It's more than that. Manipulation's involved, both of and by him.

_{[He meets Al observation for observation, grey eyes serious and incredibly sad under the brim of his hat. It's moments like these in which his age shows. All hundreds of years of it.]}

He said he's not Jim, that Jim's dead... He's Alois now, and has been for a long time. The way he said it, however, made it sound like it was someone he had to be, as if he didn't know how to be anyone else.