Elias is, first and foremost, a genius businessman. He’s not a threat because he’s powerful (either physically, supernaturally, socially, or economically– although it’s clear he could be a threat on all spheres), but because he’s fantastic at all the necessary skills for running a business.

Excellent at forward planning. Excels at scheduling. We make fun of how sloppily it seems he was in leading Jon to getting the Marks, but given the time frame, it’s incredible that he somehow got all of them in in under two years.

Sends the Oh No It’s The Apocalypse statement when Jon is far, far out of the country and can’t just walk up to the panopticon and stab him a minute later.

Sets up a whole respectable academic organization where he not only feeds off of his employees (as per this post) but also has a passive stream of endless Food coming in (as per @archivalhaven’s post), just delivering their fear on a silver platter.

Was willing to wait 200 years for an employee who fit his longterm goals. Incredible. I can’t even wait 2 minutes to microwave frozen pancakes, this guy’s willing to wait 2 centuries for some good yummy delicious food.