Water Walkers are small dragons that are frequently found around bogs and ponds. While they are flightless, they retain the flight sacs and hollow bones of their airborne cousins. These traits, coupled with their extraordinarily long, webbed toes, allow them to stand on top of calm waters, using their small sails to propel them wherever they please. They spend the majority of their lives on the water, retreating to the tops of lily pads when the waters become too rough to float atop.

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.

Mortarboard likes to stay at the mouth of his cave and stare at arbitrarily-picked things while tapping on the nearby lily leaves. He likes to look at shadows on his walls; he likes to gaze at passersby, even if they stare back as if he's being rude or something; and he likes to focus on some plant life nearby and pretend he can grow them like some life-affiliated dragons do, just really, really slowly. Some folks go to Mortarboard and talk to him. He likes discussing all kinds of things, but many conversations are about things that other people like to do, such as watching documentary plays, bringing in extra bodies for cold food storage, or going on a swim at sunsight, and they tell Mortarboard that since he's bored, he can do those, too. He is not bored. He likes lying around, staring at things, and drumming his fingers on lilypads. If he were bored of those, he would find something different to do. If he wanted people to keep giving suggestions, he'd get a suggestion box.