CHIM Roleplay Settings

These are the CHIM pages that shape the world beyond normal NPC dialogue. They control NPC records, quests, background activity, lore knowledge, screenshots, diaries, memories, and relationships.

CHIM NPCs Menu

What this page does: The CHIM NPCs menu is the main control page for individual AI characters. This is where you review and adjust how CHIM treats a specific NPC across the playthrough.

  • Per-NPC basics: Each NPC entry includes things like name, race, gender, voice, RefID, profile, and portrait so you can confirm the character sheet is correct.
  • Profile control: You can move an NPC onto a different CHIM profile, lock that profile so it stays fixed, or leave it more flexible.
  • Roleplay features: This page ties into dynamic profiles, middle-term memory, individual memory use, auto greetings, auto diaries, and background-life behavior.
  • Search and filtering: You can filter by text, profile, favorites, locked NPCs, dynamic profile state, memory state, greeting behavior, and other useful NPC flags.
  • Import and cleanup: The page also supports JSON import and export, bulk profile switching, relationship rebuilding, and cleanup for unlocked NPCs.

AI Quest Manager

What this page does: AI Quest Manager is the page for generating, staging, starting, and stopping AI-driven questlines.

  • Scenario setup: You can give the system a player suggestion and extra AI instructions before it generates a quest idea.
  • Quest flow: The page supports generating a scenario, staging the storyline, starting the quest, requesting an end, and clearing stored quest state.
  • Live tracking: It shows staged storylines, running quests, current pending steps, next objectives, and the NPCs involved.
  • Reference tabs: The quest hub also links to item types, NPC templates, outfits, and quest-system server logs.
  • Important setup note: The page expects you to use Send All Locations in the CHIM MCM first so the quest system has valid travel locations to work with.

Background Life

What this page does: Background Life is CHIM's world-simulation map page. It is where you watch off-screen NPC activity and nudge the wider world forward.

  • World map: NPCs are shown on a Skyrim map using tracked coordinates so you can see where background characters currently are.
  • NPC actions: You can request a report, request a new action, or force a coordinate refresh for a specific NPC.
  • Rumor system: The page lets you create and manage rumors with hold, type, content, and lifespan so the world has loose story pressure even when you are not present.
  • Background state: It also reads the tracked NPC metadata behind those background reports and behaviors.
  • Letters and thoughts: The page can surface related letters and diary-style thoughts, so it helps you monitor both movement and off-screen story flavor.

Oghma Infinium

What this page does: Oghma Infinium is CHIM's lore knowledge system. It helps NPCs know the right things for who they are, instead of every character sounding equally informed about every topic.

  • What it changes in play: A blacksmith can sound more natural about weapons, an alchemist can know ingredient effects, and locals can know nearby places better than outsiders.
  • How it shows up: Oghma can affect direct conversations and NPC-to-NPC chatter, so it shapes ordinary roleplay instead of only special lore questions.
  • Main idea: Oghma helps NPCs know what they should know and, just as importantly, what they should not know.
Karita knowledge classes example
Example of an NPC knowledge-class list. These tags decide what that NPC can access in Oghma.

Knowledge Classes And Access

NPCs are given knowledge classes based on things like race, profession, location, factions, and sometimes their specific identity. Oghma checks those classes before deciding what information the NPC is allowed to use.

  • Advanced article: The deeper expert version of a topic for characters who should know specialist detail.
  • Basic article: The simpler version for ordinary informed people.
  • Open common knowledge: If the basic access tags are empty, the basic version is treated as common knowledge.
  • No matching access: If an NPC matches neither level, they should not suddenly sound informed on that subject.
Akatosh Oghma knowledge example
Akatosh example: specialist tags can unlock the advanced writeup, while everyone else only gets the broader basic version.

This is why one NPC can sound scholarly about a topic while another can only give a vague answer, or no answer at all.

How It Feels In Play

The best way to understand Oghma is by how it changes ordinary answers:

  • Regional knowledge: Someone from Riften may know Northwind Summit well, while people from farther away may know little or nothing.
  • Profession knowledge: A blacksmith, fisherman, or alchemist can sound more natural on their own subject area.
  • Character limits: If an NPC does not have the right tags for a subject like the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, they should not magically sound like an expert.
Northwind Summit Oghma example
Location knowledge can be limited by region, so nearby NPCs know more than distant ones.
Oghma keyword amount setting
You can adjust how many Oghma keywords are extracted from each response. More keywords can improve coverage, but also add more processing.

The design goal is that this knowledge appears naturally during conversation. You should not have to constantly ask "what do you know about X" for Oghma to matter.

Managing Oghma Topics

HerikaServer includes an Oghma browser and editor so you can inspect topics and expand the knowledge base for your own mod list and canon.

  • Browse topics: You can search by topic or category and inspect what is already covered.
  • Edit topics: Each entry can include advanced text, basic text, access classes, tags, and category information.
  • Support your own canon: You are not limited to vanilla Skyrim. You can add custom topics that fit your load order and roleplay setup.
  • Useful references: The old guide also linked shared sheets for knowledge classes and broader Oghma topic coverage.
Oghma browser menu
The Oghma browser lets you inspect what a specific NPC can see and filter topics by category.
Oghma topic editor
The management page is where you add and edit topics, advanced text, basic text, and access classes.

Useful references: Oghma Knowledge Classes, Project Oghma, How we made AI NPCs smarter, How we made AI NPCs dumber on purpose.

Topic Picking And Dynamic Oghma

Oghma does not just fire on one hard-coded keyword. It tries to choose the most relevant topic from the current conversation and surrounding context.

Oghma topic selection example
Topic picking uses recent dialogue, prior context, extracted keywords, and location signals to decide which lore article to pull.
  • Normal Oghma: Pulls in the most relevant lore article for the current moment.
  • Dynamic Oghma: Lets knowledge change when quests progress, so world knowledge can evolve with your save.
  • Why it matters: This stops the lore layer from feeling frozen when your playthrough changes the world.

Dynamic Oghma is what makes this system useful for changing quest states, faction shifts, and custom world progression instead of only static encyclopedia entries.

Soulgaze Gallery

What this page does: Soulgaze Gallery is the image archive for CHIM screenshots and scene captures.

  • Gallery browser: Images and videos are shown in one place, newest first, so you can quickly review captured moments.
  • Basic management: You can upload JPG or PNG files, open them, download them, and delete them from the gallery UI.
  • In-game capture flow: This page expects you to use the Soulgaze hotkey in game so those captures appear here automatically.
  • Extra image tools: The lightbox also includes optional reimagine and animation actions for players who want alternate versions of a captured scene.

Diaries

What this page does: Diaries is the main browser and editor for CHIM diary entries. It is where you read the written inner record CHIM creates for characters.

  • Browsing: Entries can be explored by person, by date, or as a larger full-history view.
  • Reading modes: You can open a character's diary in a book-style reading view as well as the normal list view.
  • Export: The page supports downloading the current diary view or exporting all diary entries.
  • Editing and cleanup: Individual entries can be edited or deleted, and there is also a full wipe option for the whole diary log.

Memories

What this page does: Memories are managed through the memory tab inside Events & Memories. This is the long-term continuity layer that stops CHIM from treating every conversation like a fresh start.

  • Memory summaries: The page shows saved summaries with scope, participants, time coverage, and the actual summary text CHIM is carrying forward.
  • System status: It also shows whether the memory system is enabled and whether embeddings and TXT2VEC are available.
  • Maintenance tools: You can sync summaries manually, edit a summary, delete one summary, or wipe all saved summaries.
  • Roleplay effect: These summaries are what help CHIM keep continuity across long sessions, scene changes, and stretched playthroughs.

Relationship System

What this page does: The Relationship System tracks how characters feel about people, groups, and important ideas over time.

  • What it tracks: Emotional and social state like trust, warmth, resentment, fear, attachment, loyalty, or hostility.
  • Who it applies to: It is not only for the player. NPCs can build opinions about other NPCs, factions, causes, and recurring topics too.
  • How it changes: Conversations, praise, betrayal, repeated behavior, conflict, and major events can all improve or damage a relationship.
  • What it changes in play: The same NPC can answer very differently depending on who they are speaking to and how that relationship has developed so far.
  • Separate from Oghma: This system is about feelings and social history, not whether someone knows a fact.