I'm sure that threads like this pop up all the time, but this is a bit depressing to me. I understand the concepts of the towers and the wheel, but CHIM is a bit foggier. Does one achieve unlimited power after reaching CHIM? Vivec obviously didn't, considering the Narevarine's ability to kill him and his reliance on the worship of the Dunmeri people. Also, many claim that CHIM removes all desire to use the divine powers it grants, but Vivec seems to care deeply for the Dunmer and even stopped that big meteorite from hitting Vivec City. The godhead is another story, though. Since reality relies upon its slumber, it removes the senses of purpose and individual importance from the games, at least for me. Frankly, both concepts are saddening to me. Any input is appreciated.

I suppose, on a supermagical level, upon realizing that purpose and importance are pointless, you disappear out of existence. Zero-sum, I think it's called.

CHIM is like becoming the godhead dreamer supercosmic dude, but you're still you. Or a schizophrenic buddy with the godhead. It's not really explored, but referenced, in game.

A lot of inspiration comes from Eastern beliefs, iirc, so getting some idea of those might help out. Or reading Dune. Or watching The Matrix. Or The Truman Show.

CHIM becomes an awesome concept once you properly understand it. People compare CHIM to Matrix or dreaming up a (fake) world in order to give others an idea of what CHIM is, but CHIM is more and better than that. Just because the Godhead is the world and can control it doesn't mean he actually does. Furthermore, one who knows CHIM is everything and everyone and yet, everyone, including the CHIMp ( ), is himself and only himself. To believe you don't actually exist and/or are just a dream is to zero-sum, which is a fate worse than death. Vivec is one of the many, say, personalities of the Godhead. Another guy who has CHIM is Talos/Tiber Septim.
I think MK described CHIM as anti-Nirvana. There is a theory around which compares CHIM/the Godhead to the Construction Set. I used to subscribe to it, but then I realized that it was based on some easter-eggs that can be found in the Sermons.
Yes, those who have CHIM no longer have the desire to use their powers because they are the world. Past, present, future. They can see all possiblities. (Are then the Elder Scrolls a mundane mirror of what God is or is capable of ?) However, sometimes these CHIMps choose to use these powers. Talos changed the Cyrodiil so that it became more hospitable. Vivec banished Azura (and Molag Bal also, hope I'm right) using his leet-haxor powers...and his mighty spear, but that goes without saying. He also acted by not acting and let The Ministry of Truth crash because "Love is under his will only". Yes, he is benevolent but he doesn't hold his people's hands all the time. I'd say he let the Ministry of Truth crash for the same reason why he often didn't use his god powers on the battlefield, but instead lead armies and let the soldiers fight for Morrowind.

Yeah, the Nerevarine could have "killed" him. If killed, Vehk just makes a trip to Aetherius and returns whenever he wishes. He wrote the sermons so that the Nerevarine would at least have a grasp of what CHIM is and what Mundus and the Aurbis is etc. Given that the Nerevarine understood what CHIM is and what Vivec is capable of, (s)he would have known that he can't truly die.

So where does Talos the god fit into all this CHIM business, and the theories surrounding his ascendance? Is Talos the conglomeration of Tiber, Wulfharth, and Zurin; a guy who mantled Lorkhan; or a guy who CHIMed? Or is it some combination of the three, or none at all?

Admitedly, this is based on a rather limited understanding of CHIM, combined with my personal experience regarding lucid dreaming. Based on what i understand, those who have reached CHIM wage a constant inner struggle to maintain their individuality within the awairness that they do not really exist.

Now, i have lucid dreams on a regular basis. So regular, in fact, i actually had to see a doctor out of concern it was a sign of a psyciatric dissorder... Anyway, i've found that the more i interact, the more i push with the dream, the more i become awair that it is a dream, and the more likely i am to wake up.

Presuming that interacting with the un-reality of the TES universe is like lucid dreaming for a CHIM, it stands to reason, to me at least, that they are in a similar boat. The more they change with their absolute power, the more likely the truth of the Dream, and of their own non-existance, overpowers their individual mind. As such, the more 'Godlike' they are, the more likely they are to wink out of existance. Thus, CHIM would be partly contrained by their own state, and the constant quest for ballance between Self, and Truth.

This is probaly the most confusing piece of lore. How many Taloses are there? The Imperials' Talos is Tiber Septim alone. Same goes for the Nords. According to other account, Talos is actually 3 persons. Perhaps the Enantiomorph really is just Zurin and Ysmir and Septim is just himself, but wears the mantle of Lorkhan. I'd say Tiber Septim-Talos achieved CHIM and can be seen as a separate coming of Lorkhan or at least can snap out of the group as he retains his individuality. If anyhthing, he is greater than then Zurin and Ysmir. Note that Ysmir might be just a title and not a person at all. If that's the case, then Talos is either Hjalti/Tiber and Arctus or just Tiber.

I'm not sure about the whole Godhead-waking-up thing, since sometimes the world is references as "like when a dream no longer needs its dreamer." I am also unsure it can wake up, even if the world at large would notice it.

As for CHIM itself, don't think of it as a path to power so much as a path to understanding and transcendence of mortal limits. One theory is that the point of creation was that Shor/Shezzar was attempting to transcend. He seems to have failed, but since he gets so many re-releases and patches/updates over time thanks to mantling, as he goes farther and farther he may yet do it in one iteration or another.

As for whether or not Talos CHIMmed, I am myself unsure. I do not think he did, exactly, but I think the references to his ability to someday do so may have a lot to do with future re-releases rather than the man or god himself.

Mankar Camoran certainly http://imperial-library.info/content/mythic-dawn-commentaries-vol-3 that Tiber CHIMed, plus the http://imperial-library.info/content/many-headed-talos.

A: Mankar Camoran.

B: The problem with saying Many-Headed Talos (which is way cooler spoken than read) means CHIM is that we do not know exactly the nature of "regular" godhood. Could Talos, ascending to divinity through mantling rather than CHIM, have changed Cyrodiil from jungle to forest? I plain don't know. Also, could two people gain CHIM? Vivec had it, but could Talos also have it if the very point is both becoming the lucid-dreaming awareness of the Godhead as well as retaining your "I?"

Vivec also said that Tiber was a "master" too.


Yes. From what I understand, achieving CHIM is like the ultimate destiny of all mortals. The Godhead has mutiple personality disorder

Everyone is the Godhead's multiple personality disorder. It is everybody, so how can it center isn't consciousness into one as two people?

I do think Talos will achieve CHIM in some life, and bring humanity with him. I just don't think he has in his current state. Just like how you don't start the game as the Nerevarine.

Yessir, they do. There's a bit in the stickies that defines what CHIM is all about along with the Godhead. It's not nearly as complicated as it seems really. In fact I wish those two exerts could be made into separate stickies, just so people could find them faster.

Also, if you fancy a bit of poetry safari, you could read The 36 Lessons of Vivec to hear about those concepts from the man himself. Just look them up on The Imperial Library, and read Sermon 21. It's not all that bad, and it'll tell you everything you need to know about the Tower, the Wheel, CHIM, and the Godhead.