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.

John Keats has a horrible affliction. Countless tiny creatures too small for the eye to see have infested his body, causing weakness and particularly damaging his lungs. Because the problem is caused by living creatures, life magic cannot kill them. No wielder of death magic has claimed to have enough finesse that they could destroy the infection without killing Keats as well, and while someone once sarcastically suggested using magi to teleport the things out of his system, that hasn't gone anywhere either. It is a shame, because Keats is a promising young poet and he spends so much time incapacitated by the disease and magical treatments to reduce its effects that he has little time to write. He still stumbles over his metric feet and uses archaic words to make his work seem older, but he is one of the few writers who does not pad his epics with purple passages. Unfortunately, as his infection builds up multiple mana-type resistance, he spends more and more time ill.