I thought I’d share my post of otherkin/alterhuman terms on here to start off this blog! If I got anything wrong, please give me a correction! These are the definitions in my personal experience that I’ve seen or encountered.
Alterhuman: A member of the non-human community. Anyone who identifies as, or is connected to a non-human, (including plural/multiple) or identifies as someone or something from or connected to a place other than this earth. A therian/otherkin is Alterhuman.
Therian/Therianthrope/Therianthropy: An individual that identifies as being, in part or whole (non-physically), one or more non-human animals on an integral and personal level. Therians cannot choose their thereotypes.
Otherkin: A person that identifies as being, in part or whole (non-physically), one or more non-human creatures or beings on an integral and personal level. Otherkin cannot choose their kintypes.
Phytanthrope/Plantkin: A person who identifies as a plant other than an animal or creature. Plantkin cannot choose their kintypes.
Fictionkin: A person that identifies as being, in part or whole (non-physically), one or more species and/or characters shown in media on an integral and personal level. Some fictionkin are character-specific, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, while others identify as a fictional species, like a non-specific Chao or a Pokémon. Fictionkin cannot choose their kintypes.
Otherhearted: A deep spiritual connection to a creature. This is different from otherkinity, being that you identify WITH a creature as opposed so AS that creature. Proper usage is x-hearted (e.g. Dragon-hearted, Wolf-hearted.) You cannot choose what you are hearted with.
Were: An old term that used to be used to refer to therianthropes, derived from were-wolves. This term is rarely used.
Coping Linkers: People who use non-human entities as a way to cope with depression, anxiety, and general day-to-day troubles. They are not considered the same as otherkin or therians despite vague similarities, as they have chosen their identities. The name was changed from copingkin to copinglinkers to cement that they are not associated with the otherkin community.
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Polytherian/Polytherianthrope: Someone who identifies as more than one animal.
Polykin: Someone who identifies as more than one non-human species.
Cladotherian/Cladotherianthrope: A therian that identifies as a larger group than just as a specific species. E.g. identifying as a bird therian rather than an eagle therian.
Contherian/Contherianthrope: A therian whose animal and human sides are intertwined and doesn’t experience shifts as they are constantly in a stable state of both.
Sun Therianthropy: Similar to contherianthropy, only instead of being constantly half shifted, the base instincts and behaviors of the theriotype are ingrained into the individual’s personality, and small amounts of shifting is experienced.
Theriomythic: A person who believes that they are, in part or whole (non-physically) one or more mythical type creatures, such as dragons, griffons etc. It usually describes a more animalistic side of the being, aka having a dragon be more like a wild animal than a magical all-knowing one.
Awakening: The process of realizing and accepting that you are a therian or otherkin, and then discovering your therio/kintype. Not everyone experiences an awakening.
Theriotype: What a therian identifies as being on a spiritual and personal level. A therian may identify as one or more animals as their theriotype. E.g. a therian may have a wolf theriotype, meaning they identify as a wolf.
Kintype: What an otherkin identifies as E.g. Dragonkin means identifying as a dragon, wolfkin as a wolf.
Kin: Shortened form of Otherkin, not a verb. You can’t ‘kin’ something, and ‘kinning’ isn’t a thing. “My kin/theriotype is (x)”, or “I am (x) kin” are correct ways of phrasing it. “I otherkin across the street” makes no sense.
Kind: The former way of identifying ones kintypes, ex. Dragonkind, dogkind, etc.
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System: A body in which two or more minds, alters, fragments or other conscious beings reside. Also called Plural or plurality.
Headmate: A being residing within someone’s mind, capable of their own thought, feelings and desires. This can appear through trauma, tulpamancy and spiritual origins.
Fictive: A system-mate/headmate/alter that is a fictional character or species (E.g. Sonic the Hedgehog or a Chao.)
Tulpa/Tulpamancy: A headmate made by will and preservation, not by trauma or spiritual reasonings. A being bought into consciousness by the mind itself.
Soulbond: A contact that has been established through the mind to another being, enabling the two or more to communicate. Usually across universes/dimensions.
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Fluff: A term usually used to describe people who are trying to make their experiences seem bigger than they actually are to make themselves seem more important. This is also used commonly to describe Tumblrkin. Usually used as a derogatory term.
Kinnie: Used derogatorily toward younger members of the Alterhuman community. Used on Tumblr as a synonym to Otherkin.
Kinfirm: To confirm a kintype as what you identify as. Usually used by trolls or anti-kin online, as well as people from Tumblr, though it is becoming more commonly accepted.
Tumblrkin: A person usually from Tumblr who has done no research on otherkinity, and claims to be kin just for the ‘aesthetic’, to jump on the bandwagon, or otherwise. They usually have kintype lists of 100+ and the term is used derogatorily.
Species Dysphoria: The experience of dysphoria (discomfort, depression, anxiety or similar based around one’s self) associated with the feeling that one’s body is of the wrong species. Not all therians and otherkin experience this.
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Shifting: Feeling, sensing and/or having experience that one attributes to their non-human identity for a period of time. Not all nonhumans experience shifts.
– Astral Shifting refers to when someone has an out of body experience and travels to another realm or spiritual plane as their kintype.
– Aura Shifting is when the auric or energy field around someone’s body changes to that of their kintype.
– Berserker/Feral Shifting causes the individual to act more like their kintype. In many cases, the individuals report a total loss or near total loss of human-self-awareness. If the experience is frequent, it is recommended that you report to a local psychiatrist.
– Cameo Shifting is when a person experiences a shift of a being different than their identified species.
– Dream Shifting is when someone dreams of being their kintype.
– Mental Shifting is when someone has an altered state of consciousness in which they begin to think they are their species. This can range from only behavioural changes to losing the ability to comprehend language during the shift.
– Phantom Shifting refers to Supernumerary Phantom Limbs, where the person experiences limbs, (Tails, extra arms, wings, etc.) characteristics (Fur, feathers, horns, etc.) or sometimes a complete body of their kintype overlaying their physical, human one.
– Sensory Shifting is when the brain tries to perceive regular senses in a way that fits their kintype, causing the senses to feel stronger or duller. Species who have senses humans don’t have may experience a sort of phantom or ghost copy of what they may feel from those senses.
– Spiritual Shifting is when one’s astral body or spiritual self changes into that of the individual’s kintype.
– Voluntary Shifting is when a person consciously makes themselves shift, through music, meditation, sensations or else.
– Involuntary Shifting is when a person spontaneously shifts, sometimes due to stimuli such as emotions (fear and anger are common) or other sensations.
Hey, just a quick thing, we really need to stop assuming that a “fictional” origin 1. equals a human/human-adjacent experience 2. is less in-depth or legitimate than one who feels their origin is another Earthly species or a creature of myth and legend (which are also, incidentally, stories).
Being a Hollow is no less beastly than my experience of draconity. Both are intelligent in a way humans can comprehend while still being very obviously animalistic and feral in several ways, but one’s taken less seriously than the other simply because of the age of their origin stories. And that’s ridiculous.
Looking at my draconity, and the experiences and details of other people, they all seem to differ from “traditional” dragon lore and yet the consensus there is “human bias” when it comes to the nature of the stories dragons are depicted in and the reason for the inaccuracies. I hate to break it to you but having a “fictional” source doesn’t remove any artistic license, either. Modern copyright laws aren’t going to suddenly change the nature of things.
These things don’t register to me as one being “less real” than the other due to origin, but knowing that I’d be turned down in many circles where I’d otherwise likely fit in just fine due to that irritates me more than a little bit. Having a somewhat-identifiable counterpart that happens to be a character or species in fiction doesn’t take away from my experience or my legitimacy, and it especially doesn’t take away from being very nonhuman.
Hi, this is a blog for copinglinks! Copinglinks or C’links are voluntary identities you choose, usually for coping. Our goal here is to provide information and community for copinglinks and to open up the community a little more.
We operate similar to a kin request blog, but we’ll also reblog resources/posts about c’links and try to host discussions.
I’ve taken a look at everything, and this looks like a brilliant start for the c’link community. I’ve been saying for ages that c’linking would be aided a lot by these types of blogs, and here one is! Looks great, folks, so have a boost and a request. 😀
You’re going to get some side eye from some people if you have memories of 47 past lives and insist that they’re all absolutely central to your identity now. To reference the previous example that’s a bit like someone asking “so what do you do?” and listing every job you’ve ever had. You can certainly switch careers once or twice in your life, but If you’ve had 47 jobs and all of them were equally important, then none of them was a career.
But at the end of the day only you can define who you are, and you should do the leg work to figure that out, and endeavor not to care about the judgments of others.
An indispensable guide containing all the common jargon, slang, doublespeak, plays on words, etc., used by real vampires to converse with one another, either privately or in public. With so many real vampires “coming out”, or at least reaching out to others, there are many who just discovering there’s a wide community out there, both on and offline. Many new vampires are unfamiliar with “vampspeak”, and as such, use inaccurate or inappropriate terms they have been exposed to in popular fiction, movie, or role-playing games; or they use specialized terms only they, and possibly a small group of fellow vampires, have come up with. Unfortunately, though they may be quite real, this often makes them seem like posers, or ignorant. This lexicon should be an excellent guide and introduction to much of the terminology used; it is not intended to cover the highly specialized terminology and jargon used by specific groups and houses. This edition includes over 60 new terms not contained in the previous.
Last night I ended up on something of a research binge on the vampirism front. I haven’t looked as well into community things as I like as this is a very, very private aspect of my life, but upon some digging, I happened upon the Atlanta Vampire Alliance. Lurked their forums a little bit- unfortunately dead, but most of these older style forums tend to not be very active, especially when you’ve got a really old community where everyone knows everyone, you have very independent members, and everyone’s migrated to other social media. Still, I found worth on their lexicon/terminology page and just figured I’d post it on over here for who ever else may benefit. On the link itself there are also some more house and community-specific terms, but regardless I figured I’d post the first section of their page, originally by Sanguinarius (credited further under the readmore) for comprehension’s sake.
Should you be interested in an expanded dictionary, I found her book posted on Amazon for a pretty reasonable price. But anyways, here’s some terminology under the cut!
Honestly, heartedtypes/kithtypes and synpaths are some of the most underrated and ignored alterhuman identities. It seems like most people devalue them to degree or treat them as if they’re lesser than kintypes, and I honestly don’t know why. I wouldn’t be who I am today without my synpath and my heartedtype and they’re at least as important as my kintypes are, sometimes even more.
I think a lot of the devaluing comes from the fact that a lot of people don’t really know what the ‘hearted experience is actually like. There’s this misconception that I see a lot, that otherhearted is synonymous with ~really liking something a lot~ which is… not even close. In the slightest. Also, the phrasing of otherhearted’s definition (identifying with something non-human) is super vague. Not that it’s incorrect at all, it’s just that it doesn’t fully capture the kinds of feelings and experiences involved.
Misconceptions and the like are part of the reason I put together this list of animal-hearted links, and why I’ve tried to write a thing here and there about the experience (I want to translate more things into words in the future, but it takes a while :P). Being animal-hearted is at the center of my animal-person identity these days; it would be great if we could be recognized as something that isn’t “lesser” than therianthropes.
This will probably be my last post on semantics for a while, since I want to focus on other things, but I know a lot of people really dislike “otherkin” being an umbrella term and want something else, so a while back I wrote up this little idea. Please note to take it with a grain of salt and, if you don’t like it, please feel free not to consider yourself part of it. This is simply a suggestion based on common complaints I have seen in various communities – it is in no way absolutely flawless. In general, do what makes you comfortable – if this isn’t something that makes you comfortable, don’t feel that you have to use it!
Alter-human/Alternative Humanity Personal Identity “AHPI”
A category of personal identity which encompasses identification that is alternative to the common societal idea of humanity.
For the sake of this categorization, the “common societal idea of humanity” is classified as such:
The common human identity involves:
-Identification with the body in the sense that the body is part of the self, unrelated to a sense of gender or any form of personal expression; at the basest level, a common human identity is an identification with the mechanical human form, bodily function, etc – feeling correct in a human body, the one given to the self at birth, when gender, race, and societal concepts are removed; not feeling that the body is not one’s own. (Simple/Example: A transgender person is not/may not be AHPI because they still consider themselves human, and still consider the body to be theirs – just incorrect. Of course, transgender people may be AHPI, but being trans is not an AHPI identification, unless the gender of said trans person directly correlates to a nonhuman concept of gender.)
-Identification involving a singular persona within a body present from birth and which has not differentiated from the original-born persona which is attached to the body. (Simple/Example: A multiple system would be AHPI due to multiple persons existing in one body. A walk-in (which occurred after birth, or by their own identification this way) is also AHPI as they are not the “original.” A median who experiences their multiplicity as facets of self or other similar but still non-singular sense would be AHPI.)
-Identification as a human with no supernatural personal basis BY SAID PERSON’S OWN DISCRETION. (Simple/Example: A person who identifies as human and as their born persona in this life but who has an identity involving past lives may be considered AHPI if they so decide their experiences dictate as such. A person who believes themselves to be human in this life but spiritually angelic would be considered AHPI, assuming they identify as their angelic spirituality and not as a human. Some religions and spiritualities might include reincarnation but those who follow said spiritualities may not feel they fit in this category.)
-Identify as human regardless of personal subculture. (Simple/Example: A furry would be human if they consider themselves to be, but a furry who identifies as a furry more than anything else may be AHPI due to identification as a member of said subculture as part of one’s overall personal identity.)
AHPI identities may include, as per personal discretion: -Therian, phytanthrope, otherkin, and fictionkin identities -Multiple, plural, median, and walk-in identities -Spiritual self-identities which may still include degrees of humanity such as angelics, celestials, starseeds, god shards, reincarnated gods, vampires, etc -Identities involving shared self-identification with nonhuman or other alternative human entities/concepts such as animal-hearted, godspouse, soulbond, and spiritual medium identities -Identities of alternative humanity through disassociation, trauma response, or non-neurotypical mental status
Of course, all of these may either agree with or deny identification as AHPI, depending on personal discretion. Don’t feel a need to subscribe to any one label just because it exists. Do what makes you feel good!
There are have been many terms
created to describe people who identify as Earth plants:
– In February 1995 “wereplants”
was coined.
– The term
“plantkin” is at least as old as 2004 and was used on a livejounral
community.
– In 2004 on the website Green
Is More Than A Color the term “greenkin” was coined.
– In 2006 the term
“woodkin” was coined on another Livejournal community.
Ever since at least 2006 by my
reckoning the term “plantkin” has been the accepted term used in the
various otherkin communities to prefer to people who identify as plants.
So where does the term
“phythanthrope” come in? Well, I coined that term just a few years ago.
It was 2013 and I wanted a personal term I could use myself because I spent
most of my time in the therianthrope community and had grown tired of the fact
that within the therianthrope community they generally define otherkin as
people who identify as non-Earthly creatures. Also, I didn’t much like the
sound of “plantkin” anyway. So I coined “phytanthrope” to use
instead.
Yet, it is funny that now, at
least in the therianthrope community, people are considering
“phytanthrope” the main term. However if you go to any community for
plantkin, they still use “plantkin.” I kind of worry how my label usage
may drastically alter the plantkin community because now more and more
resources are picking up my term rather than using the term the plantkin
community uses.
Big Big Big Disclaimer: These are my own definitions, and my own understanding of other folks’ definitions. If you have any information that I missed, edits you would suggest, or corrections to what I have said, please do not hesitate to let me know!
If you agree with this post, I’d love a reblog, but don’t feel pressured to use these same definitions that I do. I’m just like, a little tired of people (Antis? Sealions?) asking the same questions over and over.
In his post, I’m going to address two types of terms: actually_______ and _______kin; within these groups I will address actuallydivine, actuallyangelic, actuallydemonic, and actuallydeific/actuallydeified — as well as divinekin, angelkin, demonkin, and deitykin/godkin.
This is a really long post, by the way. It’s sort of an essay and it’s like, over 2k words. There’s a pretty tongue-in-cheek tl;dr at the end, but you can probably absorb most of the information by skimming it.
In 1974, a pair of sisters—Arwen and Elanor—calling thems’elves the Elf Queen’s Daughters (EQD) emerged upon the Pagan/Wiccan scene. They wrote fascinating esoteric letters of elven lore and philosophy that, when they really got going, were sent out in groups of three every week. Within months of their first publication, many other kindred joined the sisters and established vortexes around the U.S. (and some outside of the US) where those interested, who had heard the Call, could write to awakened Elves.
Among these vortexes was the Elves of the Southern Woodlands in Carbondale, Illinois, established by Zardoa who would, some years later after the sisters ceased writing them, take on the Dharma of creating the elf letters, first in Florida under the name the Sylvan Elves and later in California as the Silver Elves. Silver Flame, his faithful sister-lover companion, soon joined him and they’ve been pursuing the Dharma ever since.
This book is the first volume containing the original letters of the EQD —a Frasority of Elves and were contributed by the founders of the EQD, Arwen and Elanor, and the commentaries on each letter are written by the Silver Elves. We know you will enjoy reading these magical letters as much as we do and find the path of the Elven Way beautiful and enchanting.
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