Skywing Dragons spend most of their lives flying in the air. They hunt from the air, diving at prey from above, and land only to rest. They are some of the fastest fliers, capable of extremely high speeds. The webbing at the end of the tail acts as a rudder, allowing them to easily change direction during flight.

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.

Aellope, in Greek mythology, was one of the harpies. She, and her sisters, Ocypete and Nicothoe, greatly represent the average person's idea of harpies; rude, maleficent, nefarious. Over-all, just plain evil. Aellope is not as evil as Ocypete, but she runs a close second, and she lacks all the smarts Ocypete has. Aellope's favorite thing to do is to throw insults at dragons and people alike. During the theft of the daydream egg, she had the hardest part, stealing the egg. After almost getting caught by Nanael, the old Stone dragon, she scooped up the egg and brought it too Nicothoe for the rest of the plan. She then raced away to try to distract Anthousai until the egg was in place.