To be honest, I’m not even sure if Voldemort is Voldemort, in the sense of being the man behind the proverbial curtain here. Everything about him from the name up screams “assumed persona”: he’s far more theatrical a figure than a blood-purist demagogue would need to be, and some aspects of what he does even look counterproductive in that context. And while the canon Tom Riddle did all the same stuff and all for no particularly good reason, in the context of MoR I think we can assume that there’s an agenda behind it.
I don’t know for sure what that agenda is yet, but a good first step seems to be this question: why would you want to pose as a supervillain? As it happens, Eliezer has touched on that before.
Dumbledore claims Grindelwald was his dark counterpart, but Voldemort is incomprehensibly evil, because he’s not Dumbledore’s villain, he’s harry’s.(here.)
Harry has pretended to be dark (General Chaos, this.)
Added to this...
Harry looked at the fading sky.
He’d seen Professor Quirrell turn into a hardened criminal while facing the Auror, and the apparent change of personalities had been effortless, and complete.
Another woman had known the Defense Professor as ‘Jeremy Jaffe’.
How many different people are you, anyway?
I cannot say that I bothered keeping count.
You couldn’t help but wonder...
...whether ‘Professor Quirrell’ was just one more name on the list, just one more person that had been turned into, made up in the service of some unguessable goal.
Harry would always be wondering now, every time he talked to Professor Quirrell, if it was a mask, and what motive was behind that mask. With every dry smile, Harry would be trying to see what was pulling the levers on the lips.
...would seem to suggest that Quirrelmort was pretending.
As you pointed out, Eliezer has suggested that humanity might benefit from a Dark Lord to unite against.
To clarify, this is only weak evidence in favor of Nornagest’s theory, but it seems like we shouldn’t be postulating evil mutants without considering other possibilities.
To be honest, I’m not even sure if Voldemort is Voldemort, in the sense of being the man behind the proverbial curtain here. Everything about him from the name up screams “assumed persona”: he’s far more theatrical a figure than a blood-purist demagogue would need to be, and some aspects of what he does even look counterproductive in that context. And while the canon Tom Riddle did all the same stuff and all for no particularly good reason, in the context of MoR I think we can assume that there’s an agenda behind it.
I don’t know for sure what that agenda is yet, but a good first step seems to be this question: why would you want to pose as a supervillain? As it happens, Eliezer has touched on that before.
More proof:
Dumbledore claims Grindelwald was his dark counterpart, but Voldemort is incomprehensibly evil, because he’s not Dumbledore’s villain, he’s harry’s.(here.)
Harry is very, very good at pretending to be other people.
Harry has pretended to be dark (General Chaos, this.)
Added to this...
...would seem to suggest that Quirrelmort was pretending.
As you pointed out, Eliezer has suggested that humanity might benefit from a Dark Lord to unite against.
And Quirrell has used Voldemort as a reason for magical britain to unite.
To clarify, this is only weak evidence in favor of Nornagest’s theory, but it seems like we shouldn’t be postulating evil mutants without considering other possibilities.