#they are neither all-encompasing nor absolute

[snepril]

I'm a trans woman and I'm otherkin. Both labels describe parts of me, but neither describes all of me. Yet at the same time, they're both closely intertwined, both key parts of my discovery of who I am - and both more alike than one might expect.

I knew I wasn't supposed to be a guy. Even from a young age, I was drawn to feminine things. I wanted to be a girl - I just didn't have the words to say it, didn't understand why I felt the way I did. And as I grew older, that feeling crystalized. I tried to deny it, to pretend it didn't matter. Besides, it was never the conventional picture of dysphoria - I could manage being a guy. It was tolerable. That was enough, right?

But it wasn't what I wanted. I knew I'd be happier as a woman - I knew it with a certainty and clarity I could never put to words. I knew, and the moment I realized there was a path forward, a way to be who I knew I wanted to be, I took it. I transitioned. It cost me a lot - my home, my years spent in college, my friends and stability - and it was all worth it. Having that weight off my chest, getting to live as who I always wanted to be... it made everything else so much easier. It's like a good night's sleep - sure, you can manage without for a while, but it saps your strength, makes everything else so much harder.

But as I transitioned, as I embraced my life as a woman, I realized... I wasn't quite where I wanted to be. I was closer - so much closer - but I wasn't there yet. There were a lot of little things I wanted to change about myself... and one big one.

I wanted to be something other than human.

At first I denied it, pretended it didn't matter. I had done so many things I'd never thought possible - I'd transitioned, I had a good job and was living on my own. I had good friends and the freedom to steer my own life. Wasn't that enough?

And those words were familiar. The feeling was familiar. It didn't take me long to put two and two together. And when, one day, an impulse art commission gave me my first ever picture of myself as a sphinx...

...I knew. I knew that this feeling was the exact same one that drove me to transition. I knew denying it would work about as well as denying that I'm a woman. So I decided not to. I decided to accept who I am.

I'm a woman, and I'm a sphinx. I'm transgender, and I'm otherkin.

Otherkin. Somehow, it's an even more loaded word than transgender. It implies so much, and that made it harder to accept. I don't believe in other realities or reincarnation. I don't believe I was a sphinx in a past life or other world - I'm really not spiritual at all. So how can I call myself a sphinx if, objectively, I know I've got the body of a plain old human?

The same way I knew I was a woman.

I'm not ignorant of my biology. I know what's coded into my DNA and what my body is shaped like. But why should any of that have any say on who I am? I'm more than my body, more than the chance outcome of genetics and evolution. I get to decide who I am - and I choose to be a woman, and I choose to be a sphinx. Why? Because it makes me happy. Because it feels right. Because it's my life to live and I get to live it how I want, so long as that doesn't hurt anyone else. Sure, I can't transition to be a sphinx in real life (not with modern technology, anyway), but when has an inability to transition ever made anyone's identity any less valid? I'll do what I can to make my body more comfortable and live with the rest, because the alternative - pretending what I feel doesn't matter - isn't living.

I'm a transgender woman.

I'm an otherkin sphinx.

And I'm happy.

[the-hero-of-jk-its-len]

HELLO???? please do tell about the Witcher Continent and Hyrule connection

HI???? PERSON WHO READ TAGS APPARENTLY

SO um, see, um, here is the thing, there is no actual connection, like, anywhere, the Witcher/Hyrule union was entirely made for the purpose of me getting to play as a Hylian Witcher during a Homebrew RP campaign.

But since you asked, here are some things we used for the duration of the campaign;

Hyrule is a continent, this should be obvious, specially if we are talking Post-Botw, in past games we could absolutely get away with it being a single kingdom, but by Botw it's clear it's no longer a single nation as much as a sort of continent with a bunch of kingdoms and nations all stuck together by the common thread of religion basically.

By religion I mean both the worship of Hylia (though by Botw it seems not many follow the faith anymore, The Gerudo are specially notable for actively putting the statue of Hylia in the back rather than on a temple, on the center of town or even at the entrance like the Rito, Zora, Tarrey town and specially the Sheikah do).

And that of the Golden goddesses, though this one seem unanimously forgotten and unused, more used as myth than as a proper religion, though the temples are still in function the statues are very clearly of Hylia despite the spirit dragons guarding them.

Normally I would include the Great Faeries and the smaller healing Faeries too, but from what the Faerie Sisters tell us their worship too is mostly dead despite being found in basically all corners of the continent.

but this isn't just about Hyrule, or Hyluria how my dm used to talk about the continent instead of the kingdom.

we also have, The Continent of the Witcher, mind you neither them nor I were very knowledgeable about anything beyond the maps we could find, and most didn't even include nilfgaard until recently and only focused on the Northern Kingdoms.

Either way, we have no idea how the rest of the world looks for neither continent, so what if they were sort of neighboring continents? mind you they are not the only ones, since this was basically just an excuse to mix and mash my favorite continental media into a single world, the world this is made in is basically a giant crossover encompasing all fantasy maps I know of, including but not limited to, Tamriel, Arda, The Continent and Hyluria.

Again this was entirely just for fun, I like making nonsense characters and my friends like indulging me, but yeah, beyond the fact they are on a shared world there isn't a lot more, except for maybe some migration going on, some bards here and there, legends, and myths, Pirates, basically I handle each world as a continent and play with the belief systems as religions did back in the day before globalization was a thing in our own world, so whenever I see any similarities I simply go "oh yeah no, it's because every place has it's own beliefs", and all are very valid regardless, because you can pry polytheism out of my cold dead hands.

so uh yeah, that's that, feel free to play with that type of setting by the way, like I said, the original LOZ/TW crossover was made entirely for the self indulgence of having a Hylian Witcher who was the product of a very unfortunate travel by ship.