dead leaves. He also likes the smell of musty, woody bark from dead trees. So, every month or so, he will trot into the forest and pick a tree that smells nice, with nice big leaves, and sit near it. He will repeat this every night until his malignant aura starts to wither the tree away into a weak enough form so that he can rip off branches and strip the leaves for lining his den. During the winter months, he keeps to his cave. Sometimes his family can hear the sound of leaves crunching echoing through the nearby caverns.