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.

Etherized is often an assistant to the white dragons in the city, since their inability to commit violence prevents many of them from preforming surgery even when it is in the patient's best interests. Even when she isn't wielding a scalpel herself, her smoke can be distilled into a potion that partially phases out a patient when applied topically, allowing surgeries to be preformed directly on the effected area without unnecessary damage to other tissues. These 'ether-rubs' are highly valuable because they do not tend to mix with other potions and cause additional unintended side-effects.

When not on call, Etherized is a hobbyist rabbit-farmer. She also has a problem with accidentally standing on—or more often, in—tables.