Balloon Dragons are so named because they are filled with a gas that makes them almost lighter than air, similar to balloons. However, they are not prone to bursting, as they are covered in tough skin and can deflate themselves if necessary. In addition, they generally are slow moving. They use their gas bladders to float to the tops of trees, where food is more abundant. They can shift their weight from their backs to their fronts, allowing them to reach leaves and fruit.

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.

TJ of Variabe is, plainly put, a braggart with a big, big ego. But she is not any ordinary braggart: for she is what her clanmates call a 'BraggarTJ', meaning a dragon who brags that she is somehow related to a mysterious god called 'TJ09.' TJ of Variable certainly fits into this description: she spends her days claiming that she received a revelation in which a great god named TJ09 gave her a series of wise lectures, always referring to her as 'tJofX' in these lessons. What these lessons were about is still unknown, though some dragons smugly think it was probably something like 'Don't be arrogant, tJofX, or else I will come pop your over-inflated ego (and your body).'