Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-82.30.53.52-20130707190543/@comment-202.156.8.11-20131025003231

Nobody ever confirmed what Talos was when he was alive. Not all spells in the TES world are in game. Nobody set a limit to magical ability.

CHIM seems to be EXACTLY the same as alteration magic made so powerful that the world is forced to change permanently. If you have heard of a certain physics law concerning springs, the spring changes permanently if pulled beyond its limit (was it Hooke's law?). The world could be the same and so powerful alteration can reshape the world, not temporarily affect it. Magic is only limited to what the mind can concieve, not a set of unchanging spells.

Therefore, Tiber Septim could have been a powerful spellsword using alteration (he could have kept his powers secret, so that nobody knew). He could be so good at alteration that the world changed permanently to suit his needs, not temporarily. Same for Vivec. So, actually, CHIM is nothing more than the mastery of alteration. In fact (I know response to bero's speech denies this), COMPLETE mastery over alteration means complete mastery of everything except for conjuration, akin to space time manipulation. This includes permanent alterations to the body to make one better in all combat forms, altering one's health, stamina and magicka to epic proportions (or even infinite amounts), altering the world to give you all spells from all schools, altering one's armor and weapon to be infinitely strong, powerful and with many enchantments and making oneself immortal. The possibilities, if alteration is truly what it is, is endless if one achieves a level of alteration so high that the world has to change permanently or face paradoxes.

So, as above, perhaps CHIM is not some apotheosis related zero summation or abstract concept, but the complete, true mastery of alteration magic to such high levels that it is alteration, but also something more. The world is simply the canvas, alteration the paintbrush, magicka the paint and the mage the painter. This would make everything fit into lore, it will obey physics and it also the simplest, least abstract understanding.

I may not be right, this is plain speculation, so if there is evidence to the contary, then this point can be considered invalid.