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He is actually pretty good where he is. The entire point of Secret History is that throughout his entire life he was an agent of Ruin. It is a really weird situation when your great revolutionary is the agent of what you perceive as a very horrible force in the series, while the great tyrant acts as a faithful agent of Preservation (and has Preservation's somewhat nutty but wholehearted support). But this is what makes Kelsier so compelling - he is the representation of "good intentions pave the road to hell" pragma. Setting him up as an anti-hero or anti-villain is the right thing - it works for his personality very well. Turning him into a villain (which means making him pursue evil goals with evil methods) is less interesting.

A very recent Word of Brandon is that his presence is felt in Wax and Wayne books in a way similar to the original trilogy. In general, given what we know from reading Hero of Ages and Secret History, I feel that his presence can be felt by a character in the Wax and Wayne series when they are on a verge of some decision. If the decision they make is abrupt, or if they seem to be 50-50 on what to do and then choose something, this is a spot for "Kelsier meddling". Cookies to doughnuts, he is trying to convince Wax to NOT put the earring on in BoM.

I have similar thoughts to Night Eyes. Something is awry about Yolen. Hoid may not necessarily be the last surviving human from the planet, but he appears to consider himself a remnant of something... The planet? The plan? The Shattering? The latter might actually work - Shattering can be compared to a burst of flame, and Hoid had some part in it. I also wouldn't be surprised if he feels guilty. He is on a millenia-long relentless pursuit of something. His motivation must be strong.

Liar of Partinel chapters give a brief view of the original Hoid, I think. Did not look like an Adonalsium vessel to me.

My thoughts exactly. Bands of Mourning ends with, essentially, Kelsier coming to a dying people on the brink of extinction, and whispering "Survive" to them. From the testament of the South Poler pilot, we know that it ended with them surviving. Where is all of this did you decide that Kelsier became a bad guy?

Not certain I'd go for "mindless". I suspect that actual bodily harm may be involved.

The spike could've been *how* Kelsier got those Freuchemical powers. Or spikes. We don't know how many might be there.

I think there was a specific direct WoB on this.

Puzzled me too, but then (a) Sazed established a Connection to Ruin, and ( I have seen some suggestions that Ati may have been a revolutionary type of person, which would make him Connected to Ruin.

My thought too. I think the key is also that because something is "broken" on Threnody and the dead do not leave Cognitive Realm for Spiritual, there is *a lot* of them out there.

Decided to finally get an account and post here. This (the 16 current Shardholders killed Adonalsium) was, in my opinion, the greatest revelation in the two books that just came out. It puts a lot of things into perspective. Some quick thoughts: 1. God-killing, of course, is not necessarily an evil act by itself. Khriss mentions a multitude of motives, and we know that there are individuals among the Shardholders who were decent/honorable etc.... 2. Whatever were the underlying reasons for doing what they did, the Shattering hardly stabilized the situation. 3. Ym's belief system may need some additional in-depth study. I am now certain that this was a decent-sized hint as to various motivations. 4. It seems that whatever the end-game is for Cosmere in its current form, survival of any Shards may not be necessary or even desirable. I kind of like the idea that Hoid's plan involves making sure that all Shards are down at the end, and their powers are scattered around Cosmere. 5. I too am very interested in whatever transpired between Hoid and the 16 Shardholders. Was any of this in Dragonsteel Prime? 6. Finally, we learned that you cannot take a Shard without establishing some sort of Connection to it. So, how did this play out at the Shattering? Did Adonalsium Shatter into these specific Intents because the 16 had Connections specifically to them?