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I read an interesting theory about hoid attempting to create a complete piece of adonalsium from his various interventions across the cosmere, and it got me thinking about Hoid's overall aims. Apologies if this has or is being discussed elsewhere, as you can see I am new to the forum. At present, I am beginning to question whether hoid is in fact the ultimate antagonist in the cosmere. We already know he has attained at least the second heightening, as evidenced by his new found perfect pitch. While not a shard bearer on roshar, the fact that he was not threatened by jasnah, both a bearer and a radiant suggests he has as yet unrevealed powers on roshar. Moreover his ability to elsecall jasnah is at present unexplained. We can infer from Brandon's hint that hoid has a metal he should not have. Whether this is a piece of lerassium, atium, or as I suspect one or more hemallurgic spikes (perhaps explaining vin's reticence to approach him) he has at least some power from Scadrial. His involvement in emperor's soul and elantris I am less sure of, perhaps someone more knowledgable can flesh this out. He is, at present, arguably the most powerful non shard in the cosmere. While I have largely considered him a benevolent character, I wonder if this is merely an assumption, and his actions thus far have only appeared that way as they have assisted characters we do like. Hoid undoubtedly pulls strings across worlds (he did after all directly put the events of emperor's soul into place by turning in shai) and it could be the case that he has only acted as he has to influence events in order to achieve an end goal of his own. If he is attempting to gather the powers of all 16 shards, could it in fact be to become the ultimate power in the cosmere, uniting/usurping the place of the various shards? In the same way sazed was able to balance seemingly contrasting shards, hoid may be of the belief he can best control the cosmere by uniting them all. He has stated openly to dalinar that he would have no qualms watching a world destroyed to suit his aims, and perhaps he would similarly have no problem destroying the entire cosmere, to reform it without shards, but one complete and balanced ruling force. It may be up to those of the seventeenth shard, or indeed regular mortals across the cosmere to prevent this.