The Bookwyrm

I had a story idea.

Put in my connected universe idea, heavily inspired by SP4. (Which was awesome, by the way.)

A man (or woman, maybe; haven't decided yet) with a mysterious background sets out to travel what is known as simply The Path, or The Pilgrimage.

The story would probably start with him appearing near a backwater town on a jungle-covered planet. This is the first world of the Path, which contains sixteen planets.

The Path is a mysterious journey. Thousands of people attempt to take it. The first two worlds of the Path have fully developed cultures and societies, ones that interact with each other, and in the case of the First world, other planets in the wider universe. (This is still a medieval era fantasy, they just have portals.)

After the first world, every planet only has portals to the planets before and after them in the Path, meaning you can't skip into it halfway, or return immediately to the start if you give up.

Because the first two worlds are heavily settled, they're fairly mellow for travellers. They have their own politics, cultures, cities, magics, and more. It's not hard to travel across them to the various portals that lead you further down the path.

After the second world, things get harder. Some civilizations exist in the lower worlds, but they're more rustic, essentially colonies or frontier countries.

Once you get past the Fifth world, things get harder. Many turn back at about this point. Travellers become more scarce, and the dangers increase.

Each world brings more dangers and terrors, both in the physical, mental, and magical sense.

No one in recorded history has ever returned from the worlds past the twelfth. Any details of worlds thirteen through sixteen come only from ancient myths and legends.

I haven't decided the specifics of what each planet would be like, or what the plot of this story would be. Especially the backstory of the main character, and why they'd want to take a journey like this.

But yeah. That's what my brain made up today.