The Duchy of Appleton was a Ciderfoot (later Redfoot) halfling duchy centered around the town of the same name. Ruled by the Appleseed family, it was infamous for its feud with its northern neighbor Pearview.
History[]
The lands that would become Appleton were part of the Small Province of the Gnomish Hierarchy. The titular settlement prospered as a trading center thanks to its proximity to both the Burroy and the Middanroy rivers. When the Dragonwake saw most gnomish administrators and soldiers pulled away to defend against the Kobold Rising, their halfling subjects were left to fend for themselves against the Gawedi invasion of Lencenor. They would unite under the Small Kingdom as part of the western province of Ciderfield (along with Pearview), eventually repelling the Alenics.
The Era of Black Ice would bring great changes to Appleton. The Appleseed family was a cadet branch of the Ciderfield ruling family, as was the Peartree family; when the mainline family died out, the two sides feuded over the succession, starting the Cider Feud which would dominate Appleton's politics for multiple centuries. Following the foundation of the Kingdom of Reveria, the halflings found a friendly neighbor from whom they could hire reliable mercenaries for war and sturdy farmhands and laborers in peacetime.
The War of the Sorcerer-King would see Appleton's ally Lorent extend a protectorate over the Small Country in the aftermath of the Third Tall War. Castanor invaded soon after, the frontlines pushing back and forth across the duchy. The Castanorians suffered a defeat at the Battle of Appleton, delaying plans for a push into south. Nevertheless, it would be occupied after the Beepeck river defenses were overrun once more and would not be liberated until 1007. Appleton was granted independence in the Treaty of Anbenncóst.
The Cider Feud would flare up a number of times over the following centuries with Appleton launching raids across the Burroy River, usually attempting to seize Newcobble. Their successes are owed to the adoption of pony cavalry tactics by the border skirmishers. Lorent and Gawed would take advantage of this conflict as proxy wars for their own rivalry, leading to to the secession of Appleton's rich western county of Cowskeep to form the neutral Turnwell League with Butterburn.
With the collapse of the neighboring halfling kingdoms, Appleton would become a loyal vassal of Lorent and the new center of the emergent Redfoot culture; in indulging the courtesies of their Lorentish overlords, Appletoners imprinted a reputation for impeccable manners and hospitality into the new culture. The duchy refused to participate in the failed Viswall Rebellion and thus was spared annexation for a time.
It would later become part of the Small Country following the Small Country Rebellion in the mid-1500s. In 1668, the halfling seer Matilda Fruitsbane saw a vision, predicting that a natural disaster would occur the following year within the region of Applefields. Fearing the worst of the halfling seer's premonition, the Appletoner government opened the first halfling bank in 1669 as an alternative source of income offering, generous interest rates to all halflings. The Rotten-Apple Finders Institution was created in 1780 as Appleton's premier spy agency, famously uncovering a conspiracy from the Northern League to influence elections within the Small Country.
Culture[]
The country is first and foremost famed for its rich and tasty apples. As such, the quote "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" is a phrase most happily live by. There is no doubt that Appleton apples are the best a man can get and its citizens are proud of that fact. This pride extends to the national drink, apple cider, which is consumed more frequently than ale in the duchy.
Appletoners think of themselves as a reliable and honest sort of people. This is in part due to the stability of their national bank and their mercantile economy keeping coin flowing through Appleton, allowing even the smallest farming families to sustain themselves. Their rivalry with Pearviewers continues, seeing the halflings across the river as impolite, crude, and dishonest "bad apples".