fargoniac:

TBH I still don’t quite understand the difference between otherhearted and just really liking something a lot. Seems like otherheartedness is simply having an incredible like/love for a species real or fictional. Could any otherkin or otherhearted people correct me on this, or is this otherheartedness and deep emotional bond simply another way of expressing and describing this love for something?

Otherheartedness is identifying heavily with something on a nonphysical, involuntary, and profound level.

For me, well, I’m both shadowhearted and faehearted. Shadowhearted’s pretty simply to explain: if you assign a magical element to every person, I am very blatantly shadow, with a little earth and water thrown in there, and a bit of wind I got from experience in another kintype’s lifetime. One of the first things I remember in the alterhumanity department was willing the shadows in my room to move, and being delighted when the wind (unnoticed by me) shifted a curtain and made the shadows move.

Someone could know exactly what I look like and the clothes I’m wearing, but if I’m standing in any darker than a faint shade, they won’t be able to find me. I’ve been told it’s taken people over half an hour to find me, after passing me about six times. Yeah, I’d call that a connection.

As for faehearted, that’s actually a thing that’s carried over from one of my kintypes. Then, I was a deific, demonic queen who created and ruled over a metric ton of faeries and fae-like beings. It was the sort of ‘if I weren’t a demon I’d be one of these’ kind of connections. That hasn’t changed: while I most resonate with English and Celtic ideals of fae and it’s been a lifelong dream to meet the Tuatha Dé Danann (also known as the descendants of my buddy Dana) at least once with the knowledge of what I’m dealing with; I resonate pretty heavily with all fae.

It’s very much a ‘if I wasn’t human, I’d be fae’ sort of thing. Regardless if I’ve ever seen certain fairy concepts before, they seem utterly familiar to me – at least most of them, so there’s probably a few new ones since I was last around fae and would know of. I spend a whole lot of time in deja-vu over it. Fae are something ancient, something old, something from the dark of the world, and when I’m around even traces of fae, I can feel that power resounding as deep inside myself as it does with them. I’m not fae now, and I don’t identify as fae, but they are still a part of me as much as I am shadow, goddess, Pokemon and Ghoul Child. 

Though, my experience isn’t everyone’s. It’s a little vaguely defined of a term, so what someone else has is probably not too close to my experience. But this is one way of how it can manifest, so now you’ve got a slightly better understanding of things. If you’ve got any more questions, I can do my best to answer them. 😀