When Water Dragons mature, they lose the ability to survive on land, entering the water permanently. They are adept swimmers and eat whatever fish are in the lake they live in. They tend to inhabit the same lake for their entire lives, although a few live in the ocean and swim all over the world.

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.

Unlike most water dragons, Dour hatched in the shallows of a river when his egg was swept from a traditional nesting lake by severe flooding. As a hatchling he stayed upriver in the safety of the reeds. Now as a fully grown adult, he has been forced to move downriver, and nests near an old water mill where a sheep farmer lives. During his move from upriver to downriver, he was caught on sharp rocks in the rapids, and has a long scar on his underside.

He dwells in relative peace alongside the few humans who also inhabit the riverside, expect for the occasional times when fish become too scarce, and he is seen slithering in desperation up the riverbank to snatch one of the farmers sheep.