The War of the Races
Basically:
North and Southern Men fight and bring along the other races and also create Giants to help them but everybody dies, especially Clan Kidranen.
The Conflict
Prelude
As often between the Men of that time, tensions were high. After many petty battles and skirmishes near the border between the North and South, war was nigh, and both sides were determined to be ready for it. What they did not account for was the enemies this would make for them. In their race to hoard the most resources first, they had taken so many resources from formerly neutral parties that they could hardly survive and they must fight to keep their lives.
The North
It started with Fae in outlying forests. Royal edicts demanded massive amounts of timber, so these forests were the first to be cut down. Hundreds of Fae were left homeless, and many fled to Verinoth which soon became overcrowded. Some Fae attempted to resist in some places, but they were generally crushed by the militantly superior humans.
At last, the Trolls of Clan Kidranen decided that the Men must be stopped. They spread out and went to every outlying forest they could, and when the tree-cutters came, they halted them nearly without incident, for who can argue with an eight-foot-tall wall of stone?
However, this caused strife among the Men. Their enemies were coming, and they must prepare. They needed that timber. But... while they already had some timber and weapons, say, enough to easily defeat a thinly spread force, they could take the forests. As simple as the plan seemed, there were far more casualties on both sides than expected. However, there were only so may Trolls, and they were taken by surprise. Once the Men cut down the Forest Trolls, they cut down their forests, and more and more Fae gathered around Verinoth.
In fact, the timberlust had displaced so many Fae that Verinoth simply could not house them, so the Fae refugees began to grow more forest. The trees engulfed everything in their wake. Peaceful forest settlements were reduced to splinters of wood impaled on branches and roots. Small rivers ran dry, overtaxed from the crowded trees and Fae. Verinoth grew bigger than it had ever been in history.
The other Troll Clans, meanwhile, held council. They decided they could not let their kind have died in vain. They swore to protect the Fae and their land.
Yet the Men -- delayed and hurt by the Trolls -- needed more strength or they would lose the battle. One sorcerer proposed a plan. She could make an army as formidable as the very Trolls. And so she did. Using the remains of fallen Trolls, she created a new race -- Giants.
This actually failed and the Giants just ran off. Big L.
The South
While the Fae live also in the Southern part of the continent, they do not have even close to the numbers of their Northern kin. Therefore, Southern Fae could survive on the remnants of forest left to them as well as a few areas they managed to defend for themselves.
However, Harpys were a different story. Most Southern mountain ranges hosted a clan or two of Harpys where they hunt goats and birds to survive. But when the Men began hunting the land dry for pelts and meat to sustain their armies, Harpys could not find food. However, Harpys are not picky eaters, and they are not nearly as pacific as Fae. So if hunters started mysteriously disappearing, and Harpys weren't going hungry anymore, who cares?
Inevitably, however, this could not last. When Men stopped sending hunters, Harpys still needed food. They planned to simply wait until the fighters had gone to pick off the weaklings who stayed, but they were discovered while hiding in the mountains. But the Men also had a dilemma; they could not stay and allow their enemies to bring the war to their doorstep, but if they don't protect their families, the Harpys will eat them. They had no choice but to attack.
Like with the Trolls, the humans had the element of surprise, so they drove back the Harpys. Struck with insidious genious, the Men made a deal with the Harpys. If the Harpys would promise to never attack Southern Men again, the Men would feed the Harpys until they reached the battle where the Harpys could eat as many Northern Men as they would like. Delighted, the Harpys agreed.
Deployment
At last the two armies set off. The Men of the South shadowed by a flock of circling Harpys, the Men of the North fearful for their lack of numbers. Yet unbeknownst to the Men, Trolls, Fae and Giants also set off for war.
However, the Trolls and Fae lagged behind. After all, the Men had done a huge number on the Trolls' forces, such that they did not expect the Trolls to fight again. In addition, Fae were not trained in war, and they had to make weapons.
Battlefield
The armies set up camp around the edges of the Barren Plain that divides the North and the South so that the battle would take place within the Plain and not harm innocent bystanders. At once the armies of Men began planning and scouting out the land. To the surprise of all, Giants pillaged many camps a few days after set up, yet vanished into the night without a trace.
A few days after the pillaging, the Trolls and Fae arrived. While the Trolls kept watch, the Fae grew defenses of hardy shrubs and trees.
All were finally ready for battle.
The Engagement
The rising sun shone bright upon the armored flanks of the seas of soldiers. The cold stillness of the air sat heavily in the breasts of all present. Not a single bird sung. Not a single cricket hummed.
Blah blah blah I'm pretty sure the Giants would have sprung up from nowhere and started it so yeah
The battle was a frenzied mass of clashing, flashing swords, and roaring cries of raw emotion. All ranks save the Trolls who encircled the Fae were broken. Each fought for their life surrounded by ferocious enemies. The Harpys preyed on soldiers no matter their allegiance and dropped their emaciated bodies on the fighters below.
There was no goal to achieve; no ground to gain; only one's life to save. Many great souls fell, Harpy and Fae and Man and Troll and Giant alike. In the end, the shattered remnants of once mighty armies retreated back to their camps, nothing but death and destruction gained from the bloody massacre.
Outcome
Every side retreated to their homes. There was nothing else they could do, unless they wished to lose more warriors fighting.
Aftermath
Many Trolls fell in battle, yet no Trolls suffered more than Clan Kidranen, which was entirely wiped out in the course of the war. Read more at The Fall of the Kidranen.
Many Fae attempted to return to their old homes and regrow the forests, but the land was weary and dry, so many died of starvation. Many Fae had no choice but to live with humans, so they did, yet some good came from it. They fostered friendship and understanding after a rocky start, and some even found love and interbred.
The Harpys returned to their mountain homes. Here a split formed between the Harpys, for some were not willing to eat Men and had stayed and in fact grown closer to Men. However, many of the Harpys had developed a taste for Manflesh, and their clans still prey on villiages to this day. Yet because of the many troubles that come with killing Men, most Harpys reverted to their diet of animals which had repopulated in the absence of their predators.
The Giants who had not really gotten to know each other well enough to mourn their fallen comrades ran off into the wild to continue pillaging and breeding
Historical Significance
Legacy
This war is also known as the Last War, for its devastating stalemate exposed the truly horrendous truth of war: war does nothing but hurt. Of course, there were other wars later, but none on this epic scale, and as the world stated to modernize, none ever truly like it again.
The moral is, no one was proud of hurting each other, so they must strive to care for one another and not allow ambition to get in the way if compassion.
The Trolls carved a great cairn in memory of the fallen called the The Memory Stone.
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Ah, my favourite kind of war.