Shadow Walkers are a strange breed that possess the ability to slip between the planes of reality, becoming immaterial. This allows them to hide in the shadows, either hunting from the concealment of near invisibility or evading enemies. Though they become corporeal to mate or to eat, they spend most of the rest of their lives walking in the shadows. Shadow Walkers are wary creatures, though on dark autumn evenings when the leaves fall to swirl in the chill, rain damp air, they may be seen drifting out from the shadows.

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.

Late one Halloween Night, deep within the forest, a mysterious egg lay hidden among the grass and leaves. A young woman, strolling along the path, stopped to drink from a small stream. Though it was night, the sky was bright, thanks to the full moon, and she was about to continue on when she found the little egg in some tall grass. Gingerly, she picked it up, nestled it safely into her pack next to three other Shadow Walker eggs, and took them home.

Now grown, Shadowsmoke is shy and secretive, though fiercely protective of his owner. Some nights, during the full moon, he and his owner's other Shadow Walkers leave their cave for some unknown purpose, and no one, not even their owner, knows where they go. Efforts to track them on these trips are always thwarted by their ability to become immaterial.