Building Deep AI Characters: Using Lorebooks and Character Cards Together in HammerAI

If you want your AI characters to behave more like living beings—with memories, backstories, and consistent personalities—then HammerAI’s combo of Character Cards + Lorebooks is exactly what you need.

Character cards define who the AI is.
Lorebooks define what the AI knows.

Used together, they create deep, dynamic characters that remember the world around them and evolve across every conversation.

What’s the Difference?

Character Card

• Defines the AI’s personality
• Controls tone, attitude, speech style
• Contains their background and example dialogues
• Teaches the AI how to sound

Lorebook

• Stores world information, history, facts, relationships, and memories
• Lets the AI reference past events
• Helps the AI speak as if the world around them is real

When combined, you give the AI both a voice (card) and a memory (lore).

How to Use Both in HammerAI

1. Start With a Character Card

• Add the character’s name
• A short description of who they are
• Personality traits
• A few example dialogue lines
• Optional avatar image
  This becomes the “face” and identity of the character.

1. Add a Matching Lorebook Entry
   Your lorebook supports the character with deeper information.
   Example:

• Keyword: Seraphina
• Info: Seraphina is the 28-year-old Princess of Elaris. Her father died during the civil war. She carries guilt and leads the resistance with quiet determination.

This allows HammerAI to recall details even if you don’t repeat them in chat.

1. Link Related Lore
   You can create entries for:

• Other characters
• Places
• Factions
• History
• Objects, magic systems, technology, mythology, etc.

The more the world is defined, the more consistent your storytelling becomes.

1. Adjust Trigger Settings
   HammerAI lets you control:

• How often lore is scanned
• Whether entries are always active or only triggered by keywords
• Whether entries apply to all chats or only specific characters
  You decide how reactive and aware the AI should be.

Example

You’re writing a sci-fi scene. Your character, Commander Nyra, is about to talk to her estranged brother.

• Her character card gives her a cold, strategic way of speaking.
• The lorebook entry about her brother adds emotional tension:
  “Nyra hasn’t spoken to him since the fall of Titan Base. She secretly blames him for their parents’ deaths.”

So the AI responds with layered, emotional dialogue—without you explaining anything.

That’s the power of combining both tools.

Why Use Both?

• Characters stay in consistent tone
• They remember past events
• World details stay accurate
• Roleplay and stories feel alive
• Emotional reactions make sense
• Characters evolve over time

Using one tool creates a good character.
Using both creates a believable one.

Tips for Best Results

• Keep personality in the character card
• Put facts, history, and memory in the Lorebook
• Use the same name spelling in both places
• Don’t overload one system—balance them
• Use tags or folders if you have a big cast

Final Thoughts

With just a character card, the AI acts like the character.
With just a lorebook, the AI knows the world.
With both, the AI becomes a real personality that grows, remembers, and reacts.

HammerAI lets you build these characters offline, with full control over how they think, speak, and evolve.

You can download HammerAI Desktop and start building your cast today. Community templates are also available on Discord and GitHub.