Free City of Beepeck

*"For all the odiousness of the naturally-fetid Saltmarsh, the putrid slaughterhouses and sties of the Strip, and foul scent of Beepeck's corrupt politics and businessmen, the city-state hides a truly golden treasure: the humble honey bacon & ham breakfast. Fine pork belly and leg is cured in marsh salt, smoked, then glazed with wildflower honey. Frittered in a pan until caramelized, it's the perfectly sinful union of sweet and savory."*
―*A Taste of Home: The Cuisine of the Small Country*, written by Gilug Mereside of the Order of Chroniclers
**Beepeck** (officially known as the **Free City of Beepeck, Electors of the Halfling People**) is a city-state settled in the west of the Dameshead. For much of its history it has served as an independent urban center of the halfling peoples.

## History

### Origins

Beepeck was founded in 625 BA as an eastern trading port for the Gnomish Hierarchy in order to trade with the rising human empire of Castanor. The first settlers the land were gnomish merchants and their tribal halfling servants who primarily made their fortune in trading the salt from the eponymous Saltmarsh.

By the time the Damerian Republic was founded in 288 BA, Beepeck had become the de-facto eastern capital of the Gnomish Hierarchy. Due to the progressive ways of the city, it had become a place where the subjugated halfling masses could become equal to their gnomish overlords. This began a series of tense relations with their nominal overlords as the encroaching influence of the Damerian Republic allowed Beepeck to receive special rights as an autonomous city under the Gnomish Hierarchy.

### Dragonwake and Freedom

During the Dragonwake many leading officials of the Gnomish Hierarchy, including their stationed army, fled Beepeck and the Small Province to their homeland of the Dragon Coast.

This left Beepeck and the other halfling peoples of the Small Province under attack from the invading Alenic migrants. The city itself was sacked in 472 by the recently-founded Gawedi Kingdom with the rest of Lencenor and the Small Country being invaded in 475.

With the collapse of the Gnomish Hierarchy in the subsequent Kobold Rising, the city of Beepeck came under halfling rule for the first time as it joined the Small Kingdom, unable to act as its capital despite its previous prominence due to the city still recovering from the sack.

### War of the Sorcerer-King

During the War of the Sorcerer-King, the Third Tall War saw the city fall under the protection of the Kingdom of Lorent like most of the Small Country. A series of fortifications were constructed along the Widderoy, all collectively known as the "Beepeck river defenses". In spite of these preparations, the invasion of Lencenor saw the defenses breached and half of the city was razed by magefire under the command of Ettalinde the Wretched. The invasion raged on until its liberation by the recently-arrived Elf and the remnants of the League of Free Realms. In a poetic fashion, Beepeck itself was the first city liberated during this period, and many halflings who were once enslaved by Black Castanor readily joined the fight, and spurred on many in the occupied Small Country to do so as well.

The razing of the city years prior became a bittersweet boon to the city for much of the ruined city was cleared to allow for newer modern buildings. The halfling technique of house stacking became prevalent in the city, allowing the urban population to boom once more.

### Anbennar

During the Interregnum the city struggled to maintain independence against the encroaching threat of Lorent and Gawed. The city traded hands as the Wars of Dominion over the Small Country raged on, but eventually with the Formation of Anbennar in 1221 the city finally found peace.

Beepeck became one of the first electors following the Empire's the formation and would remain the representative of the halfling peoples within Anbennar until its dissolution during the Blackpowder Rebellion.