Aight, Imma try replying to this as much as I can.
- Ran's real name is Ran, I havent decided on a surname. the "Mark" name was just an experiment by Cueball where he tells everyone else in the facility to call you by another name and see if you just play it cool and pretend you know they're talking to you. It is also a test for him to understand outer god behavior. The crazymrbread letter is just a message I got on newgrounds for the christmas party discord event and I thought it was funny so I added it in. (note: many things in this list will follow that rule of funny)
- The adversary is just the being who eventually destroys the world. If your world is about to be destroyed, whoever is doing it will probably take that form.
- Ran's grandma is just a regular demon living in a regular RPG village. She might be a bit racist towards humans. Ran's family is mostly made up of powerful wizards/demons. Except his stepdad who is a cop.
- Ran was an apprentice wizard who got interested in the study of cryptids and glitch magic, which is something other wizards aren't really interested in because they can already do cool stuff like throw fireballs, weild magical swords, and craft power-enhancing clothing (which Ran can also do, albeit not as well). He learned about the true nature of his world very early in his studies (that being a videogame world that will one day cease to exist when outer gods stop playing it) and then formed a plan to escape this world one day. To run away. He discovered that outer gods are attracted to entertaining vessels, so he set up an elaborate series of puzzles that can only be, solved by an outer god in order to get possessed and have his body sent through various scenarios and experiments. Like Cueball, Ran is experimenting on you, the player, and manipulating you. However, Ran does not have the kind of budget that Cueball has, so he has to exploit dangerous rules of the universe. What Ran does is not really time travel or precognition, just letting his body be controlled by outer gods who themselves time travel.
- The monster is THE WATCHER. THE WATCHER represents the borders of the world. He is in a sense the manager of this videogame world (the Boss) and create stuff in it. His goal is to make the world as entertaining as possible so that many outer gods visit and bring energy to the world. Ran's primary means of winning a game is to exit through the borders of the world (to run away) and THE WATCHER really doesn't like that.
- RAN knows the password because RAN chose the password and setup the locks himself.
- RAN threw himself in hell in order to get his soul split in multiple pieces that can each be controlled independantly by different outer gods and escape his own physical constraints. The mexico message is something I added in because it was funny but really the main effect of Hell on RAN is splitting his soul even more so he should probably not go outside too much.
- The WATCHER didn't really create the world itself, he's just the CEO of the world. (The one who created the world is me, the dev, Adrien.) The ADVERSARY justd estroys worlds indiscriminately, hell is a world like any other. He is also an outer god who sometimes possessed various vessels to destroy the worlds he is in. In chapter 3, YOU were the adversary if you chose the "decay" ending"
- The rift between Hell and the surface was opend by RAN because he thought it was another world to escape to. He eventually realized that this was a mistake bcause HELL is just another part of the TWR world, so instead he decided to use hell's properties as the next step in his plan. RAN isn't really interested in destroying the overworld, he just doesn't care much for it because his plan is to escape the world and reach new ones.
- We are trying to kill the WATCHER because that's what Shades thought would be cool. It serves no practical purpose. The world where you kill the WATCHER is doomed like all others, but at least people there are happier and there's a cool party where all the wizard runners are invited.
- There is no third ran who finally gets to escape, all the RANs in chests are just the same body sleeping in the chest (just like you and me) waiting to be woken up by the version of you (the player) who can time travel. The RAN who talks to you in chapter 8 is a piece from the soul of the one who escaped from chapter 7. The body of RAN which manages to escape is the one from the time right after Shades and Sharp captured him to turn him into free energy.
- Making 1 game every week is hard, I gave up for a while. This is what doomed the world of TWR.