TimusEravan:

You can achieve all that easily with xkbcomp. Changing the code of actively developed roguelike to a non-standard set of keys is tricky at best. You would need to check it every time a new version is released (also changing help screen and if any additional keys have been mapped there) and could create more problems in the future. Instead of hard-coding this one can use xkbcomp to alter keymap for the duration of playing (which also helps if another player decides that he would prefer t,y,u to b,n,m).
VI keys btw are not intuitive on any keyboard. But as many roguelikes use them learning those is beneficial.