He spent his life investigating and exploiting the phylogenetic root system 
of the species, but that was as far as he got.  He was blinded into tunnel 
vision into the tip of the tap root, and thinking himself special crown 
himself God for being first to regress there, occupy and rule.  However, he 
was gravely mistaken.  The rest of the tree above ground relied on the roots 
to flourish and survive.  The roots weren't some kind of an amusement park 
horror house in which to slay his enemies and assert his dominion.  At the 
end of his life he committed suicide in the manner of Hitler.  He started 
realizing the damage he did and didn't want to face public trial.  He 
cowered out.  He would exit the world through the tap root and find impacted 
earth, not the freedom of the sky.

While the phylogeny is a record of the past that can't be changed, it is not 
absolutely incorruptible, like the system registry on a computer.  The man 
may have irreparably damaged the root genetic code to the species by fooling 
around with evolutionary past embedded in the physical biological phylogeny, 
through himself and his own inner access to the hub.  He was trying to 
orchestrate humanity to converge on the conclusion that he was God over 
them, and somehow would be for eternity, or at least through his 
reincarnation.  His plan failed to crystalize.  He was a masochistic 
character of sorts.  He pushed to reach as far down the bottomless pit as he 
could survive, and prided himself for the pain he endured.

He had a fascination for darkness and death.