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.

Japod and his mate Viewora fled the clan of their ancestors in their youth because some mysterious plague there had befallen dragons of their kind. The Tinsel dragons were regularly culled by the disease and the survival rate was close to nil once a dragon was infected.

Japod was the one torn about leaving, despite the real danger; his fear of the unknown was almost greater than that of the illness. While they travelled he often came close to giving up and only Viewora's presence kept him going. He is glad to finally have found a new home and he blissfully ignores the early signs of an infection among the Tinsels of his new clan, insisting that it's just a few isolated cases of a similar disease and not the terror they had fled from.