The High Path
The High Path connects the Other Worlds together, allowing almost instantaneous passage across vast distances With it, a traveller has hundreds of worlds to choose from, and all of them but a single step away. Though only those who know how to use the High Path can do so without fear for those ignorant of its ways will find themselves forever lost, stranded upon an alien world far from home.
It is this that has prevented mass armies from one world being able to invade another and thus no great multi-world empires have arisen. The only power that had conquered multiple worlds were the Elnorians who were if not the creators of the High Path were amongst its earliest adopters.
The scientists of the Albion Corporation who have since the eighteenth century spearheaded a clandestine operation to explore the Other Worlds have numerous theories regarding how the High Path works. They speak of quantum entanglements and stable Einstein-Rosen Bridges; the sort of talk that excites scientists and theorists but infuriates the layman. Others, those of a more esoteric turn of mind claim the High Path to be, for want of a better word, a magical construction defiant of such mundane laws of physics. In truth, nobody aside from the scientists and occultists cares about how the High Path operates, only that it does and will continue to do so. Each day another strike team of researchers, engineers and soldiers will pass through the High Gate portal deep beneath London, England and step foot upon another world. Albion has mastered the so-called "Songs" used to unlock the portal and choose new destinations to plunder, bringing samples back to the secret, well hidden and very fortified Albion Fortress beneath the teeming and ignorant masses of London above.
There are those called Journeyers who have learnt or were simply born with the talents required to traverse the High Path. They know its secrets, they know the Songs to sing to align portals and bridge impossible distances. They go from world to world, walking amongst the people, sampling its cultures and exploring new vistas beneath alien skies. Some do so and never leave a mark, others may find themselves embroiled in local affairs. And then there are a few who use the knowledge of the worlds they have visited and upon finding one significantly more primitive, will set themselves up as rulers. Fortunately, such Journeyers are rare and those of their kind are invariably brought down by their fellows
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