Shimmer-scale Dragons are a very beautiful breed with small—but highly reflective—scales that shimmer and shine as the dragon moves through water. They don’t have fins or webbed feet, but their long, eel-like bodies allow them to swim quite fast. They were once rumored to carry large pearls in their claws—causing many to seek them out in search of this fabulous treasure. In reality, the “pearl” is of greater value to the dragon, for the fabled treasure is actually an egg carried by a migrating female.

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.

As a many times removed daughter of Jewel, who some say is the mother of all Shimmerscale dragons, Princess Zhen would have an excuse or even the right, some dragons would say, to be proud and even arrogant about her lineage. Nothing could be farther from her nature, though, than that. It actually makes her happy to socialize with her fellow clan members, whether they be members of the court or common dragons, and she often does, whether it be splashing in the water with the various aquatic breeds or enjoying the sun with the sunstones and spitfires. If she has, once again, forgotten and is not in attendance at a court gathering, she is not difficult to find. One only needs to look among the dragons of the clan and there she will be, listening to their problems and doing her best to help them. It isn't an uncommon sight for her to appear before the other dragons of the court in order to bring some dragon's particular problem to their attention and set it before them for consideration.