Alexander Lore

[Cilia]

It goes without saying, but Supermassive spoilers for Alexander ahead.

The key to understanding the full story of Alexander is an offhand comment from its main villain:

Time is a closed circle.

Within the context of the story, he's entirely right. To grasp what's going on, you have to disregard the idea of time flowing from past to present to future, because Alexander's time manipulation makes it possible to violate that. As such, events that happen in the past are set up by events in the present / future, allowing causal violations. Everything that happens within Alexander's story already happened, so there's no way to change anything - even if you were aware of time looping, the events of the story couldn't be altered because they already played out that way. The only one with the power to change what happens is Alexander, but he's benevolent so only observes the possibility where he's removed from spacetime.

In historical terms, from our perspective the events play out as such:

1. Alexander spits Mide and Dayan out in the distant past. They return to Othard(?), found the Hotgo tribe, and pass Alexander's tale down in the tribe until it becomes legend. The fragment Mide brought with her becomes the basis for the rest of the Enigma Codex.

2. 2 (3?) years ago, Mide and Dayan collaborate with other Au Ra to summon Alexander into a Sharlayan ruin and use the Enigma Codex to control him. They succeed, but cannot control him; Dayan is absorbed by Alexander, the others are killed, the Codex is shattered, and Mide seals Alexander in the lake. (Whole truth: this is Roundrox returning us to that fateful day in her delirium so Mide can see Dayan again. The on-board Illuminati killed the other Au Ra, and Schrodinger knocks Backrix' journal chronicling A1-A10 from his hands to the ground, tumbling down with it. Past Quickthinx acquires both, using the journal to set up the events of A1-A10 and renaming Schrodinger "Shanoa." We return to the present, after A10.)

3. As per the journal's instructions, Quickthinx has the Illuminati summon Alexander at the appointed place and time, setting up A1-A10. This leads to 2 happening above.

4. Upon reaching Alexander's core, Quickthinx uses his power to freeze us in a time bubble and force Alexander to pass Judgement on us. We're unfrozen at the last moment, however, and survive to face Alexander Prime in the Soul of the Creator.

5. After passing Alexander's Divine Judgement, he sends four party members to the past to save our past selves in 4 above. We defeat Alexander Prime.

6. Mide throws herself into Alexander's core to stop him from going nuclear. Roundrox gives Schrodinger her Codex fragment, who returns it to within Alexander. This allows Alexander to return Mide and Dayan to 1 above with the Codex fragment.

7. Alexander shuts down and seals himself outside of spacetime.

So it's essentially a self-causing paradox. The end and the beginning lead to each other, meaning everything has already happened - our victory and Quickthinx' defeat is all but assured. The only problem is... well, the "weather" inside the Soul of the Creator says "Beyond Time," and Alexander's line when sending the adds to the past ("My faithful, to the past with you, to free these ones from the prison of time.") could be taken to mean he's still trying to kill you since everything that happens within the story (and arguably history from 1 to 7 above) is essentially a temporal prison he wants to liberate you from. Everyone and everything within the time loops has to happen unless Alexander reconfigures the timeline (he's an observer) - but you stop him before he can do so, which is arguably what makes you truly "worthy."

To directly answer the questions:

1. Unknown and unknowable. Since Alexander's existence is owed to a bootstrap paradox, where or whenever he originated from is beyond our ability to observe. Hypothetically there's an alternate "Zeroth Loop" timeline he came from that we simply cannot observe, but... that's just conjecture, since we literally cannot know.

2. The Enigma Codex only works for people who truly believe in Alexander's ideals, whether out of innocence or arrogance. Mide cannot read it any longer because her experiences with Alexander's disastrous first "summoning" jaded her, and Roundrox loses the ability to do so after you complete the line, preferring to create the future with her own hands instead of relying on Alexander's power. Quickthinx can read the Codex because he arrogantly believes the Illuminati have the divine right to use Alexander's power, but since doing so is dangerous does not except as a last resort. (Fittingly, Alexander rejects and kills him.)

3. It's implied that whatever was left of Dayan within Alexander was communicating with Mide through the screen. Mide interpreted that as "Jump into the core!" ... whether or not any of that is true is, again, unknown and unknowable.

4. Good question! Open for interpretation, but my personal take on it is that since Alexander is both the Father and Son of the time loops, it's his Burden to live forever within that self-contained fragment of eternity.

If you got any other questions don't hesitate to ask. I can get pretty deep in this...

... and Merry Christmas to you too.