Gold dragons are the ones most often killed by humans, who consider their scales to be extremely valuable. These golden scales grant them a high level of protection, similar to armor, and they use this to their advantage in battle.

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.

The scars Karyorrhexis bears are often misattributed to his warrior lifestyle, brutal tank that he can be and associated personality of a reckless paladin that he nurtures—but the story of cause and effect is, in truth, reversed. Rather than be slain as was true of many of his kin, for many years he found himself in captivity, bound and deliberately crippled, pitiful shadow of all he could be. His hide was methodically harvested by his captors, regenerated by a White dragon who was forced to heed an instinct he had no rational desire to use given the horrors it furthered. But just as circumstance had led Karyorrhexis into that torturous fate, chance led him back out, his weak rage against his captors still enough to break bones and end lives. His involuntary companion from those days died as a misplaced hostage, holding no sway on the furious Gold—something he regrets to this day. The scars are solely from the last wounds inflicted on him, those that were not artificially healed.