Ents, or Shepherds of the Trees, were created at the pleading of the Vala Yavanna. Yavanna's heart was heavy with fear that her labour over the olvar,or plants and trees, was to be ruined at the hands of Man, Dwarf and Orc. On hearing that her spouse Aulë had been allowed to keep his own secret race, the Dwarven folk, at an act of kindness from Eru, she went before Manwë, the lord of her kind, seeking aid.

Yavanna said that she would choose the trees over any to speak on behalf of all things with root, and punish those that wronged them. Manwë wondered at her words and as he sat the Music of the Ainur seemed to come to him anew.

Manwë went to Yavanna and told her of what would be. The kelvar,the living animals, would be ever watched by mighty Eagles, who would live amidst the mountains. Among the forests would walk the Shepherds of the Trees, ever guarding them, watching their flock.

References:

Silmarillionp. 45
Then Yavanna was silent and looked into her own thought. And she answered: 'Because my heart is anxious, thinking of the days to come. All my works are dear to me. Is it not enough that Melkor should have marred so many? Shall nothing that I have devised be free from the dominion of others?'

Silmarillionp. 45
'All have their worth,' said Yavanna, 'and each contributes to the worth of the others. But the kelvarcan flee or defend themselves, whereas the olvarthat grow cannot. And among these I hold trees dear. Long in growing, swift shall they be in the felling, and unless they pay a toll with fruit upon bough little mourned in their passing. So I see in my thought. Would that the trees might speak on behalf of all things that have roots, and punish those who wrong them!'

Silmarillionp. 46
But Manwë rose also, and it seemed that he stood to such a height that his voice came down to Yavanna as from the paths of the wind.

'Nay,' he said, 'only the trees of Aulë will be tall enough. In the mountains the Eagles shall house, and hear the voices of those who call upon us. But in the forests shall walk the Shepherds of the Trees.'

Then Manwë and Yavanna parted for that time, and Yavanna returned to Aulë; and he was in his smithy, pouring molten metal into a mould. 'Eru is bountiful,' she said. 'Now let thy children beware! For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arose at their peril.'

Ents are the Shepherds of the Trees: they exist as guardians and protectors of all growing things of root. They stand as tall as a tree and walk the forests, woods and mountains ensuring the safety of their herd. Their role in the First Age would not be an aggressive or obvious one. They are ruled by no Lord and hold no strong allegiance to anyone, but they would hate Orcs and their Masters.

In one of Fangorn's songs, he tells of how he dwelt in Beleriand prior to its drowning, naming specifically the regions of Nan-tathren, Ossiriand, Doriath and Dorthonion. Of these, Ossiriand is known to contain the main concentration of Ents, and it is only there that they appear in The Silmarillion.Dorthonion is now a land of nightmare ruled by Sauron and his werewolves, and must no longer be pleasing to an Ent. Doriath is a guarded Elf-realm where an Ent may sojourn for a season, or a few may dwell, but not in great numbers. Nan-tathren is simply outside the scope of this game at this time. An Ent PC will therefore be cultured to Ossiriand or Doriath.

Ent Features use the Elvish (Sindarin) form of their name (Fangorn, Fimbrethil, Finglas, Fladrif). This is consistent with the rest of the game, for all Elven characters have Sindarin names that are not translated into English. There is no Westron language that is represented by English.

References:

TT p. 72
'In the willow-meads of Tasarinan I walked in the Spring.
Ah! The sight and the smell of the Spring in Nan-tasarion!
And I said that was good.
I wandered in Summer in the elm-woods of Ossiriand.
Ah! The light and the music in the Summer by the Seven Rivers of Ossir!
And I thought that was best.
to the beeches of Neldoreth I came in the Autumn.
Ah! the gold and the red and the sighing of leaves in the Autumn in Taur-na-neldor!
It was more than my desire.
to the pine-trees upon the Highlands of Dorthonion I climbed in the Winter.
Ah! the wind and the whiteness and the black branches of Winter upon Orod-na-Thôn!
My voice went up and sang in the sky.
And now all those lands lie under the wave,
And I walk in Ambaróna, in Tauremorna, in Aldalómë,
In my own land, in the country of Fangorn,
Where the roots are long,
And the years lie thicker than the leaves
In Tauremornalómë.'

Silmarillionp. 235
And as they climbed the long slopes beneath Mount Dolmed there came forth the Shepherds of the Trees, and they drove the Dwarves into the shadowy woods of Ered Lindon: whence, it is said, came never one to climb the high passes that led to their homes.
<concerning the Dwarves of Nogrod who were killed by Ents from Ossiriand after sacking Doriath>

Ents are very tall creatures who walk on two legs and have two arms which they use in much the same way as a human. Ents will never be good at bending their joints and knees. At best they will move them as a young slender tree bends in the wind, rather than with the mechanical movement of a knee joint. Despite this and due to their hugely long legs, Ents can walk over land with immense speed, matching or maybe even bettering that of a swift galloping horse. And despite their size, they can walk near soundlessly too.

Fangorn was around 7000 years older in the War of the Rings than in the current day, and he was among the eldest of his race. It is fair to say that in youth Ents are more sprightly, supple and youthful, yet perhaps less learned. The Ent Quickbeam seems to show this.

Ents have immense power, they can tear rock and crush it. Huge swinging arms and legs; hurled fists and bodies, all would make this gigantic creature extremely perilous in battle. An Ent's punch is extremely powerful, able to crumple iron as if it where tin. Their stiff inflexible bodies are loosened and made supple by rage.

Anger too can make the mood of an Ent change greatly, swift decisions are made, and actions would come quick and fast. In battle an Ent would not dither. They would be brought quickest to rage in defence or vengeance for a lost tree. When Isengard was ruined in LR, Quickbeam's first accusation of Saruman was '"The tree-killer, the tree-killer"'.

Their bodies are immensely tough. Arrows from a bow would hurt Ents barely, indeed they are described as stinging flies to them. Poison harms them not. Their tough skin is like bark, only tougher. It acts as a very strong armour against weapons. Ents do not like axe blades and can be wounded deeply by them, yet one would need great strength to split their tough hide. Ents seem vulnerable to flames, indeed their skin will blister when exposed to fire for a period of time and can even burn.

The loss of another Ent in Battle would enrage an Ent as much as anything could and they move like a gale, throwing boulders many feet into the air. Indeed their strength seems immense in rage and perhaps unmatched. Fangorn mentions that the trolls where made as a mockery of Ents, just as Orcs are of Elves, yet Ents are far stronger than trolls and Ents are made of the bones of the earth.

Ents are beasts with much wisdom and seem to prize lore, though in a simple way. Rather than writing or logging events and knowledge, it seems to be kept all within the mind of the Ents, often in the form of songs and rhymes. This is indeed Fangorn's habit after 7000 years of remembering, but this could be a typical Entish trait. The rhymes are often Elven, thus shorter than in their tongue. So remembering a short song would be a trifle to an Ent when comparing it to their long language.

Ents seem to be shrewd, their ways are uncomplicated, yet they seem to have strong instincts of good and evil. The workings of the rest of the world may or may not be of great concern to an Ent. An Ents first care is to its trees and kin, if something affects them, Ents would know of it.

Ents sleep upright and instead of sitting, they lie down. Ents seem to be much revitalised by water and furthermore by Ent draughts. Ents also seem to be deathless left to their own devices. They can be slain and this happens, but Fangorn states in one of his songs that Ents are as old as the mountains.

Ents are said to eat fruit only if it falls for them from a tree. There main nourishment comes from Ent draughts, a replenishing liquid similar in appearance to water, yet it has qualities quite unlike it; bringing growth and regrowth, giving vitality and refreshment. Indeed when hobbits drank Ent-draughts in LR, they grew to be the tallest of their race.

References:

TT p. 66
They found they were looking at a Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether it was clad in stuff like green and grey bardk, or whether that was its hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. But at that moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. They were brown shot with a green light.

TT p. 67
Learn now the lore of Living Creatures!
First name the four, the free peoples:
Eldest of all, the elf-children;
Dwarf the delver, dark are his houses;
Ent the Earthborn, old as mountains;
Man the mortal, master of horses:

TT p. 68
'I can see and hear (andsmell andfeel) a great deal from this, from this, from this a-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lind-or-burúmë.Excuse me: that is part of my name for it; I do not know what the word is in the outside languages:'
<Fangorn is actually talking about a hill. This shows perhaps the length of Entish words.>

TT p. 71
'We are tree-herds, we old Ents. Few enough of us are left now...'

TT p. 71
'....For Elves are more like Elves: less interested in themselves than men are, and better at getting inside other things. And yet again Ents are more like Men, more changeable then Elves are, and quicker at taking the colour of the outside, you might say. Or better than both: for they are steadier and keep their minds on things longer....'

TT p. 71
'...Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak and learning their tree talk. They always wished to speak to everything the old elves did....'

TT p. 72
Treebeard fell silent, striding along, and yet making hardly a sound with his great feet.

TT p. 74
The drink was like water, indeed very like the taste of draughts they had drunk from the Entwash near the borders of the forest, and yet there was some scent or savour in it which they could not describe: it was faint, but it reminded them of the smell of a distant wood borne from afar by a cool breeze at night. The effect of the draught began at the toes, and rose steadily through every limb, bringing refreshment and vigour as it coursed upwards, right to the tips of their hair....

TT p. 75
'Hoom, hm. I have not troubled about the Great Wars,' said Treebeard, 'they mostly concern Elves and Men.'

TT pp. 75-6
'I am not altogether on anybody's side,because nobody is altogether on my side,if you understand me: nobody cares for the woods as I care for them, not Elves nowadays. Still, I take more kindly to Elves than to others: it was the Elves that cured us of Dumbness long ago and that was a great gift that cannot be forgotten, though our ways have parted since. And there are some things, of course, whose side I am altogether noton; I am against them altogether these- burárum...--these Orcs, and their Masters.'

TT p. 79
'...for Ents loved the great trees, and the wild woods, and the slopes of the high hills; and they drank of the mountain-streams, and ate only such fruit as the trees let fall in their path;'

TT p. 79
'But the Entwives gave their minds to lesser, and to the meads in the sunshine beyond the feet of the forests; and they saw the sloe in the thicket, and the wild apple and the cherry blossoming in spring, and the green herbs in the waterlands in summer, and the seeding grasses in autumn fields....'

TT p. 79
'...for the Entwives desired order, and plenty, and peace (by which they meant that things should remain where they had set them). So Entwives made Gardens to live in.'

TT p. 79
'Very fair she was still in my eyes, when last I had seen her, though little like the Entmaiden of old. For Entwives were bent and browned by their labour; their hair parched by the sun to the hue of ripe corn and their cheeks like red apples....'

TT p. 82
'Where is Entmoot?' Pippin ventured to ask.

'Hoo, eh? Entmoot?' said Treebeard turning round 'It is not a place, it is a gathering of Ents- which does not happen often nowadays.'

TT p. 82
They had been going for a long while-Pippin had tried to keep count of the 'ent-strides' but had failed, getting lost at about three thousand- when Treebeard began to slacken his pace"

TT p. 83
They had expected to see a number of creatures as much like Treebeard as one hobbit is like another (at any rate to a stranger's eye); and they were very much surprised to see nothing of the kind. They Ents were as different from one and other as trees from trees: some as different as one tree is from another of the same name but different quite different growth and history; and some as different from one tree-kind from another, as birch from beech, oak from fir. There were a few older Ents, bearded and gnarled like hale but ancient trees (though none looked as ancient as Treebeard); and there were tall strong Ents, clean-limbed and smooth-skinned like forest-trees in their prime; but there were no young Ents, no saplings. All together there were about two dozen standing on the wide grassy floor of the dingle, and as many more were marching in."

TT pp. 83-4
At first Merry and Pippin were struck chiefly by the variety that they saw: the many shapes, and colours, the differences in girth, and height, and length of leg and arm; and in the number of toes and fingers (anything from three to nine). A few seemed more or less related to Treebeard and reminded them of beech-trees or oaks. But there were other kinds. Some recalled the chestnut: brown-skinned Ents with large splayfingered hands, and short thick legs. Some recalled the ash: tall straight grey Ents with many fingered hands and long legs; some the fir (the tallest Ents), and others the birch, the rowan, and the linden. But when the Ents all gathered round Treebeard, bowing there heads slightly, murmuring in their slow musical voices, and looking long and intently at the strangers, then the hobbits saw they were all of the same kindred, and all had the same eyes: not all so old or so deep as Treebeard's, but all with the same slow, steady, thoughtful expression, and the same green flicker.

TT p. 86
Bregalad stood for some time surveying the hobbits solemnly; and they looked at him wondering when he would show any signs of 'hastiness'. He was tall, and seemed to be one of the younger ents; he had smooth shining skin on his arms and legs; his lips were ruddy, and his hair was grey-green. He could bend and sway like a slender tree in the wind.'

TT p. 89
'We Ents do not like being roused; and we never are roused unless it is clear to us that our trees and our lives are in great danger.'

TT p. 89
'You do not know, perhaps, how strong we are. Maybe you have heard of Trolls? They are might strong. But trolls are only counterfeits, made by the Enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery of Ents, as orcs were of Elves. We are stronger than trolls. We are made of the bones of the earth. We can split stone like the roots of trees, only quicker, far quicker, if our minds are roused! If we are not hewn down, or destroyed by fire or blast of sorcery we could split the Isengard into splinters and crack its walls into rubble.'

TT p. 172
'But arrows are no use against Ents. They hurt them, of course and enfuriate them: like stinging flies. But an Ent can be struck as full as orc-arrows as a pin-cushion, and take no serious harm. They cannot be poisoned, for one thing; and their skin seems to be very thick, and tougher than bark. It takes a very heavy axe-stroke to wound them seriously. They don't like axes. But their would have to be a great many axe-men to one Ent: a man that hacks once at an Ent never gets a chance of a second blow. A punch from an Ent-fist crumples up iron like tin.'

TT p. 172
An Angry Ent is terrifying. Their fingers, and their toes, just freeze on to rock; and they tear it up like bread-crust."

TT p. 173
A very tall handsome Ent, got caught in a spray of some liquid fire and burned like a torch: a horrible sight."

1. Ents are the Shepherds of the Trees. They live to protect and guard trees.

2. Ents are a simple, noble race who are as a rule peaceful and ponderous unless stirred to anger. They will normally only be roused if one were to harm the trees they protect or their kin.

3. Though they are goodly creatures, Ents have strong alliances with neither good nor evil. War and grandeur are not their interests.

4. Ents seem to have no one Lord or Leader amongst them. They meet in Entmoots in times of decision and they choose as a group. Elder wiser Ents may have more influence.

5. Ents are huge creatures, often around 14 feet tall. They walk on two legs and have two arms. Thus they take the shape of a man-like creature, just of gigantic proportions.

6. Ents' features and skin colouring seem to vary in the same way tree varieties may.

7. Ents have tough, bark-like skin. As it is hard it acts almost as armour and indeed arrows are all but useless to it. Axe blows are the most potent attack, yet the skin seems to blister and eventually burn when exposed to flame.

8. Ents have hair, often belichened and knotted with twigs which makes it seem more like foliage and therefore making them seem more tree-like.

9. Ents and Entwives were originally very alike, merely a male and female variant of each other. Later in their lives long after the fall of Beleriand the two became sundered both in heart and appearance and then entirely lost.

10. Elves awakened trees and gave them the ability to speak, thus Elves and Ents will still be close. In later ages they became distant.

11. Ents like Elves.

12. Ents hate Orcs.

13. Ents are incredibly strong when roused to anger. Stronger than Trolls, they can crush and shatter rock with great ease.

14. Due to the long strides of Ents, they can walk long and far, seemingly tirelessly. In fact they walk at pace too, and could beat most walking beasts over long distances. When angered Ents can move swifter still.

15. Ents are supple and smooth-skinned in youth. With age they grow stiffer and slower, yet wiser.

Credits: Baradil

Realms of the Ents