Eartheart

Eartheart was the primary settlement of the gold dwarves in East Rift in the late 15 century DR and their cultural and spiritual heart.

Description
It used to house great temples and shrines to all the dwarven pantheon and dwarf heroes but after the great collapse much was lost. Yet still renowned for its magnificent architecture and temples, dwarves from other lands and the depths of the earth undertook pilgrimages to see the great holy city.

Leadership
The lords of the Great Rift relocated here, and became known as the Deep Lords. They use intermediaries and mask themselves to undermine the attempts of assassins or drow infiltrators. The gold dwarves outnumber every other race in the city and therefore have full control of the city and its communities.

City expansion
After the fall of Underhome as a result of the weight of sea and stone, the gold dwarves fled their broken home to take refuge in this more secure settlement. Other peoples and other dwarf races fled to Eartheart from their old homes and the surface. With the massive influx of people they had to expand the city, a challenge the innovative dwarves met. Whenever they found a level surface, they built a small community, and if none were found their engineers excavated living spaces from the stone so that the communities could bulge from the chasm walls. In order to connect the city's communities, the dwarves created dizzying switchback staircases so narrow that they could only be used in single file. As another way to connect the communities, they bred griffons to facilitate travel and carry messages around the city, but the training of such beasts was costly in money and lives.

Defense
A lot of the higher levels were filled with sunlight, while in the lower levels the perpetual darkness was fended off with dim watch lanterns and magical lights. These were meant to guard against off the monsters and drow that came up from the Underdark.

Ringing Eartheart was a curtain wall interspersed with great towers known as the Riftedge Towers, each with a garrison of soldiers. These were intended to watch for incursions from the Underdark, but because the towers can't watch the entire breach, they regularly send out patrols of the area in hopes of discovering any new assault before it could made it to the walls.

They maintained a standing militia called the Steel Shields, consisting of over 14,000 dwarven fighters. They diligently monitored all movement in and out of the city.