[quote=The_J]
So how does all this stuff work with Codex, ranks, etc.?
[/quote]

The Codex are 32 beings who deal with physical laws of Existence, like thermodynamics, entropy, the Pages (complexity levels, a big thing for another time), in Elkepzel's case atoms and molecules, etcetera. Ranks are I believe the precedence of one Codex or another, although it's only intuitive to me so Nimda/Legend can explain it better than I can.