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.

Samuel Gherkin is the oldest of the Gherkins Brothers, a group of three brothers who were forced into thieving when they were very young in order to survive. He's often forced to take control and make decisions due to his age, despite being the most nervous out of all of them—when his brothers make a mistake, he often either decides to or is compelled to take responsibility for their actions.

He often wishes that he could've provided his brothers, Phillip and Ashley, with a better life—he just doesn't know how to. The other two Gherkins don't blame him, but he blames himself; after all, he is the eldest.