#therian convention idea

[aphelion-alifer]

blog thoughts

the therian convention idea, something that I see passed around every now and then. while we have othercon, and shifter northeast for physical shifters/nonhumans, wouldn't it be amazing to have a real life physical space? before the whole "furry conventions exist" topic gets brought up, while they are obviously cosplay and "be yourself" type of friendly spaces, they aren't geared towards nonhumans.

wouldn't it be amazing to have a real life safe space for nonhumans of all kinds, physical and nonphysical? where none of us are judged for who or what we are, how we express ourselves? where if we're physically nonhuman, we don't have to hide the physical traits that we keep a secret?

we could let mental shifts out, panels about nonhumanity and what it means to be nonhuman, tips and advice for new or old shifters, learn about the history of our community (probably something I would host ngl), express ourselves in the ways that make us most comfortable, perhaps have well known members of the physical nonhuman community as guests.. and honestly, I think that something like this could potentially bring the community together as well as keep it growing. of course, there's risks to it, being an exposed physical nonhuman to the public is not something that is considered safe, but still a fun idea to think about. as long as there's security and safety precautions, I would love to attend a convention like this!

I can only dream at the moment and maybe in the future we wont need to hide, I hope for some kind of physical convention space like this to exist one day.

[altern1a]

With cohost closing, do you have any ideas of where alterhumans (particularly adults frankly) even meet up/find each other? or is it just discord servers and accidentally finding someone is althu in passing. Sucks that it's so hard to find community.

Alterhumans are everywhere, you just have to be willing to put yourself out there! It's so easy to miss each other when we can't recognize each other.

I will deeply, dearly miss cohost. It was unique and beautiful for how safe and easy it was to be openly alterhuman. But it was never my main platform for meeting people.

You mentioned discord servers, and yes, those are really really good for socializing! You will naturally be limited on who you can find but it's fantastic for forming bonds with whoever you do find. (May I plug Alterdirect for finding servers?)

Here on Tumblr, there are active tags you can follow to find a lot more of us. #alterhuman is a good place to start, of course. I recommend following the tags for any identity you want to meet people with. For example, I currently follow #alterhuman #otherkin #therian #fictionkin #fictionfolk and quite a few more specific ones.

If you're fictionfolk and looking for sourcemates, another thing you can do here on Tumblr is submit a canoncall to any relevant blog that accepts them. There are a lot of general canoncall blogs and some sources have "kin help" blogs that do source-specific canoncalls and some other things. Results definitely vary with canoncalls; if someone has made a discord server for fictionfolk from your source that's usually a bit better, but since not everyone is on discord you can always do both.

Something that's really started taking off in the last few years is online conventions! Tons of alterhumans that are otherwise quiet and hard to find will show up to these. @otherconvention is the biggest one and the one I personally recommend the most, but it is no longer the only option so look around! If you have trouble finding other conventions, they often advertise in the off season server for Othercon.

There is also tons of alterhuman activity outside of big centralized platforms. Older ways of connecting never really fell out of favor with the community and there's also been a big resurgence due to The Everything. Forums are a really good alternative to discord if you're good with the slower pace and lack of a dedicated app. The biggest alterhuman forum I'm familiar with is Nonhuman National Park and smaller forums advertise there so it's definitely where I recommend starting. There are also many, many personal websites, and even more going up post-cohost. A good place to start finding those is the Alterhuman Summoning Circle webring.

The larger alterhuman community is evasive and tries to stay off the radar, for obvious reasons. But once you've gotten into it, it's surprisingly well interconnected. We really like being able to find each other!

I also have a dedicated resource I'm working on to help those who aren't as enmeshed (and even those who are!) find the living alterhuman communities where they can actually meet each other. I'm not as good about keeping it up to date as I'd like to be but you can find it here: The Alterhuman Web

Thank you for reaching out to me about this, it's one of my favorite topics! It's not right for us to feel alone when there are really so many of us. We are stronger together!

I'm also going to loop in @who-is-page and @a-dragons-journal in case they have anything they want to add that I forgot about! Lemme know if you don't wanna be tagged in stuff like this. Also, anyone else who wants to can add their thoughts too, obviously.

[wilderwilderness]

Do you have opinions on transformation-themed creative works that feel distinctly nonhuman? I want to hear them!

Hello fellow critters! I'm here with a small request today that I'll explain here in detail!

I was approached about hosting a panel at ShifterCon, an online convention focused around transformation-themed media and works, and had an idea for a presentation that leans into therian and nonhuman perspectives on the subject. I think there's a pretty sizable overlap between transformation and nonhuman identity as a subject in stories, art, and other creative mediums.

I'd like to open up a discussion on what therians, otherkin, nonhumans, and alterhumans tend to seek out within the transformation genre, present what many of these works have in common, and also showcase works from the community!

My request is a bit multi-faceted, so here's a breakdown of what I'm looking for:

What gives a particular creative work "therian vibes" or the equivalent to you? You can share your thoughts with or without an attached example of media.

Do you or someone you know have a story, comic, art piece, music, or another creative piece that's geared towards nonhumans and alterhumans and includes transformation in some capacity? Would you like me to showcase it at the end of my presentation?

I've got a handful of ideas for both already, but I'd love to hear what others have to say on the matter! This is a topic of immense interest to me, and a common theme in a lot of my own creative work (you may know it best from my short comic "Species Dysphoria", featured in the first issue of Inky Paws Zine)

Thank you all for your time! I'm excited to put this together! ^^

[queer-otherkin]

My local conventions start happening in a few months, and I really want to make more non human friendos

But I don't want to be like, HEY YOU, YOU THERE. ARE YOU A THERIAN??? bc i am a coward who's afraid of bullying.

So I was thinking of using those convention signs/plates (y'know, those little cheap writing board signs that come with the stapled handle) to find some!!

The question that I'm thinking on would be:

"Do you support therians?

Yes // no // idk what that is"

Y'all can steal my idea if you want!! Just tell me if you do (so I can be happy and not feel stupid about my idea)

[fenmere]

I'm going to preface this by saying I'm ace, and I'm not against what I'm going to write about here. Just that this was a bewildering introduction to the idea for me and my system, and kind of funny.

So, shortly after we came out as trans, we went to a comic convention, and the friend we were going with was really excited to introduce us to someone he knew, and he said, "You're both dragons, so I think you should know each other!"

But, it turned out that this person identified as a dragon by way of being asexual. In that, they only meant that they were asexual, and that that is what made them "a dragon."

So, fronting for our system, I, a dragon amongst dragons, found myself confronted by a human who was using "dragon" as code for asexual.

We'd never encountered this code before. This was our first time learning about it.

Further conversation showed that this person did not identify as otherkin or therian in any way. They were fully human.

I've never been quite sure how to handle that situation, because they at first thought we were identifying as a dragon via asexuality too, and seemed bewildered when I said, "I'm also ace, but I'm a dragon in the otherkin way, and always have been."

They blinked and stared in the way that a pray animal does.

Like, philosophically, neither I nor my system really see all that much difference between dragons and humans anyway. We're basically the children of each other, memetically speaking. And any being that calls itself a dragon for whatever reason is a dragon.

But there was a very palpable disconnect there and a gulf of miscommunication that seemed insurmountable even after we'd cleared up the confusion.

The nice thing, though, is that there are some lovely pieces of asexual dragon artwork out there, and as a dragon who is asexual, I appreciate that.

But, still, it was a little bit like encountering a dog who looks up at you and says, "Oh, I'm gay, so I call myself a human. We gay dogs do that as sort of our special thing." And you thinking, "I am human, yes. And I'm also gay. But the two things were never related for me? What do I say?"

I think the major disconnect was that neither I nor the rest of my system are human. At all. But that person was.

[thumpercloudbright]

I prolly should've made an entry post when I first got here, but hey, ya live and ya learn☆

Howdy there! I am Thumper Cloudbright! It's the name of my fursona that I'm gonna post here soon. Ya can call me Thumps, or simply Thumper, or Twilight, the name of my wof sona.

☆Info Blurb☆

I am an adult, my age is 21

I am a bigender woman with she/her and he/him prounous, and am perfectly fine with being called either or hehe (you can also call me dude or bro)

I have sensory processing disorder, and possibly a form of adhd (spd was verified by psychologist, and me and my parents think I got adhd from how some of my quirks work)

I am pan, all genders are beautiful, a trans ally, and therian ally! In my eyes, as long as who you are doesn't hurt others or yourself, then you are free to be you!

I adore stories that have animal characters, monsters, dinosaurs, mythical creatures, nature aesthetic and vibes, anything of the sort! Mushrooms are one of my absolute favorite little beings, they're just so cute☆

Horror is one of my favorite genres, with how you can bend designs and make things creepy or scary. Fav colors are dark purple, black, blues, greens, and brown, and I am a practicing artist. I've made some good things, but I can definitely grow in my craft, and I certainly plan to.

I want to be a novelist, just gotta work through some life stuff to get there. I try to be a positive force, as there's already plenty of negativity going around, and I don't want to be all doom and gloom. Just not how I roll dude.

The Fandoms I Am Part of!

Wof (Main thing I do on this blog, I adore dragons)

Tmnt (Loved them since I was a kid, should make some art of them soon. They're what got me into anthro characters hehe)

Warrior Cats (Just starting to get into them, they're pretty neat)

Fnaf (It's what got me into horror)

Pokemon (First game I ever played was Soul Silver, love the franchise to pieces, have all the games from gen four and up!)

Cult of the Lamb (I love this game it's so good and the art is dope!)

Mlp (Casual fan, didn't watch the gen four show, but I like the art, and I watched the old movies!)

Undertale and Deltarune (Casual fan, in love with the sprite art of both, the story, and music!)

Sonic (My eldest brother made me one xD I might post my ocs here one day)

All Tomorrows (It's so beautiful in a cosmic, horrifying, existential crisis way)

Furry Fandom (More casual on my side, haven't been to a convention, but I do enjoy it. Kinda wished it was more chill tho-)

Niche (An awesome indie game on Steam and Switch! You control the genes of your nichelings and help them survive their world)

Amphibia (My newest fandom, I really dig the art style and characters. Yet again, my other older brother got me into it lol)

Projects I'm Working On!

Wof: A Fierce Legacy: Au where Fierceteeth becomes queen after proving herself to Glory against other candidates. After some time, she has three dragonets: Two sons named Shadowglider and Sharpmind, and one daughter named Direclaws, who hatched under two blood moons. Now Fierceteeth has to grapple with the fact her daughter will one day challenge her for the throne... and Direclaws has to grapple with seeing that future.

Wof Legends: Alternate Past: Legitimately was made to give poor Foeslayer a better IceWing husband, then I noticed how much would change, so it's gonna be interesting alright xD It's also gonna be huge. Lots of stuff to cover.

Wof: A Moon Taken By Rain: A curious idea I had for an au where Secretkeeper wasn't there on time, thus Moonwatcher is taken and raised by a RainWing named Macaw. Also RainWings get a big rework, because I think it would be more interesting if they weren't uh... well what they are in book three lol. Don't get me wrong, I love my hippie dragons, but I think it would be better if did have a queen earlier on who whipped them into shape.

Wof: RainWing Succession: The story here is that Queen Grandeur of the RainWings has six daughters, and all of them want the throne for various reasons. The sisters are:

Princess Abundance, Princess Blissful, Princess Cassytha, Princess Divine, Princess Felicity, and Princess Luxurious.

Only one of these dragons is worthy of the throne, and she will have to work for it... and find out why one of her sisters has mysteriously disappeared.

This is gonna be a precursor to the Moon Taken By Rain story!

Tmnt: Beast's Embrace: Something I've been playing with for years lol. It is an Au that goes more in depth into what all mutagen can do, where it came from, and how it effects mutants, on more than one plane of existence. It's a bit of a mix of ninja turtles and Bloodborne, hence why it's called Beast's Embrace.

The brothers are quite different from their more canon selves too, because I feel like it be more interesting and make it stand out.

Mike is the oldest at 19, and the leader of the team, therapist, and the main muscle. He is still goofy and fun loving, but also much more serious and level headed, and quite noble. He is based on the Big Headed Turtle.

Raph is the second oldest at 19, though a couple months behind Mike, and he is second in command, helping plan out strategies, along with being a mechanic, often helping Don. He is more stoic, with a calm energy, though is also very brutal when out fighting. He is based on the Northern River Terrapin.

Don is third eldest at 16, and is the doc and brains when it comes to anything mutagen related, robots or chemistry. He is the most severely mutated due to using mutagen he carefully made to make himself "better", and more himself. Very eccentric, his default expression is a smile, and it takes a lot to make him change expression. He makes a lot of friends. He is based on the Roti Island Snake Neck Turtle.

And finally, Leo is the youngest, at 16, being a couple months younger than Don. He is the fastest and most stealthy, able to sneak in just about anywhere. He is very morbid and sadistic, but grows to be noble and just, as he looks up to Mike. He is based on the Bog Turtle.

Ask box is open if you wanna send me asks and all that👍 I'm thinking of allowing wof dragon art requests, like ocs, though still on the fence about it, as I do want to make sure I am decent at drawing them first lol

I'm also starting to do free wof adopts! I like the joy of creating them, then sending them out into the world for others to enjoy🎉

Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays will be the days I schedule for adopts when I have some planned out, I find an old character I'm willing to make into and adopt, etc. Not every week will have adopts, but in general they are the days I will post them when I got some made and ready!

Oh and I also gots a Toyhouse! You can check out what all I do here☆

https://toyhou.se/Thumper_Cloudbright9

🚫DNI🚫

Pedos & Zoophiles (Still have no idea how these two clowns exist-)

Anti Lgbtq

Anti Neoprounous

Ableists

Anti Furry (I promise I am not a raging horny maniac on the loose lmao)

Proshippers (gonna be more specific here: I'm talking about the extreme kinds that think shipping kiddlets with adults is "pErFeCtLy AcCePTaBlE!!" And harras people over it. As long as you don't do that, and don't harrass others over shipping and don't endorse what you consume, you're in the clear and may interact if you'd like. Just don't bring drama and we're ok)

Terfs

Racists

Scientologists

If any of ya do interact, you will be instant blocked, and I will get to move on with my life, forgetting your name :3 (the more dangerous of you will be ☆reported☆)

And that takes care of that! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my content. Adios for now!

[gust-jar-simulator]

Anthropology brain demands more fantasy goth subculture analysis. A favorite of mine is the vampire subculture, which would be really fun to apply to any media considering Vampires Are Awesome, but the hilarious thing is the development of the irl vampire subculture as a community almost entirely hinges on Anne Rice’s books and Vampire: The Masquerade. There’s literally no convenient way to translate it.

While people who would be inclined to the subculture existed before those books and games, conventions and then the internet drew those likeminded people together, and they proceeded to structure those new communities around the media that brought them together. The otherkin and therian communities don’t have quite the same quirk, because members tend to share a vaguer, more general interest and focus on introspection moreso than presentation.

If I wanted to make things easier on myself, I would just say “it’s fantasy, literally write vampires”. But if I did that then I wouldn’t be getting my anthropology enrichment. So!

Considering the (knockoff medieval) time period of most Zelda games, I think we’d be looking at something like the early days of the otherkin community at best. If I remember right it was mailing lists. There have always been people who feel slightly to the left of human, and it’s not necessary to have a community to define that, but if we’re here to talk about a very niche goth subculture because I read a couple of vampire Vidow fics then I think Vio would probably have to invent the idea for himself wholecloth, loosely based on observing demons during his time at the Fire Temple as well as anything he could read at the royal library.

Given the fact that Vio is arguably the Link with the least connection to the Original™️, his body was probably straight up conjured by an enchanted sword, and then he proceeded to spend a large amount of time living like a Creature of Darkness™️, I feel like Vio is uniquely situated for an identity crisis. Especially given the traumatic nature of his undercover mission and the need to mimic Shadow’s behavior to survive, in addition to whatever his own inclinations might have been and how they absolutely did not match up with anything the Original Link would do.

The irl vampire subculture might occasionally be witch adjacent, but it is important to note that nobody involved is actually a magical creature. I’m going to leave the debates about the validity of energy feeding versus medical sanguinarians at the door, because my personal interest in bringing it up is the relationship between vampires and their donors, as well as vampires and their cravings. Nobody is going to die from not consuming blood, but there tends to be a notable health benefit not gained anywhere else that may or may not be the placebo effect. The rub, of course, is actually sourcing blood in the first place. The consequences of not feeding are severe enough to make it worth trying, though.

So if I want to make Vio that sort of vampire, it might not even be that he’s having trouble seeing himself as human. If anything, that could be a comfort thing he applies to himself later, especially after Shadow dies. Medical sanguinarians display symptoms very like chronic illness with no clear solution or cause, and that’s the easiest one for me to wrap my head around (though I may try writing an energy vampire thing for fun). Any physical symptoms Vio had while traveling or undercover could have easily been chalked up to stress, or he just didn’t notice at all. Maybe some of the Evil Root Beer was actually blood and Vio drank it to keep his cover, very much liked it, and then decided not to unpack that.

The symptoms would be more obvious during low-stress peacetime, when he’s not constantly in survival mode and has maybe had a few dinners with the other three Links, who don’t seem to be having the same problems. They’re all Link, why aren’t the rest having weirdly appealing cannibalism dreams? Was it something in the metaphorical water, did the Fire Temple do something to him, are the rest just keeping it secret? He doesn’t remember feeling any of this before the split, maybe it’s just something that happens when you turn 16. Like puberty but slightly more awful. Maybe it’s because he’s the darkness in Link, and the longer he stays an individual the more that outs. It’d be very easy to just pile that onto his preexisting fears.

Vio’s a tactician at heart, so I think he’d make a scientific effort of figuring out what to do the second he discovers something that manages the symptoms. Without, of course, telling any of the others. They might have won the day with the power of friendship, but that’s very different from voluntarily being emotionally vulnerable or telling the other 3/4ths of The Hero that something went wrong and you might be a monster. They skin rabbits when they go camping and Vio wants to lick the blood off his fingers, and none of the others seem to.

Red’s just delighted when Vio starts speaking up more in the kitchen, volunteering preferences or even wanting to experiment. Liver, organ meat, slightly rarer steak than the others- those are still pretty human things to eat, you can get them from a butcher and Vio looks less like he’s falling apart at the seams afterwards. Blue might mock him for it once and cause Vio to shut down for a week, or a month, and they might not know why because Vio doesn’t talk but they try to avoid that again.

Depends on your characterization who finally approaches him, I could see an argument for any of them. It’d be a very fun conversation to write, partially because Vio has no frame of reference for wanting to Eat People other than ReDeads and maybe Shadow, though Shadow was oddly civilized about it. He didn’t exactly have a lot of restraint, ever, but I don’t think Shadow would bring up any impulses to bite Hylians because he wanted to keep Vio. He’d still drink blood though, out of fancy cups because he wanted power and also not to freak his personal hero out. He wanted to keep the guy but he wasn’t going to starve for him, and Vio drank the blood too so it was whatever.

(As a background note, I always think the demons being vampires is hilarious because Vaati is sitting in the back going “well okay you can keep a pet This Time because you have weird diet preferences”, meanwhile Shadow isn’t actually biting Vio because he doesn’t want to scare him off. Gay nepotism blood bag hire, and the part that makes sense to Vaati and Ganon isn’t actually even on the table. Baby bat’s first thrall and he’s just a gay disaster with no enthrallment happening actually.)

And thus, to wrap it all up, we give Vio’s character arc a satisfying emphasis by finally having him realize that being honest with people is a good thing actually and he should ask people for help when he needs it instead of slowly going insane, especially since he can actually trust the other Links more than he realizes. They’re not that incompetent, just different, and more importantly of course they’re interested in his wellbeing. It’d be a messy, awkward talk, but a necessary one, and four heads are better than one when it comes to figuring out how to manage what Vio needs, even if they don’t exactly know why he’s like this.

(If you’re curious about medical sanguinarians/“irl vampires”, I highly recommend The Red Cellar for further reading.)

[who-is-page]

Digitalized Natural Selection: The Importance of the Internet, Literature, and Art in Alterhuman Communities

Author: Page

Type: Essay

Words: 1,164

Summary: The roles the Internet, literature (or rather, discourse), and art play in the alterhuman communities.

Author's Note: Writing this was like pulling teeth, but I just kept reminding myself that it's a first draft and I can edit it in December to make it more coherent and flow better. No one look at me, though, it's hideous.

[Part of the Sol System's Alterhuman Writing Project for NaNoWriMo 2021. If you don't want to see these posts, block the tag #inkedpaws]

The alterhuman communities are largely digital in their current iterations. They rely heavily on content created, cultivated, and curated through the Internet: from essays, to comics, to personal websites, to digital Howls (in spaces like Second Life, VRChat, Discord, etc.), most of the foundation for creation and communication within these communities relies on this unique feature.

But it’s no surprise that the alterhuman communities are so reliant on the Internet for keeping in contact with one another: in-person meetings that don’t coincide with other large-scale groups congregating, like at furry conventions, are fairly uncommon or even downright rare, both because of how scattered we tend to be, and how we tend to not be geographically-focused in where our communities are divided, instead being more mindful towards the interpretation or details of experience and identity. Even when there may be a high concentration of alterhumans in a single area, they may not intermingle due to difference in identity or experience—such as therians not welcoming fictionkin at their gatherings, or otherkin not welcoming copinglinkers.

Internet netiquette has also just evolved to become a large part of our spaces and how we orient ourselves with one another: We tend to not go barging into one another’s spaces with the intent of causing havoc or wrecking house, even when those spaces are wholly digital, in the form of Discords, Skypes, or even tags. While anonymous hate mail and harassment campaigns aren’t nonexistent, it certainly feels like more often people will back up commentary or arguments because of differences with others with their community face and history. We also “talk with our feet” insofar as we tend to show our support of positions and politics within spaces through follows, reblogs, and likes primarily, and with re-writing and publishing our own perspectives and how we agree or disagree with the most popular or extreme opinions on the matter. It’s a balancing give-and-take act, with members constantly shifting and changing the playing field through their own contributions.

It’s easy to wonder if the alterhuman communities would look anywhere near the same if they have stayed in or migrated to largely physical spaces, and to that question I believe the answer would solidly be no. Because of the way the Internet forces the alterhuman communities to evolve through discussion and debate, we’ve evolved into ways that prioritize individuals who can best convey their ideas in understandable, easily dissected ways: doublespeak and pseudointellectualism isn’t well-received, and the regular use of it usually relegates someone into being pushed out of many alterhuman circles due to an inability to clearly communicate and the tendency that such language has to start fights. (For a real-life example of such, it’s easy to see the ways in which even a long-standing and once-popular forum, Therian Guide, has been relegated to the darker corners of alterhuman community space and memory due to its leadership’s tendency towards ambiguous and obscure language alongside its poor moderation.)

Partially through this prioritization of language, we see individuals who can eloquently explain their thoughts, feelings, and experiences particularly respected within nonhuman and alterhuman spaces: but these specific types of creators and debaters aren’t justprized for their abilities on these fronts. Their works of art and the records of their discussion serve important primary purposes in the community regarding representation and memory.

Because of the nonphysicality and constant changing of online spaces, it can be difficult to pinpoint and track aspects of the alterhuman community’s history. Websites are constantly in flux, and what one person may have taken for granted as a necessary community resource or classic community experience may be all but forgotten ten years later, with little to no trace of it findable in any way beyond word-of-mouth. This ability for our community to almost lose time in a way, where important, pivotal moments may be entirely loss to the abyss of Internet 404 pages, is something that has functioned almost in the same way that a predator affects a prey animal in specific environments: it forces it to adapt or die out. “Survival of the fittest,” or more accurately survival of that which is most adapted and continues to grow and change further.

I propose that the alterhuman communities especially appreciate and respect their creators and discoursers because, in part of, a form of digitalized natural selection: online communities which survive over the course of several decades and which don’t have some form of unifying, existing foundation that exists physically outside of these spaces—such as fandoms and religions do—rely wholly on not only online creations and discussions, but also on how well such is tracked and recorded. Without a form of community memory, you either end up with the group dissipating entirely or it getting continuously resurrected and subsequentially dying off over and over again in different iterations that end up recycling the same beginning dialogues and topics. A dead community or zombie community isn’t a successful community, by almost all standards.

Contributions and creators on the artistic front, especially, also function as important representation within alterhuman communities, for alterhumans. While some popularized fiction may have themes which are reminiscent of these identities—especially fiction surrounding were-creatures and other transformation-based works—there’s just the fact that if someone wants to see their experiences and aspects of their life accurately portrayed, no one is going to do them right outside of other individuals within the alterhuman communities. Otherwise you end up with mockumentaries like I Think I’m an Animal! where alterhumans are meant to be the butt of the joke, or films like Wolf, that center around species dysphoria and portray it in an incredibly questionable light.

The art of the community also serves a secondary purpose in forming something of a community mythology. From the community memory you have connections and pinpoints of facts, but from the art and emotional economies you can trace and experience yourself that is interlaced in the tapestry of this history, you get legends, stories, and cherished art pieces. It’s where the Theri Theres are carried on from generation to generation, where legends of “this one otherkin, who…” get shared around the bonfires of Howls. It’s where the rising theta delta meets the falling elven star in a night sky of a hundred different comics, podcasts, short stories, plays, microfictions, poems, novels, games, and zines.

While it’s easy to reduce the communities to their bare-bones quantitative components, these emotional aspects are just as important. It’s the spark of life that makes alterhumanity and the communities centered around it so engaging to interact with and vibrant overall. Without the combination of the effects of a primarily digital atmosphere, and a community which survives through such a harsh environment by recording where it’s been and what it’s doing or otherwise leaving their mark, there’s a well chance that the alterhuman communities would exist in an entirely unrecognizable form without these factors.

[crescairis]

I was wondering if you had another source that otherlinkers were explicitly excluded from the original definition of otherkind in 1990? The source on AnOtherWiki leads to a 2001 FAQ that doesn't mention anything like that. Also, otherlinkers aren't the same thing as KFF.

(just as a warning, this is going to be a LONG post, but i'd rather not put it under the cut for archival reasons, in the case that for some reason this blog disappears)

firstly, i'd like to apologize for phrasing things as if KFFs and otherlinkers were the same thing; a better phrased way to say things would be for me to say that i think many KFFs would be otherlinkers, were they to acknowledge that their experiences don't fit the definition of otherkin.

something else i'd also like to note that i've been thinking about (while it isn't exactly related to this question) is that perhaps people are misinterpreting the terms "voluntary" and "involuntary".

i feel that many people think "voluntary" simply means the initial decision to willingly take on an identity, which is, in part, true! however, voluntary identities are very likely to become involuntary, simply because it becomes too emotionally/mentally difficult to separate oneself from the identity that they've chosen.

being drawn to something, or someone, enough to take it on as an identity can often be a sign of something deeper! i would see this as a form of awakening in and of itself—like cracking open a geode, or perhaps like putting on training wheels before you experience the real thing.

but back to your first question: the way i initially phrased that post was also rushed, as we were trying very hard to write it during a single lunch break at work.

the term otherlinker is a very recent invention (coined in 2018 on the alt-h discord server, while copinglink was coined in 2015 by who-is-page), as being otherkin has always largely been considered a serious, personal experience. only recently have people NEEDED to specify that it's involuntary, so the only sources i can give you are ones that cite otherkinity as being intended as a serious identity, as well as those that state that otherkinity is not as shallow as a game or roleplay.

also important to note is that many of these pages were made and existed before fictionkin were a largely documented (let alone accepted) presence, thus they are scarcely mentioned, (and typically with skepticism or even scorn,) save for on their own, smaller pages. for our own personal comfort, we will not be listing sources that discredit fictionkinity completely.

firstly, here's a full timeline of otherkin history by orion scribner, to show the scope we're looking at

Otherkin Lexicon by Orion Scribner: "Otherkin are real, non-fictional people who identify as other than human. Otherkin identify as creatures from myth and legend, usually elves, faeries, and dragons. This is a sincere identity, not role-play. Many otherkin identify as other than human for spiritual reasons; that is, they classify their identity as otherkin as a personal spiritual belief. Being otherkin is a very individualistic thing: each otherkin reaches his own explanation for how and why he is an otherkin. Some of their common spiritual explanations include that they are other than human in spirit, or they were other than human in past incarnations.187 Although spiritual belief is often involved, “otherkin” isn’t a religion. As such, each person who identifies as otherkin practices whatever religion he individually wants. It has always been the case that most of the otherkin community practices Neo-Pagan religions, and so that religious perspective shapes the common views and ideas in the otherkin community. Some otherkin don’t use spiritual explanations. Some otherkin believe that they are physically other than human, or that their ancestors were."

A Field Guide to Otherkin by Lupa: "The definition for Otherkin I will be using for this book is: a person who believes that, through either a nonphysical or (much more rarely) physical means, s/he is not entirely human. This means that anyone who relates internally to a nonhuman species either through soul, mind, body, or energetic resonance, or who believes s/he hosts such a being in hir body/mind, is in my own definition of Otherkin. Some people do have more stringent standards. However, for the purposes of this book, I am including a wider range of people.

"This is not a roleplaying game. When a person says s/he is a dragon, or a wolf, or an elf, s/he is not referring to a character that s/he only becomes during a gaming session. That which is Other is a constant part of the person; s/he is the Other at all times. Grey, a wolf therian,says it marvelously: “Perhaps I should say that if a being is a color, or a sound, I am two items merged to form a different color/sound. The two are within each other. Sometimes plain to see, sometimes deeply mixed.”"

A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes by Orion Scribner: "Some real people think of themselves as kinds of creatures from mythology. These people call themselves “otherkin.” An otherkin has the belief that he is a creature from mythology, such as an elf. He says that elf is his true self. It is his identity. This is real to him. It isn’t a pretend person that he plays in a game."

The Otherkin Resource Center: "1 : one who identifies with various mythological archetype as vehicles of spiritual evolution and self-expression, similar to Native totemism only with a stronger level of self-identification.

"2 : someone who believes in reincarnation, and that not all of their reincarnations were as a human."

What are Otherkin? by Tirl Windtree: "By far the most common explanation from those who fit the definition (even if they don't claim this specific label) is that whilst their physical forms may be human, their essence, soul or equivalent term is not.

"Of those, the majority make their claim based on reincarnation - what they have been in a previous incarnation so strongly affects their current incarnation that they still identify with it. Obviously this requires a belief in reincarnation, and in the transmigration of souls. Both are reasonably common in a number of religions and spiritual beliefs across the world."

"The most frequent accusation is that all otherkin are lost in fantasy, they've played one too many D&D games and gone over the edge. Personal study seems to indicate this is actually one of the least frequent explanations. Most roleplayers know they are roleplaying, even if they are also otherkin, and roleplaying can be a very useful tool in self exploration."

The Lostkin Project by Gazer: "Otherkin are the supernatural among us. They are the elves, dragons, nymphs, and trolls that used to live more openly amoung humankind. Some are from other dimensions and other places. You may occasionally see them refered to as Otherkind. Otherkin is the more generally accepted term."

Otherkin Coalition by Kreyas: "What is Otherkin?

In a nutshell, Otherkin are a coalition of people who share in common the belief that some internal part of them is somehow incongruent with the rest of the human race. Beyond that, beliefs vary too widely to classify them into any one group.

Some of the most common beliefs are that the soul is somehow different from human. This may go in hand with a belief in reincarnation and “imprinting” (in which a past life as another species leaves an imprint on the soul which is then carried over into the next life), or the individual may believe that this is his/her first life and they are simply different.

Above all, Otherkin is a spiritual belief.

"Are Otherkin really a bunch of delusional, socially maladaptive kids like I read on that website?

NO. As with any group, not everyone fits the stereotype. Any community is going to have its bad apples which stand out in people’s minds better than the typical members. In my experience, Otherkin are usually levelheaded and able to question their beliefs and function in human society.

"Is it a Roleplaying thing?

NO. While some Otherkin may participate in roleplaying, strictly speaking the beliefs are separate from the roleplay - even if they are roleplaying as their identified “kintype”."

Otherkin FAQ v 4.0.1 by Arhuaine, Miaren Crowsdaughrer, Thistile Kachunk, Golden Syrpent, Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, Jarin Dreamsinger and The Crisses: "The Otherkin are those people who believe themselves to be spiritually and/or physically other than human. While mythological species (elves, satyrs, fairies, dragons, and so on) are widely accepted as being included under the term "Otherkin", many people in the community prefer to include aliens, vampires, furries, extraterrestrial humans, and other nonhuman races. A mythological or literary equivalent is not necessary to be included under "Otherkin"; there are types of otherkin that have not shown up in known legends or fiction (star-dragons, Elenari, etc.)."

What are Otherkin, Anyway? by Adnarel: "Otherkin is a term that is generally used to describe people who, In some way or another, physical bodies aside, do not feel that they are “human” in the conventional sense of the word. We (they) feel as though their spirits are not human, nor have they ever been, despite our physical bodies and outward appearance. Some otherkin have testified that they feel that this is their first time on this plane of existence, a.k.a. Earth. Others feel that they have been here numerous times to teach and to heal people. Maybe once they were here in their “true forms”. Otherkin use the term “true form” to describe what they feel to be the shape and nature of their true selves."

What Are Otherkin? by Arhuaine:

"Put simply, someone who is Otherkin feels that they have a soul (or souls) other than human. Usually this encompasses what are commonly regarded as mythical beings such as elves, dragons, fae, satyrs and so on. A broader view of otherkin might also include therianthropes (were-creatures) and those with animal souls (such people are sometimes known affectionately as "furries"), and also perhaps people who consider their souls are alien (often called star-born). The lines between Otherkin and Furries or Star-born are often blurred.

"Most Otherkin feel for most of their lives as though they don't belong. Human society seems alien and unfamiliar in many ways. They may feel isolated and unhappy, yet unable to explain these feelings at first. Then, perhaps they may begin to remember a life other than their own. Sometimes it is not easy to understand such memories, and sometimes the awakening to Otherkin-ness is a difficult and frightening process, especially if they are going through it alone. It is something not easy to share with others, for fear that they may consider you crazy.

"Being Otherkin is not something to crave, nor is it glamorous. It is a difficult and lonely path to tread, and sometimes it seems to bring only sorrow. Memories of loved ones long lost, a home that can no longer be reached, cause great pain. And yet, the life of the Otherkin is not all sadness. It is a life filled with wonder and magic, and a way of looking at the world that humans can never understand. Because magic is so much a part of an Otherkin's outlook, they may be drawn to Paganism or other New-age philosophies."

Are You 'Kin? by Gazer: "To really find out if you are otherkin takes searching. No, not on the internet, inside. You have to reach inside yourself and really look at yourself. This ,for the most part, is an inner journey. You have the answers, not me or anyone else. If you are otherkin then it is a PART of you, but you may be the only person able to find it.

The best others can do to help you is to provide pointers. Show you ways to search inside yourself, tell you how they found something inside themselves. We can hold a mirror up to you, but you won't see anything unless YOU do the looking, and what we see from our side of the mirror may not be the truth."

Otherkin Phenomena: "Otherkin are people who believe themselves to be something other than a human being on a spiritual, psychological, energetic and some even on a biological level, and choose to identify with that non-human fragment of themselves to the point where they count it as a permanent and ingrained part of their personal mythology and/or identity."

and there's plenty more! i'm just tired

i hope this helped answer your question, and perhaps gives others some insight as well!

[moonlightreal]

Field Guide the extras

There’s actually quite a bit more in the book after the last chapter, but a lot of it is going to be too dated to be useful or so complex that it would take me ages to copy down.  So I’m going to condense heavily and if anybody would like more data on something let me know and I’ll expand on it.  

Afterword

Lupa talks about why she wrote the book, which seems to be “because nobody else had written one.”  A solid reason if ever there was one!  She encourages others to write their own books to add to the resources that are out there.

Otherkin Gatherings

Information from 2007 won’t be any use, especially in these covidious times. If you’re looking for otherkin gatherings, otherkin.net is a still active site with an events listing, or just sit up your favorite search engine.  I could only find this, and it seems to have been an idea that didn’t get anywhere.

I would say scout out furry conventions, pagan gatherings, and renaissance faires if you’re looking to meet otherkin.

Interview With a Vampire Werewolf

Lupa the wolf therian talks to a therapist about the psychological aspects of being otherkin.  It’s already a summary of a conversation and I don’t think I can do a good job of summarizing it again.  The therapist did not freak out when Lupa explained to her what being otherkin means.

The therapist does say that it’s unlikely someone would be involuntarily committed for being otherkin.  The criteria are different in different states but in general the “men in white coats coming to take you away” will only happen if you are a danger to yourself or others, or unable to care for yourself.  

The other main point is that looking at being otherkin from a psychology perspective doesn’t negate the spiritual perspective.  it’s just different ways of trying to understand the same thing.  So whatever you are, therapy may be useful.

The Survey

This section is the questions that Lupa asked to get information for the book, and a bit about how she spread the survey around.  The questions are all very open-ended, allowing respondents to write whatever they wanted about themselves.  I’m going to boil these great multi-question questions down to a few words mostly.

-name/age/gender/general location?

-kintype? Appearance, human and kin?

-origin?  

-if reincarnation origin, talk about memories?

-awakening? Changes since then?

-effects in your everyday life?

-otherkin and spirituality?

-glamourbombing?

-questions of sanity? Therapy?

-how uncloseted are you?

-do you know others? What do you think of the community?

-Any advice to give?

Raw Data

This section is the numbers, and I’m going to summarize a lot of numbers down to a few numbers.

There were a total of 131 surveys including Lupa’s.

Age range was mostly teens and early twenties.

110 were from the US, and most states were represented.

80 were female, 48 were male, and 3 unspecified.

35 Therians were the most common type of kin, the majority of those were wolfish with big cats being the next largest category.  There were 18 dragons, 14 elves, 7 multiple systems, 3 vampires, 2 mediakin, 1 kitsune, and various other things and others who were more than one sort of kin.

Reincarnation was the most common origin, with “spirituality/magic” being next most common.

Bibliography

The bibliography is massive and hunting down and linking everything would take ages. Which I’m happy to do if anybody’s out there all like “Gimme ALL the sources!  I wish to research!”  If you’re that person, send me a message or a comment and I’ll get into it, but if I don’t hear from anybody I’ll just leave you with everything linked so far and your own abilities to poke through amazon and goodreads.

And that’s the Field Guide to Otherkin!  I have condensed it down a lot, losing the beauty of the writing.  I also didn’t copy the stories the survey respondents told, which I hated leaving out because they were so good, but I had to boil the book down to the barest facts or we’d be here for months and in a few days my classes will start and eat up alllll my working-on-the-computer time.

I recommend reading the book if you ever get a chance.  I wrote up these posts to give you an idea of what’s in it so you’ll know just how much work you want to spend tracking it down.  I don’t recommend spending hundreds of dollars for it, but there must be copies out there in used bookstores, and interlibrary loan may be able to get you there.

Hope you enjoyed this peek into a rare book!  

[placesinmotherland]

here’s a world map! I believe I made this a year or two ago with Inkarnate. I’ve had a rough idea of what the continents look like in my head for a while, but hadn’t ever finalized it. 

some stuff I wanted to keep in mind while making the map; 

staying at least partially true to natural land formations, and how land formations shift over time (ie. making sure that certain continents look like they could have been a single landmass at some point). I wanted to make sure the mountain ranges (represented here with grey hexagons) felt like plausible mountain ranges, rather than convenient borders. a lot of that is (I hope) achieved my making sure that they work with the shapes of the continents as potential indications of underlying tectonic plates. 

staying kinda true to natural climates and their positions relative to things like the equators and poles, although in my head the world is like kind of squished and wider at the equator. I’ve also kind of shoved aside tropical jungles in favor of grasslands and forested areas and stuff like that. any jungle areas are kind of confined to some islandy areas bc I’m just kind of a slut for redwood trees sorry :/ 

trying to visually represent some of the core conflicts in the world. specifically the conflict between the Fae (on the Faerehn continent), and the Therians (on the Pan continent). they’re aggressively at odds with each other and that’s visually represented by the way they curve towards each other. the comparatively small size of Lamora (the human continent) and the way that it’s trapped between the other continents is representative of how they’ve been caught in the middle of that conflict. 

trying to visually represent certain aspects of the different cultures through the landmasses. this is slightly more subtle, but one of the things that I wanted to show is how crowded (or not crowded) the different civilizations are. Therians are notorious for being nomadic or living in relatively small familial communities, with a lot of distance between them. you can almost feel it in the vastness of the Pan continent, and conversely you can almost feel the busy crowded villages and cities on the Lamora continent. 

things I did not intend to do but...like...nice: 

circular composition. im gay for it

all of the other names for landmasses like The Eckyr were kind of made up on the spot because again I only had a vague idea of the continents. I didn’t have any plans for these areas, and still need to work on them, but since making this I have realized that I still like the names! I did a good enough job diversifying the naming convention between them that it isn’t boring, and it’s not a bad balance of made up fantasy words and recognizable english words. 

anyways that’s my map of Motherland. it’s actually not comprehensive but it’s good enough for the purpose of the dnd campaign, and I’m still very pleased with how it came out. it definitely could stand to be redone, but I don’t want to do it until I know I have the time and the patience to give it some true detail, and also it would mean completely solidifying what the different climates and political borders are. it’s a large undertaking, because I’d want to do like a world map, regional maps, and then also political versions of all of them. 

the map is also pretty compact, which is on purpose. I have ideas for expanding the world map and potentially introducing new races/cultures a la world of warcraft (with less time shenanigans), but I think that’s in the distant future. it would be something I’d do within the story of the campaign, with party members actively participating in the discovery of new places and forging alliances (hopefully). that’s the dream. 

main blog | art blog | ko-fi