Almerald Dragons are an unusual species. They have gem-like protrusions along their spine that brighten and darken depending on their mood. In addition, their body temperature grows warmer during periods of excitement, and cooler during darker moods such as anger or depression; as such, it is fairly easy to read an Almerald’s emotions. Their mood can change quickly at times, going from calm to angry in a matter of seconds. If their anger becomes bad enough they can become a frightening opponent. Adults are not normally high in energy, so they hunt infrequently and prefer to lazily consume large quantities of fruits and nuts.

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.

For all of her childhood, people have been likening Pteridology to a nice, warm fern, despite her protests that she is not a plant. Even the rarely appearing humans in her life joke in their native language that she's curly and green like ferns, and she has a large number of fronds-- erm... friends. She doesn't spray spores into the air, though. That would be weird. Pteridology eventually did the dragon version of shrugging her shoulders and decided to devote her free time to observing and writing about ferns. There are a lot of plants that look like ferns that are in fact not ferns, so her goal is to also educate people about them, too. She has a long scroll with a list of trivia and fern facts that the children like to read and share.