Grave Dragons are not named for their connections to death or burial, but for the grave expression on their faces. This strange expression is used as a defense mechanism that causes fits of panic and terror in potential predators. Since they only eat ash and charcoal, they do not hunt. Grave Dragons are powerful fire-breathers and have been known to burn down forests and villages alike to make meals. It is believed that the markings on each Grave Dragon’s wings are the faces of those who have lost their lives in fires started by that dragon.

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.

Last Judgment is one of the garbage movers in the riverside town of Fish Fry, and one of the handful of dragons willing to eat the trash that they pick up weekly. There's more than enough garbage to eat, so people never have to worry about their grave dragon denizen razing the town. At the trash center, once things are sorted, LJ approaches the pile set aside for her, containing mostly wood and other organic goods, and prepares to eat it. Her colleagues have noticed that she has a ritual of some sort, where she sits with arms raised and addresses the pile, whispering something about the objects preparing for their last judgment. Then she sets the pile on fire and eats it once they're charred crumbs. LJ does the same with individual items, too: if someone gives her a newspaper to discard, she whispers to it in the same manner before lighting it up. She is vague about why she behaves like this, though her colleagues speculate that it might be comparable to saying grace before a meal.