Salt Skies Scream Above Me [Setting]
You can hear it on the bad days - the shriek and howl of gale-force winds. It echoes down the walls of the canyons from above, most noticeable at night when we settle to sleep. Occasionally a sprinkling of salt will make its way down too, like a twisted joke on rain.
There are six major havens scattered throughout the flats, each a pocket of life hidden in a rip in the surface. Each is primarily inhabited by one individual race and each haven has a color it uses to mark its place and its territories. As life has expanded outward, smaller havens have been found and claimed for the major havens, creating a criss-cross of flags for travelers to follow from one shelter to the next in their journeys. Look for the flags, then the cairns, and get yourself out of the elements.
The havens provide shelter from the savage winds and stinging salt which exist above them. They provide shade from the burning heat and are far enough below the surface to even provide some protection against the freezing cold. Most importantly, though, these gashes in the crust are buckets. Big buckets. And when it rains, it pours. The havens have been built to collect as much rainwater as possible, both to use and to keep their little cluster of life from drowning. There is no greater irony than death by drowning.
The havens have more than rainwater storage - all of them have bodies of water and ecosystem. These canyons are massive enough to support non-human life as well, from trees, bushes, and grasses to animals and other creatures. The havens play respectfully with these resources, all too wary of over-exacting their precious resources and spiraling into the world's slowest suicide. This is why they seek external resources and send their young and old out onto the pale infinity above. There is a world out there, dead as the pork in saltpork, but just as useful in keeping them alive.
The oceans weren't always dry; the world wasn't always like this. That old world exists up there, preserved in Heavens knows how much salt, ready to be uncovered, discovered, and recovered.