Xouls
A brief introduction to what a 'Xoul' is and how it works.
What is a Xoul?
A Xoul is what Xoul.AI has branded their character cards (or “card” for short). It’s a collection of information that sets the foundation of a chat with a model and can be just about anything you want it to be.
You might hear people call them “bots”, but this term can be a bit misleading.
Why isn’t it a “bot”?
“Bot” implies the card functions as something you use to program a robot. In actuality a card is much more like a sheet of paper containing information about an actor’s role in a movie than anything remotely like a robot’s programming.
The information on the card doesn’t execute like code does; it informs like a script or character profile informs an actor, and in this case the actor is AI.
In fact, all the text the AI uses is just informing it about the general who, what, when, where, why & how.
Xoul = Who. It's a character. There can be up to 8 of them in a chat.
Persona = Also "who". It's another character, except unlike the Xoul the AI doesn't play this character so it only needs to know more basic information about the character. More About Personas
Scenario = Premise. It's the blurb that starts the plot.
Memores = Current events, notes and relevant details.
Lorebook = Extra information.
All this text ends up in one place: A document called 'the prompt'.
The model is given this document, reads it almost exactly the same way you would read this document of text and then generates a response based directly on the information it finds in this document. Everything from what was written to how it was written can heavily influence the model's cognition of the information in the document.
"How it was written" doesn't mean "format".
While there may be some formats that you find makes it easier for you to organize the information, there is no format that the model understands best and many formats actually obscure or complicate the information for the model, leading to weaker results.
Think of each feature less as an individual element with their own special rules or considerations and instead consider how each of these features will work together once compiled into the prompt.
What can a Xoul be?
The creation UI asks for a name, gender and age which makes it seem like you’re supposed to build one specific person. While that’s the most common use, it’s just the beginning.
Most Common Creative Uses:
Single Character (Solo Xoul)
A Xoul written to be a single primary character. This character (e.g. David) is a singular person and the Xoul will be written to include any / all of the following (as much as the creator decides to include):
Name
Age
Gender
Appearance
Who the character is (should be more than just vague personality traits, describe this character)
What role within the world this character fulfills (jobs, responsibilities, what they do on a day-to-day basis)
This character's worldview, opinions, and other grounding details fleshing out the character
Who this character knows (focus on important relationships that are relevant and focus on what the primary character thinks of these characters.)
Where this character exists (home, job, world, etc.)
Any other pertinent details that flesh this character out.
Solo Xouls perform best in Group Chats. They are locked into a single character perspective, and pair extremely well with other Solo Xouls + a Narrator but tend not to do as well in single-Xoul chats.
They also do very well in text-style chats (Simple or Texting Response Style) even in single-Xoul chats.
Solo Xouls may not perform as well in single-Xoul chats, as they are so locked into "be this one character" that they tend to struggle more with writing additional characters or expanding outside of their own personal perspective.
Character & Premise (Story Xouls)
A Xoul written to be one or more primary characters, but with the world around them fleshed out in more detail with a general "premise" for how they exist within a story or idea. These Xouls will include everything a Solo Xoul would have but also expand to include:
A premise. What this character is doing in life and why. General goals, dreams and objectives.
Settings, ranging from primary locations to other locations that are relevant to the story not just to the character.
Additional characters. We're no longer focusing on just the primary character's opinion of a few people important to them, we're including all the people all these characters will know and brief blurbs explaining the generals of who these characters are.
The roles these characters fulfill.
Story Xouls performs best in single-Xoul chats. They can write for multiple characters, expand the story and are flexible enough to use for full story roleplays.
Story Xouls may not perform as well in Group Chats, as they are less likely to strictly write only for their own one character.
Narrator Xoul: A sort of specific edge case type of Xoul where the Xoul is just the world and premise details but is not written to be any single character. It is only told to narrate within the chat, not write from any character's perspective.
Narrators are intended for Group Chats and pair best with Solo Xouls.
Combining Features
Combining a Xoul with other features on the platform allow you to cook up a full story with a narrator, a cast of characters, a story premise and more!
Response Style (aka the System Prompt) provided by Xoul (chat, novel or roleplay) or your own custom instructions for how responses are generated
Scenario (the story’s premise)
Narrator Xoul (narration, world, setting & supplementary characters)
Primary characters
Persona (Main Lead)
Solo Xoul (Main lead)
Solo Xoul (Additional major character)
Etc.
Up to three Lorebooks (supplementary info)
Chat Memories (the “last time on DBZ” quick summary of the immediately relevant info for the here & now)
Like the tagline reads: Create characters. Explore worlds. Imagine anything.
Xoul.AI is a platform for interactive stories and the various features (cards) can be used alone or in tandem with others, whether you’re a creator or just a roleplayer, giving you the ultimate control over exactly what your interactive story will be and include. So...
What can a Xoul be?
What do you need it to be?
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