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.

The Princess Xiao of the Java Tiger clan's shimmerscale court has a soft, 'echoy' sounding voice, though no one can say why; no one has ever been able to find anything terribly unusual about her. Most dragons familiar with her heritage believe that this is purely a family trait. Many of the names her ancestors carried refer to echoes, which would seem to lend credence to this theory. All the same, her voice would seem to be ill suited to speaking to a crowd and she often doesn't choose to say much, finding that making herself heard is tricky at best. Still, when she does choose to speak, it is often well worth listening, because she usually only does so when it is a matter of great importance... which means that she must make each word count and so, when she speaks, she invariably chooses them with great care; and she knows that sometimes silence can say far more than words. Though she has a weak voice, she makes the best of it and can be quite persuasive when the need for that arises.