Vampire Dragons are members of the undead. They sustain themselves by drinking the blood of others. It is said that they are only “alive” at night, and seem dead or asleep during the day, as they cannot endure sunlight for long periods of time. Vampire Dragons can only reproduce by changing the eggs of other dragons, puncturing the shell with their fangs and injecting venom that kills the baby inside.

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 rumors spread fast about the little abomination Way had adopted. Some said he was demon-born, not any innocent egg turned foul. Others claimed he was an old monster in a young body. But perhaps the most persistent rumors were those that, while the most mundane of those offered, cut cruelest; that he had been abandoned by his parents for a lack of silver scales and then taken, or worse, actively offered to the vampires as a way to ward off ill luck. Whatever the truth, he was here now, bitter and hungry and growing up under the care of Way, a golden wyvern who had taken him in to test if evil things could be made pure. Yet none of his efforts seemed to work, the monster as vicious and spiteful as ever, leading to whispers that Way would soon put an end to his failed experiment.

Yet for all the rumors none bothered to ask the young dragon the truth of things, and the prying eyes overlooked the way he wept when he was alone, ashamed and afraid and hateful of those who had made him so.