From the greater collection of non-human/otherworldly communities. Those being who have alternate identities from their present human selves or those with any connection to creatures, beings, and characters from alternate worlds or realities. There are many groups of different types of alterhumans, with varying individual belief’s and structural ideals.
Otherkin (Otherkinity): Otherkin are people who identify as non-human beings on a non-physical level, in either a spiritual or psychological way. Usually mythical or fantastic creatures not of Earth or our reality, they are commonly beings such as dragons, elves, or even aliens. These identities are an integral part of the individual, often found through introspection, personal experience, and the like. Otherkin can not choose their identities, as they are a deeply felt phenomenon that they do not have control over having.
Fictionkin: Fictionkin are those who identify on an integral level as a character or creature from a fictional series, either spiritually or psychologically. These individuals, like otherkin, feel a deep personal connection to who or what they identify as. The identity a fictionkin has is not a choice, but a deeply felt personal identity they have no control over having.
Therian (Therianthropy): Therians are people who identify as an animal or creature from Earth, either spiritually or psychologically on an integral level of their self. This ranges from any creature that existed on Earth from an Ant to a Zebra, and includes even animals that are extinct. Their identities are found through various methods of introspection, self discovery, and personal experiences. Just as Otherkin, Therians can not choose their identities and are an equal phenomenon they do not have control over having.
Theriomythic: Theriomythics are people who identify as mythical creatures in a feral sense, in a spiritually or psychological way. They often border between therian and otherkin communities, but is entirely up to the individual which communities they associate with or not. Like any type of therian, theriomythics do not choose to have these identities, as they are a personal part of themselves that they had no choice in having.
Phytanthrope(Phytanthropy)or Plantkin: Phytanthropes or plantkin, by whichever they choose to label themselves as, are those who identify as plants. This is an integral identity of their self that is experienced on a spiritual or psychological level in a non-physical way. Just as otherkin and therians, they have no choice in having this identity as it is a deeply felt personal phenomenon.
Draconic (Draconity): Draconics are those who identify as dragons, in either a spiritual or psychological way. Someone who is draconic isn’t necessarily a dragonkin(dragon identifying otherkin) as it is up to them to label themselves as such. The draconic community is separate from the otherkin, but they do overlap often.
Vampire: People who identify as vampires. Not the same as someone who is say, vampirekin, the vampire community consists of those who believe they are physically vampires of a sort in the here and now. There are essentially two types; psychic/pranic vampires(energy feeders) or sanguine vampires(blood feeders). They tend to keep to their own separate communities and do not often integrate with otherkin and the like.
Copinglinker (Copinglink): A copinglinker is someone who chooses an identity, that can be of any animal, creature, or fictional character, that they are in order to cope with mental illness, trauma or other emotional factors. They can choose anything to identify as that will aid them in coping. This is not the same as being otherkin, but they do often spend time in the otherkin community.
Animafidem (Animafidemism): An Animafidem is an individual who spiritually believes that their soul is of a non-human species, by the spirituality: Animafidemism. This is a solely spiritual felt belief that only involves the identity of the soul specifically. Animafidem do not choose what their soul is, as no one has a choice to what their soul was created in being.
Cerebrumalius (Cerebrumalia): The Cerebrumalius is an individual who psychologically believes they have a non-human identity. They believe their identity comes from how their brain is wired or brain “weirdness”. The Cerebrumalius does not choose what they identify as or have any control over it, it is simply how their brain works.
Otherhearted: Those who are otherhearted, have a strong emotional or spiritual connection to any type of non-human creature. They do not identify as that creature, but feel a deeply personal and emotional bond to them.
Fictionhearted: Those who are fictionhearted, have a strong emotional or spiritual connection to any fictional character or fictional species. They do not identify as that character or creature, but feel a deeply personal and emotional bond to them.
Soulbonder (Soulbond): The soulbonder is someone that the spirit of another being has “bonded” with and communicates with that usually comes from another dimension. The soulbond is a spirit that inhabits the headspace or body of an individual and can share emotions and memories with the soulbonder.
Multiples (Plural): Anyone who is sharing a body with more than one entity. A plural system can be either a multiple system or a median system, or anything in between. They could either be a part of a group of distinct individuals who share the same body(multiple system) or a group that is not so distinctly separate(median system) who share a body.
These definitions only scratch the surface of what being part of any of these communities means. When it comes down to it, it is up to the individual to discover and research for themselves whether or not they are alterhuman or not. There is nothing wrong with being alterhuman or not being alterhuman.
Feeling other than human doesn’t mean you have to label yourself as such either. I’ve said this before and I stand by it, but just be yourself and what comes naturally. There’s no wrong outcome, even if you don’t get it right at first. Whether you’re otherkin, therian, copinglink, or none of the above.. you’re always you, and that’s what matters most.
Looking for more information about otherkinity and fictionkinity? We get asked for resources on the regular so decided to compose a masterpost. If you have suggestions you’d like to see added or removed, shoot us a message and we’ll hop to investigating.
Otherkin is sometimes considered an ‘umbrella’ term for all nonhuman experiences. However, since otherkinity refers to species, alterhuman is often the preferred and considerably more functional term. This post focuses primarily on being ‘kin, although we have included some resources discussing other alterhuman experiences near the end.
Some of these sources link off of tumblr, to PDF files, or Youtube.
About a year and a half ago, what-is-paige on tumblr coined the term “copinglink”:
It was a term made to describe voluntary non-human identities. As people started discussing things, it seems matters of why links are made and what about them is voluntary are more complicated than they may first seem. People seem to create these identities for more than just coping, leading to the suggested terms purposelink and otherlink.
2) How do I know this isn’t a kintype?
You don’t choose to be otherkin. You can decide to embrace yourself or deny yourself, but you can’t decide whether or not that is part of you. There is a pattern emerging where linkers choose to have links but not what the link is, so that’s a bit of a fine line.
3) How do I know this isn’t a hearttype/synpath?
It can be both. Actually, some linkers do derive their links from their hearttypes. But you don’t choose to have a hearttype. It just happens. Also, a link is something you are. A hearttype is something you identify strongly with. Hearttypes can manifest as a feeling of being “adopted”, a yearning to be something you are not, or a myriad other ways.
4) What if I’m just making this up?
Then congrats, you have a link. That’s literally how this works. Without getting into technical details, otherlink opens up a new realm of discourse regarding the nature of the self. Self-indulgence is king. Desire is to be explored for its destination not its root. Etc.
5) Is this just a fancy fursona?
Yeah basically. There’s overlap. Not all people with fursonas identify as their fursonas, but some do, and those people could be called linkers if they chose to be. The vocabulary is contextual more than anything else.
Yo, can we normalize being wrong about your experiences and being open about making mistakes in this community? Pretty much everyone has been Completely Sure Something Is A Thing and then later on realized…… that they were wrong about it, in some form or another.
Someone going all-out into exploring a potential identity to see how it feels before saying whether or not they think it’s likely (or even feeling like it’s likely and diving straight into acknowledging it as A Thing) is only ever a problem if people refuse to go back on their labels and admit they made a mistake.
It’s not that uncommon to confuse a kintype for a soulbond/headmate or a hearttype or vice versa or any combination of these. Personal narratives can affect perception of identity and can cause people to internalize or externalize things like this a lot.
I thought I was Sora for years. I told so many people that I was him, it wasn’t a secret or anything. Then I realized he was actually a soulbond and we had gotten mixed up with each other (and I had some huge misunderstandings of how this stuff worked for awhile due to my ex) and it was scary to finally say “hey, so I was actually wrong about this” because of the pervasiveness of feeling like you need to know 100% about yourself before you say anything, and if you realize otherwise you were “just making it up”.
Mistakes happen. They’re normal. Thinking you’re one thing when you’re actually another thing is completely normal. You’re not betraying anyone if you realize you made a mistake. What isn’t okay and normal is refusing to acknowledge the possibility that you could be wrong about who you are. It’s scary, I know, but it’s really important.
It’s a lot better to really look at yourself and be open to change and accepting responsibility than it is to desperately cling to labels and false identities that don’t suit you. This is’t a contest, otherkind/fictionkind/therian identities don’t grant you access to some “exclusive club”, and they’re definitely not somehow more real or legitimate or better than things like otherheartedness, plurality, etc. or just being human that relates heavily to “weird” experiences.
Being yourself, without trying to force yourself into an experience you don’t fit, is more important than the labels or titles you come across. Learning to express what you really feel without fancy buzzwords or fear of backlash due to an honest admission of realizing you thought you were something else.
If everyone’s so hung up on who uses what words to describe themselves and who fits what terminology, why not focus on experiences and existences instead? Let people make mistakes. Let people know it’s okay if they’ve grown and changed and used to think some pretty stupid things. I bet you most of us thought p-shifting was possible at some point. I know I did.
So let’s kill this culture of belittling people for being wrong about themselves and making newbie (or not-so-newbie) mistakes. We were all new to this at one point. We all had mishaps and confusion. So let’s remember that, and be honest and open about it, okay?
Canon doesn’t matter as much as your individual identity does. You don’t have to be completely canon-adherent for your experience to be legitimate.
Reality almost never plays out like fiction. It’s okay if your memories don’t play out as carbon-copies of a fictional work.
Canon divergence is a thing. The infinite possibilities of the multiverse means it likes to test out every little difference it can find from the weather to what shirt you wore, and more.
It’s fine to not find 100% matching canonmates. It’s okay to just be “close enough”.
It’s fine to be uncomfortable with doubles. Know that you are the only you, you’re the only one here with these exact experiences in this life and reality. If you believe in reincarnation, you are the only one here with your exact spiritual history. There are no true “doubles” or “copies”, just people who played similar roles in different universes.
Sometimes even two seemingly identical lives have small differences. What did you have for lunch that day? It’s the tiny differences that count.
Just because someone has the same memories doesn’t mean they were “the real you” nor does it really invalidate you. The universe usually doesn’t end when your time there does. Maybe any divergences started later on.
It’s better to be honest with yourself then to fit your identity to match someone else’s. In that same vein, no one can really tell you who you are but you.
Bad things done in a past life don’t mean that’s all you are. For one, nobody does bad things for no reason. You’re away from the cause of it now. Reflect on what happened if you can. Take the opportunity to learn from who you were then, just like you’d learn from your past experiences this life.
i can’t find a source on this, but i assume that’s because the message was sent to the mailing list itself, and not outside of it. nevertheless [the homepage] has been updated in a fashion that corroborates what you’re saying – as of the 20th of January, 2018, the first header reads ‘what was it?’ instead of the previous ‘what is it?’
though i was never subscribed, the digest was still a pretty big cornerstone of the internet otherkin community when i first stepped into it over ten years ago, and if you call yourself otherkin, you’ve got this list to thank. so to say it’s been important to the history of the alterhuman communities is a pretty big understatement.
thanks for bringing this to our attention, anon, so that we can give it the sending off it deserves.
Hey! Yeah, you bet, thanks for coming in here and asking! The first thing that comes to mind, right off the bat, is that all of what you’ve listed is considered “alterhuman” but not necessarily “otherkin(d)”. You can also be any one of those things but not the others, but there can be overlap.
To start, otherkin(d) is what most people think of when they enter these communities, and it’s defined as identifying AS a nonhuman creature on a nonphysical level. Fictionkin(d) is the same thing, just replace “nonhuman creature” with “someone or something shown in pop culture or modern media.” For example, someone who is an elf is otherkin(d) but not fictionkin(d), but if you identify as an elf from LotR, for example, you would be otherkin(d) AND fictionkin(d). Otherkin and otherkind mean the same thing, but otherkind is an older variation people have started using in response to this website’s gross misuse of terminology.
If you are otherkin(d), you have kintypes, because otherkin(d) is something you are, not something you do. People who identify as earthly animals (deer, birds of prey, sharks, frogs, and also extinct animals like dinosaurs or something like a woolly mammoth, for example) are known as therianthropes, or therians for short, and “kintype” is replaced with “theriotype”. Some therians consider themselves otherkin(d), others don’t, and polykin (people with more than one kintype, often in more than one category, such as me being Just A Dragon as well as fictionkind) exist as well.
Essentially, if you’re otherkind/fictionkind/a therian, you ARE that thing on a nonphysical level. It takes a lot of time and effort to work out your kintypes, and you will make mistakes more than once. Don’t feel too bad if you run into this! Just avoid thinking that everything you feel a connection to is automatically a kintype.
This is where otherheartedness comes in. There’s a bit more debate as to what this means, especially since the term “synpath” is often used synonymously by some but not by others. Otherhearted folks, as well as synpaths, are people who connect very strongly to a thing, often beyond the sense of “this is my favorite animal” or “I relate very heavily to this character”. It’s been described as “I’m not this thing, but I should be this thing” or feeling like said thing is a relative of yours but not you. Some people do use it to refer to an animal they’ve had a lifelong fascination and connection with, but essentially if you identify very strongly WITH, but not AS, it’s otherhearted. You can, however, be ‘hearted and ‘kin in regards to the same thing, but that’s a tricky area that can get pretty confusing.
“Headmate” is often a catch-all term for people in a multiple system, and can refer to endogenic (traumagenic or non) systems or externally-based systems. Basically, if it’s an independent being sharing your body with you, it’s a headmate. I personally choose NOT to use this term since everyone who shares my body is externally-based or was created by me (I have a tulpa or two here, tulpas are often considered to be headmates but it depends on who you ask. Many tulpas are capable of fronting, as well, but the tulpamancy community is largely its own thing.)
Soulbonds are more or less a type of headmate in most scenarios. “Soulbond” is technically what refers to the specific type of link that connects you, otherwise it’d just be called spirit work. Soulbonds, as people, are external entities who are connected to you mentally and physically and can typically interact very clearly as a result, whether they’re living in their world and have a constant “open phone line”, living in this world (either in or out of headspace) temporarily, living here full-time, or some combination, depending. Soulbonds can be things other than fictional characters, but it’s often used to refer to beings who are considered to be such.
Basically:
Kintypes ARE you (or theriotypes)
Otherhearted/synpath is something you identify WITH
Headmates share a body and headspace with you
Soulbonds CAN be headmates, but they can also exist elsewhere.
All of these things are typically considered to be under the alterhuman umbrella.
If there’s anything else that needs to be cleared up or expanded on, feel free to leave another ask! Thanks for stopping my, I hope this helped!
It can mean that you identify as this person which would make you fictionkin.
It can also mean that this character is really well written and appeals to you in a way that makes you identify super strongly With the character.
You’re the only one who can really dig down and work out which it is, but I have some suggestions as to how you can try and answer the question in a way that you can put some trust in. First, stop watching the show. Block the tags relevant to the show. Both of these are temporary steps.
Then get a notebook and write down your current thoughts regarding the character and your relation thereto. This is important. Writing things down is Super important.
Our minds and memories are malleable, but the words on paper won’t change. This is your anchor.
Then, using meditation, or music, or whatever helps you focus, try to work out what happens next. Without spoilers, without watching the show, you’re likely to work out some of the next steps in the character’s story correctly, because media is nothing if not full of foreshadowing. Do not speculate too much, try and write down what you “know” is coming, don’t worry about how you know it, just write it.
Don’t settle for one thing. Write every little thing you can muster.
If you are this character, you should already know a fair bit. If you have no idea what comes next, odds are, you’re simply identifying with the character.
When you’ve written down at least a half dozen things, preferably considerably more, and there’s literally nothing more left to write down, then you can unblock the tags and start re-watching the series.
Then you can see how much you got right, and how obviously these things were coming. If all you got right was the obvious stuff, then you’re likely just identifying with the character. If you got most of it wrong, then you’re likely just identifying with the character.
If you got most of the things right, even little things that you had no business knowing, things that you were sure were coming even if there was nothing in the series to this point to indicate it, and with an uncanny accuracy… well then… there can hardly be any question as to who you are can there?
This is only one method however, whatever you do, it’ll always take real work to really get an answer to that question “Who and what am I?”
this is just a few things about being otherkin, and the history of the otherkin community for anyone who hasn’t seen this before. for otherkin and non-kin alike! if i put anything in here that’s incorrect (totally possible, since i’m not an expert) please let me know and i’ll change it/reblog with new information!
the otherkin community has been around since at least the early 1970s, however the term otherkin wasn’t coined until 1990
otherkin can mean different things to different people, but most simply, otherkin means identifying in some way as nonhuman (more specifically, it has usually meant identifying as a nonhuman race/species that doesn’t exist on this earth, eg. elves, dragons, griffins, unicorns, etc.)
therians identify as animals that exist on this earth, however some people who identify as animals that exist on earth identify as otherkin rather than as a therian
contrary to what you might assume, the therian and otherkin communities were not initially related to each other
different people will have different explanations for why they identify as otherkin/therian/fictionkin. some may see it as a result of their neurotype, some see it as stemming from a past life, and there are many other explanations as well, it’s up to the individual to figure out why they are otherkin, and some may choose not to explain it at all!
discovering that you are otherkin is called “awakening” and can be a slow, or quick process!
trans otherkin have been in the community since its beginnings:
“After the Elf Queen’s Daughters stopped writing letters, they formed a musical group called “Aeron: The trans-rock elven band.” Aeron published a long- playing (LP) record album titled Paltareon: The Far Memory of the Elves. Loriel, one of the Elf Queen’s Daughters, together with the Silver Elves, explained to me what “trans-rock” means:“ As to trans-rock, she [Loriel] said first that it was a subtle reference to the fact that some of the elves were trans-sexual, but also that elves in general are often bi- or androgynous even when they aren’t bi. But she further said that exoterically that it was a reference to the fact that while they were a rock band that they might delve into blues, or jazz or some other musical form and didn’t wish to be strictly limited to rock.”“
(obvious disclaimer that being otherkin is not the same as being trans, though some trans otherkin find that their gender can be influenced by their kintype)
i highly recommend at least skimming the abridged timeline!
also if you are reblogging this and adding commentary, corrections are of course welcome, as well as more fun facts because there are lots of really cool things about our community, but please don’t add info that is gatekeep-y (eg. policing the number of kintypes someone can have, decrying “tumblr kin”, etc.). thank you!
Ok so I have a theory on why there are so few prehistorical therians. If you’re a dragon or a wolf you may want to listen to me. I’m not going to trash any dragons or wolves, only the “new” ones if you catch my drift.
Most of the Earth’s history is prehistorical. There should be way more prehistorical therians than there is. So maybe the reason why there’s so few of us is because most people don’t look that much into it : if you feel like a big, scary, scaly things with wings, you couldbe a dragon but you could also be an quetzalcoatlus. If you feel like some sort of big canine, you could be a wolf but you could also be an eucyon.
I don’t mean to invalidate anyone here, but I think it’s interesting to think about. The inverse is true, of course : someone interested in paleontology may think they’re a
quetzalcoatlus
while actually being a dragon. But I think the likelihood of so few people being prehistorical therians is very slim given Earth’s history.
Always question your theriotypes or kintypes. Always look more into it.
I’m not a paleontologist or anything but if you’re questioning being a prehistorical animal I can help you with that, and I run a discord server full of cool people that may also help you !
That’s pretty much it, yeah. Similar things will always feed into each other, and if you know one better than you know another, well. That’s a thing. It’s the same reason why canon-divergency isn’t as well known as it should be. I don’t remember who said it, but nearly everyone is canon-divergent. But since canon’s mostly all we know and it’s not like we’re likely to stumble upon the exact fanfic AU that was us, it’s a lot easier to think you match up with canon when you definitely don’t.
At least with fictionkind. But this doesn’t sound like a new thing- I guess nobody ever bothered to put it into words before now. I already knew this, but maybe someone else hasn’t considered this angle yet, so have a boost anyway.
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