The great serpents of the sea that metamorphose into dragons after cocooning in the Rain Wild riverbed, carrying within them the ancestral memories of all dragons that came before. In the world of the Elderlings, dragons are not merely animals or symbols but fully conscious beings with their own history, culture, and sense of entitlement - they regard humans as lesser creatures and are largely correct in their assessment of the power differential. The relationship between humans and dragons, and the question of what genuine coexistence between species of vastly different power might look like, is one of the central concerns of the Rain Wild Chronicles and Fitz and the Fool trilogy.