He's quite a complex villain. A man that fails to emotionally connect with people and sees sentimentallity as a flaw.

He wants to be a God to rebuild the world to his image, to his concept of liberation: a world whose rationality isn't obscured by the weakness of the spirit.

Or at least that's why I think. My 14 year old self playing Pearl just thought of him being some nutjob talking cryptic nonsense.