Image: Vivec, one of the members of the Tribunal and one of the few individuals confirmed to use CHIM

CHIM, (pronounced "KEEM") in the Elder Scrolls series, is the state at which, acting in a living contradiction, one may break free of all boundaries, rewrite any laws, and be any person they choose or have anything they desire. It is known as the “Secret Symbol of Royalty” because Chim is the word for royalty in Old Ehlnofey.

But why does it work the way it does?

First, it must be explained that the entire Elder Scrolls series is a dream by an entity known as the Godhead. The Godhead’s dream forms the entire setting, which partly explains why the cycle is a common theme within the games. CHIM, to put it simply, is the art of achieving the realization that one, due to living inside a dream, does not exist. This can be found out through all manner of hard-to-obtain knowledge.

But how is this realized?

Well, the entire structure of the Elder Scrolls cosmos looks like this. This is called the Aurbis. Looks sort of like a wheel, right? That’s very important. The Wheel turns, explaining the cyclical nature of the cosmos. But more importantly, looking upon the Wheel in such a manner is key to achieving CHIM. For it allows you to conceive of the entire cosmos, just when looking at it normally.

Back to the Wheel. Consider the following: what happens when you look upon a wheel from the side? You see a letter:

I

This is the most important thing to remember. I also looks like a Tower, right? That’s the important thing to see. For the Tower is the true structure of Aurbis. The first being to realize this was the god Lorkhan, also known as Shor. Lorkhan traveled far outside the structure of Aurbis to try and understand it, and eventually saw it from the side; saw the tower. The “I” is important. Lorkhan then convinced the other Aedra to create creation, a whole thing happened, it’s still a fierce debate as to the why’s and what’s, but Lorkhan, in the end, failed to fully achieve CHIM. Vivec, one of the masters of CHIM, theorized that Lorkhan deliberately failed, in order to show any future users how not to do it. Again, that is a matter of much debate.

So what happens when you look at the Wheel from the side?

Well, best as I can tell, you come to an shattering epiphany. You understand, truly, how the universe works. It’s all a dream. But not your dream. Therefore… you don’t really exist, do you? Take a look at this chart, okay? It’ll help you out here. So, when you make that revelation, one of two things happen, from Ekstasis.

The most common outcome is that, realizing you are part of a dream, and therefore don’t really exist, you cease to exist as you vanish in the proverbial puff of logic. Not only do you no longer exist, but you also retroactively never existed. You become part of the Dream of the Godhead, with no one else, not even yourself, not even the Godhead, any the wiser. This is known as Zero-Summing.

Alright, so the other path, then. The other path is rarer: actually achieving CHIM. To do this, one must accept the same message of those who Zero-Sum: that the world you live in as a dream, and so by all definitions, you are not any kind of individual. However, some people are just so stubborn, so firm in themselves, that they shout:

I AM

To the dream that is shouting

WE ALL ARE

To achieve CHIM is to shout out, to embody in your entire being, the words:

I AM AND I ARE ALL WE

This is CHIM. It requires a certain amount of either love or self-centeredness to achieve this, or perhaps both. It is for good reason that only two individuals are known to have achieved CHIM successfully: Tiber Septim and Vivec. Both of them are rather self-centered, after all, but Vivec partially attributes his feats to Love, in the form of self-sacrifice. In addition, there may be a connection to Lorkhan: Vivec had to tap into the power of the Heart of Lorkhan, and Tiber Septim mantled Lorkan when he became Talos.

Okay, so what does it do?

Okay, so if you’ve browsed Elder Scrolls lore forums as much as I have (unlikely) then you’ve probably heard all sorts of nonsense about how “It lets you use console commands IRL” or, “It lets you do whatever you want”, and let me say that I think that those interpretations are wrong. How it really works is this: remember that the entire setting of the Elder Scrolls takes place within a dream. So, the most likely explanation is that you can start to act as if you were lucid dreaming, and change the dream, as you see fit.

Some examples of that? Well, Vivec (the person) suspended the Ministry of Truth over Vivec (the city), and Tiber Septim made Cyrodiil’s climate less jungled and more like a standard medieval fantasy setting. Both actions, apparently, were inspired by Love: Vivec’s Love for his people, and Tiber Septim’s Love for his Red Legions.

However… you gotta be careful. If you lucid dream too much, the Godhead might start noticing that something is off with its dream. And if the Godhead wakes up.... well, no one knows what’ll even happen.

On that note, that’s CHIM for you. I hope that this mega will become an impromptu Elder Scrolls lore discussion thread at some point.

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So what does everyone think of this type of mysticism, even outside of this video game?