Kaithal and Wilkend Expedition
The Kaithal and Wilkend Expedition, or Expedition of Kaithal and Wilkend, is the name given to the thirty year exploratory efforts of the group to establish first contact between elves, dwarves, and humans in the Whispering Desert.
Proposal
In 770, in the Republic of Erafel, a group of would be explorers made of elves and dwarves led by the elve Erint Kaithal and the dwarve Edgewin Wilkend. They proposed this idea to the Grand Council of the Republic of Erafel at Unity Hall, asking for permission and funding for wagons and supplies. The Grand Council acccpeted the rpoposal and funded the expedition on the condition that any treasures received would be turned over to the state.
Exporation
Kaithal and Wilkend ventured north, past the cliff bordered mouth of the Sea Lake Valley and into the Whispering Desert in hopes of finding some indication that the humans still existed. They travelled for years with no sign or sight of a human civilaization. Many in the party died during the travels, some gave up and left, saying they would find their way home (some did, others did not). But Kaithal and Wilkend kept on, knowning that humans had to exists somewhere on the continent.
Contact with Humans
For nearly twenty years Kaithal and Wilkend wandered the Endless Dunes with no sign or luck, until in 798 when they finally spotted a group of travellers coming from the north. The newcomers were primative by comparison, dressed in rough linen robes and brandishing inferior iron weapons, and on first approach showed signs of hostility. But the elves calmed them with telepathy, offered them gifts of food and clothing, and within a few days learned to communicate in the humans' gutteral language. They taught the humans much, from agriculture and steel forging, the dwarves going as far as to show them how to augment steel alloys and create an even better material, to building, philosophies of civialization, and time measurement.
Returning Home
For months Kaithal and Wilkend lingered in the desert, until most of the humans, eager to spread knowledge to their own and start building permanent homes of their own, left to journey back north. Kaithal and Wilkend, feeling that they had been sucessful in their endeavor, returned home to Erafel, arriving in the year 800 with the remaining humans who wanted to join the Erafel society, and tales of their discovery.
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