Waychest is a custom survival server on Java 1.21.11 that keeps the vanilla client feel but adds its own systems for exploring and building.
The big idea is that everyone is in one shared survival world but you start in your own Journey. A Journey feels like your own little server with a random spawn and your own progress. You can bring friends and you can even make more than one Journey with different spawn points and different partners.
As you travel you learn you are not alone. Special Waychests are placed around the world to guide people toward each other and to stuff that other players left behind. Later you can craft and place your own Waychests to point future Journeys toward your builds.
There is also a Waychest Flight minigame where you craft an Elytra and fly through rings. If you finish it you get led to a Waychest made by some random person. Fast travel exists too but you have to discover warp points first to unlock them.
