The Surface

The surface is a hostile and unforgiving place, mostly flat save for a few spires that rise from the city layers below. a vast desert covers the top most layer in a thin veneer of dry, dusty sand that often forms into drifts which create dunes that rise up against what few structures are visible, sometimes swallowing them up atop the great plateaus of the megastructure that forms the Endless City below.

Temperatures on the surface can reach as high as 70C to 80C, well beyond the sustainable threshold of most larger species found below the surface. The nomadic Ashan do cross the vast deserts and plateaus of the surface in caravans however, one of few species able to tolerate the heat though they do require some precautions to do so. Ashan trader settlements carved into some structures jutting up from the plateaus are known to exist on a semi-permanent basis, usually until some longstanding business is concluded or resources run so low as to make the settlement unsustainable.

Mirages

 
Mirages are a common sight upon the surface for weary travellers and those unaccustomed to the strains of life beyond the lip of the plateaus. Of the few that do travel upon the surface some report the sight of bodies of water or of other travellers on the surface, a few have even made claims of the prophetic nature, though the cults of the Endless City are often quick to deem these heretical.

The Dreaming

Ashan travellers sometimes report the sight of glittering rivers of silver on their travels across the surface, more than a mere mirage as more than one has reported being in close proximity to one such a river only to see it cascade over the edge and into a canyon in a display that was dazzling to both the eyes and mind and likened it to a dream.

Flora

Water is incredibly scarce up on the surface and as such very little in the way of life resides there in a non transient capacity. Closer to the edges of the vast canyons that can form between plateaus there is the possibility of misty water from the rare waterfall creating a localised water cycle that will sustain plant life, and the prospect of shade from damaged elements of the megastructure for it to call home. Such species are however small and of the succulent variety. It is said that there are places where, at the right time great rifts of flowers can be scene coating the sides of canyons between the plateaus as the flowers bloom, though such events are rare and occur only once a decade or so depending on species.

Further 'inland' towards the centre of the plateaus life becomes incredibly scarce just as quickly, there is no water to be found inland and subsequently, no plants are able to sustain themselves beyond very simple lichenous extremophiles on what structures can be found.

Fauna

Animal life is similarly scarce in this region, what little there is clusters to the edges of the plateaus, whilst some do migrate inland for spawning purposes. Many of the animals found on the surface are arachnids and insects both small in size, whilst larger animals such as lizards and a few adapted avian species do exist, there is little larger than that.