Great Rift The Great Rift is the traditional home of Faerûn ' s gold dwarves , though there is also a human city nearby , called Khôltar . The country of 1 , 300 , 000 dwarves , gnome s , halfling s and humans is ruled by a monarchy from the capital of Eartheart . Geography . The wide canyon known as the Great Rift lies near the western end of the Eastern Shaar , not far from the Landrise . The bottom of this chasm lies more than 1 , 000 feet below the plains , surrounded by sheer cliff walls on every side . The arid , hilly ground that serves as the floor of the Great Rift is split down the middle by the Riftlake , a deep , icy - cold body of clear water that is often shrouded in morning mists . The lake is fed by the numerous small streams and rivers that flow throughout the Great Rift , as well as some very deep springs , which rumors suggest are fed by portal s from the Elemental Plane of Water . The lake in turn drains into the River Shaar , which snakes along the valley floor before disappearing into a spray - filled gorge on the north end of the canyon . From there , it winds along a subterranean mutt more than 170 miles long before merging in an impressive waterfall from a cave set into the side of the Landrise . Despite its high cliff walls , the Great Rift is wide enough that a person standing on the shore of the Riftlake can ' t actually see the walls on the other site . Thus , in many places , the valley floor seems more like open ground than the floor of a deep canyon . Climate . The weather inside the Great Rift is somewhat wetter than it is on the surrounding plains , though the ground is far from damp . The grasses that grow on the valley floor are a bit thicker and greener than the sparse , coarse weeds native to the rest of the Shaar , and plenty of animals - some herded by the dwarves for food - graze on this lush abundance . Deep Realm . The Great Rift is but a fraction of the territory controlled by the gold dwarves , who also inhabit miles of underground caverns , tunnels , and fortifications connected to the surface in and around the canyon . Known as the Deep Realm , these hidden regions cover twice as much area as the canyon alone , mostly to the east and northeast . The Deep Realm is considerd a place of wonder that features hanging spiral staircases , waterfalls and cascades operated by mechanical pumps , glowing , ever - shifting sculptures of magically radiant metal , and similar marvels . The Deep Wild ( Great Bhaerynden ) . Beyond the reach and control of the gold dwarves lies a portion of the Underdark called the Deep Wild . Known as Great Bhaerynden to the rest of the inhabitants of the subterranean realms , the Deepwild stretches outward beneath the Shaar in all directions , well beyond the boundaries of the Deep Realm . Included in this territory is the accursed drow city of Llurth Dreier , where Ghaunadaur reigns supreme . The Deepwild also encompasses a series of dragon lairs known as the Wyrmcaves and a huge underground waterfall called the Deepwall . The ancient home of the dwarves , the city of Bhaerynden , once sat where the Great Rift is today , but deeper beneath the surface . Millennia ago , when the drow first descended into the Underdark , they invaded and conquered Bhaerynden and renamed it Telantiwar . Some time later , the great caverns that made up the heart of their new domain collapsed . Billions of tons of earth and stone came crashing down , crushing a dozen drow cities and forming the Great Rift on the surface . Though the settlements in the center of the realm were destroyed , the leagues of tunnels around the periphery of the Great Rift remain intact and in use by verious denizens of the Underdark . Collapse . When the Spellplague hit in 1385 DR , the western half of the Great Rift collapsed into the Underdark , forming an enormous canyon called the Underchasm . What remained of the Great Rift became known as East Rift .