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.

Timid and withdrawn, Ghost Leg doesn't go out with his friends much. He's surprised he even has friends. He dislikes arguing and doesn't like making decisions for himself, so he uses a method that picks things at random. He draws a number of vertical lines representing the number of choices, two lines if the question is a yes-or-no. A friend present draws any number of horizontal rungs across the lines while he keeps his eyes closed, and covers up the middle portion of the diagram when finished. He picks a start point and follows the path downward, taking all the rungs along the path, until he reaches a choice at the bottom. That's Ghost Leg's decision-making process. On rare occasions, he has made his decision already but will still "choose" via the diagram, except all lines will lead to "stay at home" or the like. People don't really like how he leaves so many things to chance, but they do think his game is very neat, likening it to a more exciting version of drawing straws.