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.

If asked to describe herself, yIgIy will say, "I am an author who lives in Llojprij with his wife and two dogs. I like iced tea and long hikes among the battle-scarred plains."

None of this is true. She plays flute for the Nworset Orchestra, is single, lives in Nworset with a cat, a fox-tailed rabbit, and a canary, hates iced tea, and would never walk when she could use another form of locomotion—usually flying but when she has access to magi, she will teleport. She has never been to Lloyprij, but she has read the description in Exeunt Verseweaver's travel guide of the surrounding plains, cratered from a long-forgotten battle, and thinks it would look really cool for a ghost-like dragon such as herself to be seen traversing the place. Nobody knows why she describes herself the way she does.