remakes the lore and setting as a book instead, which it's probably better suited for.
Allows for a fixed story without interactivity
Handling the horror might be harder. Same deal with the materials science, though that can probably just be altered to make more sense and/or bring in more people.
A very very rudimentary outline of the book's plot:
Wake -- the protagonist (first person seems best, will call "char" in these notes) wakes up, chooses a name by picking a stone and placing it into a special cup each with something in it, starts to have unfolding preprogrammed memories that the wakeworm guides him through, encourages him to sleep it off. The wakeworm is surprised and excited that you're a grub rather than an oldgrub.
Fetcher -- doing odd jobs as a fetcher while learning more about the world, making semi-friends and overall feeling restless. Gets to maintain a miniscule shack somewhere.
Gratitude Day -- the weekly payment of ameths (most of the character's saved ameths go to this, very disappointingly), gratitude stuff, meeting and learning more about the opalescent, the gracious, etc.
Shoveler -- one of the semi-friends (an old man, a yakhand, determined to keep his coherence as long as possible though he'll die of old age eventually) suggests becoming a shoveler so Char can explore and discover in his free time. Shovelers live in compounds surrounded by other shovelers and there's a lot of excitement and camraderie.
Kumis and the book -- one of the shoveleres brings a big pot of kumis and a Grand Book (basically an unending book) on the world and its legends and the shovelers share in it.
Exploration -- Char starts exploring the world, this time period has him Shoveling and befriending / working more with the Wakeworm to save up Ameths for weapons/equipment for more excursions. He meets and flees from / fights eldeer.
Death -- While finding some very interesting gems, char gets attacked by a pretty mild eldrit, and dies, and wakes up. This chapter explores this, where his relationships are the same and people remember him but the world is inexplicably different and he can't find those gems again.
More exploration -- the vines area, the swimming/diving/fish stuff (not sure how to handle this), the void expanse, fields where gas pockets hang over the air, unbearably hot lava areas, etc. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a group.
(some kind of special day) -- the Gracious come to punish other people for crimes like failing to pay ameths (leads to shack destruction), failing to be grateful, blaspheming, etc with various punishments. Char's yakhand friend is punished for being "ugly and too old looking" by some of his yaks being killed and him being killed (but out of mercy so he resurrects younger). A gem thief (stole from the opalescent to resell gems to them, a high crime) is "descended", whatever that means.
The Yakhand -- he comes back but he isn't the same, and says that he's not the one you remember, and the one you remember is lost now, and both are saddened by their loss and new youth (he misses his age). He says he will give up his yaks and go wandering, trying to find the peace he has now lost. He eventually disappears completely, char finds he has descended himself and learn about this. In the place of these two lost, the opalescent in their mercy have allowed a new person to be born, a female grub.
Dreams -- Char working as a wakeworm is able to meet her and connects, but only in passing. But begins to have dreams where he is her, and is other men and women. He continues to work and explore, having more dreams, finally dreaming of pulling a huge spherical gem from a spot in the caverns that is actually mappable and knowable.
The Gem -- Char goes there and finds the gem, but given its size he has to carry it on his back slowly the whole way home. Along the way he spots strange creatures but they do not touch him, they only watch, their eyes sometimes the only part that's visible.
The Gift -- Char presents the gift to the Opalescent and not only do they reward him greatly (which he uses on kumis / a grand book for his fellow shovelers) but they invite him to stay with them for a week. He is sized up by a Patron, who is disgusted by him but says she'll take him under her wing leading up to the week. An opalescent gives him the name "Child of Atlas" -- a great honor and based literally on what he did, but also somewhat of a requirement as his worm names are considered uncouth.
The opalescent -- Char is able to enter the opalescent which is an immensely long spiral staircase down into the depths. The patron takes him in and makes sure he's scrubbed clean of the "filth of the worms", he's given a wig and beardwig as he's clean-shaven in worm custom, finer clothes, and even some gem jewelry fitted over his shirt, though the patron mentions that it's her oldest and least valuable set, full of tarnish and scratches and general age. She shows him around their great halls, the gemstone light and gardens that grow under it, full of wonderful food that grows extremely quickly. The finest yak meat -- having actual yaks down here is unclean, but meat is stored in very cold rooms powered by these gems. Dairy and mushrooms and fish like the surface world, but carefully handpicked, the most delicate regions, or processed beyond all comprehension. New alcoholic drinks like a kind of wine squeezed from blue fruits and aged over years. Endless aesthetics and comfort. The Great Door and Rooms of Worship. The Great door is shown as something where the greatest opalescent live, and guarded by the gracious from anyone unworthy. The patron says she has been in it once to talk with one of those and its splendor is unimaginable. She also shows great libraries full of both grand books and little books, and smooth pieces of obsidian that appear to light up with faint images and sounds and other wonders.
Worship -- on the last day, a congregation goes into one of the rooms of worship, where they kneel before a giant mechanical god, a machine built of gems and metals that speaks and moves. The patron and char go in here, and then with great fear from the patron, a magnificent figure emerges -- one of the great ones. He's more mechanical than man, and what's left is tattooed by strange glowing inks. He has extra arms and wings and is just absolutely adorned by the most expensive and most polished jewelry char has ever seen. The people switch from kneeling to prostration, kissing the ground, as is custom when encountering these people. He notices that someone in the crowd is unworthy to be in his presence (char) and the patron that has brought this filth before him. As punishment he kills the patron and makes sure she can't resurrect for months, the machine kills the congregation in fire (which is their punishment, though they'll at least resurrect), and the gracious grab char.
Punishment -- As char's punishment, the great one takes char into the great city by his ear (breaking his arm when he resists), which is somehow paradoxically this gigantic palace full of trees and an arching false sky lit by gemstones, gold everywhere, etc. He tells char of his insignificance repeatedly, his disgustingness, how little better than a rockworm he is, etc. And then finally shows char where his "atlas ball" resides -- as a tiny fixture part of a sewer system (or something equally degrading). He crushes it in his extremely strong mechanical hands, throws the dust on char, then tells him that his punishment will be to be descended, that if he somehow escapes and then somehow rises through the ranks and ascends he will always be nothing, insignificant, his accomplishments crushed to dust.
Descent -- the guards fly him up and over with blue mechanical wings -- now char sees what the blue streak from the top of the cavern actually is and with horror realizes how common it is and why. The guards take him deep into the void sea, and kill him so that he will instead resurrect in that strange other place.
