Free City of Viswall

> *This article is about the free city-state. For the city, see Viswall*
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The **Free City of Viswall** was a city-state in the Small Country coterminous with the metropolis of the same name.

## History

### Origins

The free city had its origins in the Kingdom of Viswall, an electoral kingdom founded in 1022 in the aftermath of the War of the Sorcerer-King as a state for the Hillfoot Halflings. Finnic Shadowhand, a lowborn warhero, was elected as king. To legitimize his rule he would take on an elvenized surname, founding the House síl Vis; while the city council would insist on continuing the ceremony of election, in practice the monarchy was inherited as all future candidates would have to be chosen from the House síl Vis.

The first decade of the kingdom was spent riding the coattails of Finnic's prestige during the war and building up Viswall. Matters of state revolved between the King's Court and the councilors of the Viswall City Hall during these early years and would continue to do so for the remainder of the kingdom. The ignorance of the rural provinces by the state left the countryside grumbling, a situation which was taken advantage of by Lorent and Gawed, who eyed the fertile lands of the Small Country with ambition. Various secessionist rebellions were fomented in the kingdom with foreign support; when they succeeded, the newly-freed states would come under the suzerainty of their sponsor.

With the last hinterlands seized in the Fifth Tall War, the Viswall city council held a coup against the king. Defeated, the king and his family would remain political figureheads as the council declared the creation of the Free City of Viswall.

### The Free City

The Free City of Viswall's policy was one of permanent neutrality. Though it asserted openness to the outside world, it would remain diplomatically isolated among its neighbors: relations with Gawed and Lorent remained cool over the lost lands, while its rivalry with Beepeck simmered as the latter city's prosperity began to outpace that of Viswall. This policy remained in place throughout the Interregnum, resulting in the city-state's slow stagnation and decline.

Viswall's neutrality would only begin to pay off following the First Lilac War in 1350, when it became a sanctuary for halfling refugees caught in the crossfire of Gawed and Lorent. The population boom would reinvigorate the city's economy. Halfling intelligentsia from both Redfoot and Bluefoot land would be drawn to Viswall's image of permanent peace and safety across the Second and Third Lilac Wars, an image bolstered by the increased presence of the Rainbow Guard. Surrounded by symbols of Viswall's history such as the Rainbow Hall and the síl Vis king, a nascent halfling nationalist movement formed among the burghers and nobles of Viswall. These sentiments would spread through the former Viswall Kingdom lands of Coppertown, Thomsbridge, and Greymill.

This would culminate in the Viswall Rebellion of 1421, in which King Callam síl Vis used his political standing to rally the halflings of the Small Country to unify and overthrow their oppressors. However, save the enthusiastic Viswallers and their former provincial compatriots, no others joined the call: Pearview and Appleton both remained loyal to their overlords in Gawed and Lorent respectively; Beepeck would not support the ascendancy of its rival; and the halflings of Elkmarch, Bigwheat, Cowskeep, and Butterburn remained isolationist in their affairs. While Viswaller ambassadors made frantic attempts to make last minute alliances, Lorent and Gawed put aside their differences to put down the rebellion, ultimately besieging and sacking Viswall in 1423.

The Free City of Viswall was partitioned into North Viswall and South Viswall. The remaining síl Vis royals and the contemporary city council would be deposed in favor of oligarchs loyal to Gawed and Lorent, Though weakened and divided, Viswallers learned their lesson in regards to rebellion and would bide their time, spreading their agents and waiting for the perfect moment to claim independence once more in the Small Country Rebellion.