The World of Gladsheim

The Plains of Gladsheim takes place mainly in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, but this not to say that beyond the known world we can imagine other lands from which other types of races and characters may exist and join the story. We can imagine that Gladsheim is a world that encompasses many other realms within it, thus allowing a wide variety of scenarios, races and cultures.



Please feel free to add other resources to help people paint an accurate picture of their environment.

The Elves

They were first to awaken and venture onto Middle-earth. A graceful a noble race, they are an immortal people who resemble Men, but shine with an inner glow that denotes a gifted spirit. No race had been blessed with more, or cursed so much.

They Elves are taller than humans but are uniformly slender and have less body hair. The males have no facial hair upon their fair, unmarred skin and this combined with fine features and sparkling eyes give their kind an enchanted aura about them. A strange deftness and ease of movement give them a graceful quality and so light afoot are they that they leave few traces of their passing and can walk on the surface of freshly fallen snow. Despite their comely appearance they are strong and highly resistant to the crippling effects of extreme temperatures and are immune to disease and illness.

The Elves revere the Valar and many know their nature well, yet they have no formal religion, showing their respect and paying homage to life through poetry and song.

They do not sleep, instead the meditate for a few hours in the day. It is difficult to wake them from this trance like state (although danger would most certainly bring them to their senses) as they set the time when they will return to consciousness.

Elves have a fondness for night and Men have often referred to them as the 'People of the Stars', as they see by starlight as well as a Man sees at the height of day (but when no lights is present they see no differently than humans). Their exceptional night vision combined with their extreme, 'far sight' that can pinpoint objects at great distances makes it very difficult to surprise their kind.

They also have superb hearing and this no doubt accounts for their fondness of music of which they are commonly very skilled. Their reverence for song is unparalleled and has affected their language and way of keeping precious records. The Elves were the first to use spoken words and have taught other races of the gift of speech; thus their own name for their kind: "Quendi — the "Speakers". All of their speech has a musical quality when spoken properly, lending itself well to verse.

There are three groups of Elves in Middle-earth that had descended from the Eldar. They are the Noldor, the Sindar (Grey Elves) and the Silvan Elves, also known as the Avari or commonly called Wood Elves.

Elves do not carry great burdens and are capable of traveling 16 to 20 hours a day.



The Avari as they are known among their own kind, means "Unwilling" or "Refusers" as they decided not to seek the light of the Aman.

They are the shortest of their kind, the males averaging 6'0" and the females, 5'9". They generally have a ruddy complexion with sandy coloured hair and blue or green eyes, although they are of many kindreds and there is wide variety among them.

The Silvan Elves seclude themselves more readily than the Eldar, for they have a less friendly history with Men. They despise Orcs, dislike Dwarves and are suspicious of Men. They are the quickest of their kind to employ spells, often using magic for simple uses and trickery but are not prone to use magic of great power.

They favour speaking Bethteur, the Silvan tongues, but those in Mirkwood and places further West generally use Sindarin. Most of them know Westron and some Quenya.



The Sindar or 'Grey Elves' are Eldar and unlike the Noldor chose not to cross over the sea to Aman, instead staying in Middle-earth. They like the Silvan are part of the Moriwquendi, those Elves who never saw the Light of Valinor.

The males average 6'5" and females 6'1". They are fair of complexion and have pale coloured hair and light blue or grey eyes. They are less musical than the Vanyar or Silvan Elves and are less skilled in forging or crafts than the Noldor, nonetheless, they are adept at all the arts and excel in building boats and ships.

The Sindar are great friends with most races and have remained particularly close to the Dwarves. They speak Sindarin and commonly know Westron, Silvan and some Quenya.




They are often called the 'High Elves' or 'Deep Elves' and are considered the most noble of their kind in Middle-earth. In reality they are so named because they are the only Elves living in Endor who have ever resided in the Blessed Realm of Aman across the sea. They are also known as the Golodhrim or Gelydh by the Sindar.

They are tallest and strongest of the Elves (but still slimmer than Men), standing on average a towering 6'7" (females 6'3") and while most are fair of hair, the Noldor are dark. Their eyes are always a shade of grey and their skin is very fair. Of those they are descended from; Feanor, Fingolfin and Finarfin, the latter two are described as being blonde and blue eyes because they bore Vanyar blood.

Like the Dwarves, the Noldor are fiery craftsmen and employ their knowledge to produce many magical items and weapons.

Of all the Elves in Middle-earth the Noldor are the most ordered. While their brethren are content to wander or mark time in quiet diffusion, the Noldor seek to build communities and states in beautiful, guarded places. Full of pride they look down upon all men that are not of the Dunedain bloodline.

The Noldorin language in called, Quenya ("The Speech") and they embrace it as their true tongue. When dealing with Men they rely on the common tongue of Westron or more rarely the Adunaic of the Dunedain.



Spouses can choose each other even long before they are married, thus becoming betrothed. The betrothal is subject to parental approval unless the parties are of age and intend to marry soon, at which point the betrothal is announced. They exchange rings and the betrothal lasts at least a year, and is revocable by the return of the rings; however, it is rarely broken. After their formal betrothal, the couple appoint a date, at least a year later, for the wedding. Only the words exchanged by the bride and groom (including the speaking of the name of Eru Iluvatar) and the consummation are required for marriage. More formally, the couple's families celebrate the marriage with a feast. The parties give back their betrothal rings and receive others worn on their index fingers. The bride’s mother gives the groom a jewel to wear (Galadriel's gift of the Elfstone to Aragorn reflects this tradition; she is grandmother to his betrothed, Arwen, Arwen's mother Celebrían having left Middle-earth for Valinor after grievous psychological injury after her capture by orcs and liberation by her sons). Elves marry freely and for love early in life. Monogamy is practiced and adultery is unthinkable; they only marry once (Finwë, first High King of the Noldor, was an exception, as he remarried after his first wife died).

The Dwarves

The information below has been taken from Tolkien Gateway. More information and history of the Dwaves can be found there:

http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Dwarves

The Dwarves, or Khazâd, were beings of short stature, often friendly with Hobbits although long suspicious of Elves. They were typically blacksmiths and stoneworkers by profession, unrivaled in some of their arts even by the Elves.
While there were several tribes (Houses) of the Dwarves, the most prominent had been that of the Longbeards.




The Dwarves were created by Aule to be strong, resistant to fire and durable to the evils of Morgoth. Thus they were secretive, proud and hardier than any other race, and never forgot a wrong or debt. They lived to 250 years or more and were generally less corruptible than Men.

Despite being 4.5-5 feet tall, they were known for their strength and endurance in battle, as well as their fury, particularly when avenging their fallen kin, and for being some of the greatest warriors in all of Middle-earth. They fought valiantly in many wars and battles over the Ages holding axes.

Also, as creations of Aule, they were attracted to the substances of Arda and crafts. They mined and worked precious metals throughout the mountains of Middle-earth but were noted for their gold lust, which was augmented by the Seven Rings; they committed their share of rash and greedy acts. Among these are the slaying of Elu Thingol and the dispute over the Nauglamír, which first brought suspicion and hate between Elves and Dwarves.

The Dwarves although sometimes flourished, were marked for their waning numbers, suffering heavily in the wars. Dwarves married around the age of 100; few women were born and not all did wed.

The Elves claim that the Dwarves will have no future in the Arda Unmarred, but the Dwarves hope that Mahal will gather them to the Halls of Mandos with the other Children of Ilúvatar. About their death, some other peoples believe that Dwarves melt into the stones they are made of.




The Dwarven language was created by Aulë, and was called Khuzdul. It was a strange language to Elves and Men, and few non-Dwarves learned it, also because they kept it secret. The Dwarves preferred to communicate with the languages of their neighbors, and did not reveal their names (the petty-dwarves were an exception). During the Third Age, the Longbeards used northern Mannish names in public.
The Dwarves also had devised a secret gesture language to communicate between themselves in silence, the iglishmêk
However, one Dwarven phrase is well known: the ancient battle cry, going back to at least the First Age: "Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!", which means "Axes of the Dwarves! The Dwarves are upon you!"




Most Dwarves mentioned in Tolkien's works are of Durin's folk, the clan founded by Durin I of Khazad-dûm, called the Longbeards. (A notable exception are the inhabitants of the dwarf-cities of Nogrod and Belegost in the Blue Mountains, spoken of in The Silmarillion). The seven different groups of Dwarf-folk originated in the locations where the Seven Fathers of the Dwarves first awoke before the First Age. There were three pairs of Dwarf Fathers that awoke together, and their Folk would build their halls near each other, though Durin himself had awoken alone. (In his letters, Tolkien adds that all the Dwarf Fathers except for Durin also had wives who awoke with them). Therefore the halls of the Longbeards at Khazad-dûm were not located near the halls of another Dwarf-kingdom. The seven clans of the Dwarves were:

• Longbeards, Durin's Folk, originally from Khazad-dûm.
• Firebeards, originally from Nogrod. Paired with the
• Broadbeams, originally from Belegost.
• Ironfists, originated in the Orocarni in the far East. They were paired with the
• Stiffbeards.
• Blacklocks, originated in the Orocarni. They were paired with the
• Stonefoots.