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What’s going on with the therian community lately??

It can’t be just me that’s noticed how much more snowflakey(for lack of a better term) the community has gotten recently, specifically on tumblr. More term policing, more “what about me”-isms on every post, more bullying, lack of critical thinking, it’s just so much worse.

I could post something like “Aw man, I wish I had the body of a wolf” and someone will commment some shit like “Uhm actually the correct term is theriform wolf bc some people already consider their body to be a wolf body based off their identity.” Like ok?? This isn’t about them the post is about me??

I could say “Therianthropy at its core isn’t a delusion, it’s an itentity.”(a basic fact) and someone will cry about how delusional therians exist(not disputing that, I love my delusional homies<33) so that means the identity as a whole MUST be a delusion.

Or a child posts a TikTok calling themself a therian. They wear an animal mask, a tail, and do quads. TikTok is a social media platform averaging video that are 10sec-2min long, misinformation is EVERYWHERE just like the rest of the internet. The average person only knows what a therian is from the first result that pops up on google bc let’s be real, what person, especially a child, is taking hours out of their day to research the history of therianthropy and learn every term? Maybe that kid does actually identify as an animal, or maybe they don’t, either way who honestly cares??

“But they’re using a term that doesn’t fit them!!” And they’ll figure that out in time, can kids not explore their identity anymore??

“But therianthropy is serious identity!” Maybe your therianthropy is serious to YOU, but that’s not the case for everyone. There’s nothing in the definition that says you must treat your identity super seriously in order to be valid.

“They’re making therians look cringe!” Cry me a river, therians are already the cringiest people on the planet, it’s nothing new.

Can we just stop being weird towards others please?

Hi, I'm replying because I think you brought up some good points but there are aspects I want to clarify and also disagree with.

First of all, I disagree that it's 'gotten worse'. There has always been an insane amount of policing in the community for example:

There's also always been those who lack critical thinking or are somewhat vulnerable to blind belief and end up hurt (incidents in the divine/angelkin subcommunity, p-shifters, AWTOK).

And there's always been groups struggling to be seen and heard especially when their experience is a little more niche or unusual than most. We must always be careful when claiming such people are just 'special snowflakes'.

I know you said you lacked a better term, but to call someone a special snowflake is to indicate: they have an inflated sense of uniqueness resulting in an unwarranted sense of entitlement and are trying too hard to be special despite not being anything they say they are. None of that is going on here. Near invisible parts of the community, like delusional alterhumans or physical nonhumans trying to be heard is none of the above (though some people do take that kind of attitude to it and shouldn't be)- nor is anybody being upset when the terms of their community are becoming bastardised.

Now to get to your examples. As the coiner of theriform, I personally don't give a shit if someone says 'I wish I had the body of a wolf' instead of 'I wish I had the body of a theriform wolf'. The context makes it clear what this poster is talking about, and it's about their personal self and personal sense of identity.

Theriform is an optional term, meant to replace 'biological' or 'real' in places where one is talking about the wider community and perhaps doesn't want to indicate that someone isn't really their species or as much their species as a theriform member of it (which many, not just physical alterhumans, are dysphoric or uncomfortable with). But please, if you don't mind, say whatever you want and if people are biting at you about it come to me I'll tell them personally that it doesn't have to apply everywhere.

I also agree that it's a fact that therianthropy is not at it's core a delusion. We've fought many battles, are in fact still fighting with people, to get this understood. Yes, you can be delusional and a therian but to say it's a delusion by default is as ableist as seemingly 'forgetting that it can be a delusion' which is not what the core statement is implying at all. Maybe that 'better term' we're looking for is that more people seem to, in general, not have enough media literacy skills to understand what is fully being said and when and if comments of this kind (by which I mean, 'please remember x group' comments) are good to place.

e.g. "Therianthropy is never a delusion." "If you're delusional you're not a therian, that's lycanthropy." <- good to correct them

"Hey just because we're therians doesn't mean we're delusional." "Therianthropy is not delusion, you're using both words wrong." <- not the right time to bring up endels

The last part is where I have to wholeheartedly disagree and come back to the 'bastardisation' thing.

It's so easy to say 'it's just kids on TikTok!' but it's not and even if it were, that doesn't mean their misinformation can't be damaging?

Because you're right, most people right now are learning that 'therian' means to really like acting like an animal to the point where you wear a mask and do quads, but you know you're actually human and don't really see yourself as an animal in any way. You need only look on these (in and of themselves) harmless quads etc videos to see that hundreds if not thousands of people are influencing terms like 'therian' and 'theriotype' and 'therianthropy' in a negative way.

So much so that (though it never stopped, and given your second example there I know you know this) any genuine therian who actually identifies as an animal in some respect is called delusional and having themselves 'term policed' by being told that actually believing you're an animal in any way is actually 'lycanthropy' (they also never add the 'clinical' part).

Do I think people should be told what to identify as 'instead'? No. Although it's nice that such terms do exist which allow them to still be in included in the wider community. But how in the world are people supposed to learn if we don't teach them that the definition they've learnt isn't correct? The fact that most will never look into what therianthropy really means is a problem. It's not something we should be just allowing to happen. It actually is the responsibility of them to look into the term, but they won't and thus the community takes it upon themselves (not always politely, I agree, but still).

The same thing happened with 'otherkin' and 'kintype' and 'kin' as a shortening of that. So much so that nowadays those who use it in it's original and true context are on the 'fringe' of the community and considered 'taking it too far'. The majority of times when you see people of all ages saying they 'kin' something they will be using it in this bastardised way.

And it starts the way you described - 'kids' and antis purposefully or accidentally misinterpreting it, changing it to mean something it doesn't, propagating that new definition and talking over those who are using the term correctly until the original community is seen as 'incorrectly using it' and can no longer successfully use it to find those who genuinely are animals (or whatever).

Saying 'they're just kids' really underestimates the influence they can have on online culture especially when they're the most likely to post a lot and get really deeply involved in discourses etc.

Your individual child, yeah, isn't going to do much and doesn't deserve to be hated upon especially by adults who have the responsibility to politely teach a new generation because yeah actually that 'cringey fake TikTok therian' might genuinely be a therian they're just misinformed in some way and saying some awkward things. And some will drop the label when they figure out what it's actually supposed to mean sure. But many don't because as I mentioned above, they've been convinced of this 'real meaning' that allows them to continue using the word incorrectly.

And really, I think it's just normal to not want people to use your words to mean something which actively excludes those of the original and true meaning. Do people go too far? Of course, always have, always will. But the community hasn't changed all that much and some of what is going on isn't negative at it's core, it's just being done negatively by some.

My Experiences of Nonhumanity

I get asked about “what makes you/people in general feel you’re/they’re otherkin” a lot, and while the answer is far from simple and my experiences are anything but universal, I figure it deserves a write-up once in a while. A friend asked about it a couple nights ago, so I wrote up a huge long message on Discord, and decided to rewrite it into a Tumblr post for posterity. This’ll be a long one, folks; hit J on desktop to skip.

It’s worth noting ahead of time: none of these things are required to be otherkin, and none of them automatically mean you’re otherkin. In fact, most of them are little more than mildly “weird” quirks when they occur in isolation, and only start to push outside the range of “normal human experiences” when many of them occur together. You can’t look at someone (including yourself) and say “they like collecting things, they must be dragonkin!” It’s not that simple. You have to take the individual as a whole even as you examine each specific experience in more detail - don’t lose the forest while you’re studying the trees. This is just a description of my personal experiences.

Shifts

- Phantom shifts/supernumerary phantom limbs: Probably the most obvious thing and the hardest to brush off, although I still managed to do so for years. Phantom shifts, aka supernumerary phantom limbs, are the experience of feeling limbs or body parts that do not and never have physically existed. In my case, the most common phantom limbs to show up are my wings and tail; other body parts, such as digitigrade legs, horns, snout, and paws/talons, also make appearances less frequently. While my phantom limbs almost never attempt to replicate tactile sensations/interactions with the physical world, they’re often defined by very vivid proprioception (ability to tell where your body is in space, mainly via muscle stretch receptors), and I can tell where each part of the limb is at any given time - it’s not just a shapeless sense of “weight,” or it wouldn’t be phantom limbs. I can also move them at will, typically. My phantom shifts are typically spontaneous and involuntary, but they’ve been induced artificially a couple different ways as well, though I can’t typically do it at will.

- Sensory shifts: Still not something I’m totally sure I experience, but there are definitely times my sense of smell becomes insanely strong compared to usual even for me, which fits the definition of a sensory shift.

- Astral shifts: While I’m far from an adept astral traveler, when visualizing “traveling” within my own mindscape, I shift form fluidly between human and dragon - although I almost always have wings at the very least.

- Cameo shifts: Mentioned only because it’s relevant to my phantom shifts. I realized at some point that the reason I get cameo shifts of canine/feline ears sometimes is because they usually show up when they’re pricking/flattening to express emotion, and the muscles that move to do that action are basically the same as the ones that do those actions with the crest that runs down my neck, and because of my obsession with cats/dogs/horses as a young child and because that’s not a particularly strong phantom shift for me usually, I connected the dots a little wrong and created a false association.

- Self-image: This isn’t technically a shift, but it’s going here anyway because it doesn’t really fit in any other section either. My body image/self-image is weird. I know, consciously, what I physically look like. However, my instinctive self-image is… hmm. What I “expect” to see doesn’t always match up with what’s actually there when I look in the mirror. Teeth are a huge point of fixation for me for some reason; I always expect them to be larger, sharper, stronger. I expect my neck to be longer, my face to be… different. I expect scales in places. I expect claws. Even knowing consciously that of course it won’t be there, it’s still strange sometimes that it’s not. There’s sometimes some mild disconnect when I see myself. (Sometimes not. But sometimes.)

Homesickness

(Or, the sense of missing something you’ve never had - not of “I want/want to be [x], and it makes me sad/upset that I don’t have/am not that,” but of “I should have/be [x], and it is fundamentally wrong that I do/am not.”)

- Flight: I have always wanted to fly, and for a long time I thought everyone ached for the sky the same way I did. Most people don’t, as it turns out. Yes, everyone’s fantasized about flying, but most people don’t feel bones-deep, crushing, physical pain in their chest thinking about it. Most people don’t lift up onto their toes instinctively straining for the sky. I’ve felt that aching longing for it for as long as I can remember.

- Connection to dragons: For as long as I can remember knowing about dragons, I loved the idea of them and even when I was very young, when I’d only really been exposed to media where they were the great evil for the hero to defeat and received no more character development than “evil, destructive, fire-breathing beast,” I was always on the dragon’s side and wanted to learn more about them. That hasn’t faded. I’ll watch an absolutely terrible movie or TV show that I otherwise loathe if it has good enough animation and sound design on the dragons. (Looking at you, Game of Thrones.*) I would commit arson to see one of those Isle-style dragon survival games actually go through and finish production. (Holding out hope for the Dragon Game Project on YouTube; go check them out if you haven’t already.) I’ve also used dragons to represent myself for pretty much as long as I’ve had an online presence - years before I ever heard of otherkin, I was calling myself Dragonheart.

- Dragon-like creatures: Snakes, crocodilians, and dinosaurs all fall into this category - all of them give me a similar heart-and-breathing-pick-up, aching familiarity to dragons. They’re not perfect, but in a snake’s scales and a crocodile’s bellows and a dinosaur’s spectacular reptilian size I see echoes of us and I have always loved them with a passion, even before I quite knew why.

- Dragon/”monster” noises: Sound generators, creature sound design, real animal noises, etc. that are meant to be monstrous and that most people find unsettling or even frightening, I find comforting and relaxing. Alligator bellows, “monster noise” soundscapes, etc. all apply here.

* No shade on anyone who likes Game of Thrones, I’m just not a fan. :P

Behaviors/Instincts/Urges

- Hoarding: I’m still not sure how much of the crystal thing is “monkey brain say Shiney Colorful,” how much is a witch thing, and how much is a dragon thing, but some of it is a dragon thing.

- Territorial/possessive nature: I can get… extremely territorial over my stuff and my home. This can extend right into being ridiculously protective of my people too, although I do try to rein that in to a reasonable amount. This also extends into games like Capture the Flag, because put me on defending the border during middle and high school and I got frighteningly territorial. (Fun fact, this extends to spiritual protection stuff and it has almost gotten me in trouble a few times on that front.) The other main side effect is my brain trying to claim completely inappropriate things as “mine,” like every piano I have ever touched or, that one time, the entire city of Portland.

- Prey drive: Going on a walk in the woods with me will always be an exercise in stopping every twenty seconds because I heard a small animal move in the brush and froze instinctively to track it. Prey drive ranges from “okay I can indulge this enough to track-stalk-chase without actually intending to catch-kill-eat” to “this is entirely inappropriate and needs to Stop Right Now” depending on the day and the situation - sometimes it’s fairly low-key and innocent, but sometimes it’s also being confronted with the sudden and completely serious/genuine thought of grabbing someone or something by the neck/around the body with your jaws and hunt-prey-kill-devour when it’s completely inappropriate and kind of disturbing or even sickening. It’s one of the more annoying things, although it’s not like it’s severe enough that I’m an actual danger to anyone - it’s just a gut thought that gets filtered out at the conscious level without significant problems. This also bleeds into games (I get… maybe a little overenthusiastic during tag) and even watching TV shows or gaming videos - most of the time at least part of me is rooting for the hunter because I relate to them as a fellow predator, even if the audience is supposed to be rooting for the prey - I mean, protagonists.

- Basking/heat-seeking: Probably only partially a dragon thing, but despite the fact that I hate heat in general, radiant/sun heat and heat from a heated surface are both fantastic feelings provided the ambient air temperature isn’t too high. I’m guessing this is at least partially a reptile brain thing.

- Height-seeking: Give me a chance to climb up on top of something - a rock, a cliff, a chair, a table, a bunk bed - and look out over everything else, and I’ll take it in an instant. Getting to climb up on the roof is the best thing that’s happened to me this entire quarantine.

- Flight instinct: Being mildly leery of cliffs not because I am afraid of falling, because I’m really not, but because there’s always some part of my brain that goes “jump, fly, this is a perfect takeoff spot” and I have to squash that before I do something particularly stupid. This manifests in other ways, but that’s the most dramatic (and annoying) one. This is also one of the things I noticed as definitively not normal long before my awakening. (The Grand Canyon was fun.)  Similarly to the prey drive thing, it’s not like I’m actually in danger of throwing myself off cliffs, it’s just - there’s a not-insignificant part of my brain that thinks “hey we should go run and jump off and take a quick flight,” in the same way I might also casually think “hey I should stroll across to the corner store for a bag of chips” before I consciously decide whether or not to do that. It’s the exact same type of thought process, despite the fact that one of those things is something I might do on any given school day, and the other is, you know, physically impossible.

- Combat instincts: I get in a fight and my pure instinct is to bite or claw, not kick or punch or whatever it is humans do instinctively. I have those reflexes now courtesy of Krav, but I had to train them in - if you’d thrown me into a fight before, I absolutely would have resorted to claws/nails and teeth immediately (and I still will, when pressed into a corner). Sometimes, unfortunately, this goes off completely unwarranted, either in an anger situation that does not deserve a physical response, or for no apparent reason whatsoever. It’s one of the more problematic things, but once again - it’s not like it’s a compulsion, just a gut-emotion thought that gets filtered out at the conscious level.

- Scent focus: Who knows how much of this is environmental influence and how much is instinctive, but I always have and still do focus on scent more than most humans seem to. I can identify people by scent, I seem to pay more attention to it than most people do. I also seem less bothered by natural body smells than most people do, but considering the responses when I asked around in the otherkin community once about that, unclear whether or not that’s connected.

- Nonhuman noises: I make just a bunch of weird nonhuman noises, and always have. Growls, hisses, croons, hurrs, throat-clicks, chirps, etc. I’ve never met any human who does them instinctively like I do except my half-sister (whom I didn’t meet until a couple years ago), and she was just as surprised to hear me do it as I was surprised to hear her do it.

- Affection: Face-rubbing, light head-bonking against someone’s shoulder/body/head, and love nips/bites are all perfectly acceptable ways to show platonic affection, to dragon brain. Human society disagrees. The instinct to do these things is so strong that I definitely do give into the first two with people I’m close with, and I have physically had to catch and restrain myself when I was about to unthinkingly bite/nip someone’s skin because I wasn’t paying enough attention.

- Movement: Moving on all fours just feels better than moving on two legs, even though it’s objectively physically uncomfortable because humans aren’t built for that. I also have the instinctive want to be a lot more flexible than I’m capable of being, in ways I’m not capable of being - curling all the way around something or someone to squeeze them tight in the coil of my body, turning my head a hundred eighty degrees because my neck Should Be Longer.

- Expression: Baring one’s teeth when frustrated, irritated, or angry is not a particularly human instinct. I realize it’s something a lot of primates do do, but. *gestures at society* Humans ain’t one of them, at least not anymore. Even in Krav Maga, which is a self-defense style that focuses on being vicious and “dirty fighting” to survive a real street fight, every single time I have a new partner (and most times I have a partner I’ve worked with before) and I get tired enough to get snarly, they respond with some variation of “god that’s scary”. See also: gesturing at things with my nose because it should be long enough to make that a much more dramatic gesture than it ends up being.

- Den/lair/small spaces: I never feel safer than when curled up in a tiny alcove just big enough to comfortably fit my body curled up into it. The only position I’ll prioritize over it is getting up onto a high space.

Past Life Work

Unlike every other bullet point on this list, most of these didn’t apply until I started actively seeking them out, because, you know. Past life memories are like that.

- Past life regressions: I’ve got a tag for these, but tl;dr I take anything I learn from a past life regression or similar meditation/visualization with a whole spoonful of salt, forget “a grain,” because I know for a fact my brain is very good at making stuff up with these types of exercises. Unfortunately, they’re the only way to get information on certain things, like appearance.

- Tarot: Got a tag for that too. I use tarot to ask questions and confirm or reject suspicions.

- Spontaneous memories: I don’t have many, but they’re clear as day when they do appear. I don’t count something as a “true” memory unless it includes senses I can’t reproduce through imagination - smell and touch, mainly. Mostly these are quick flashbulbs, nothing cinematic or anything like that.

- Noemata: Again, I don’t have much in the way of noemata, but what I do have is persistent and consistent. I know things about my wing shape and flight style despite not having really experienced that in detail during past life regressions. That particular set of noemata has been confirmed to fit with real-world physics and bat wing shapes (the closest wing type to mine that exists or has existed on Earth).

Mostly I need this reminder for myself, so here goes!

When questioning a new kintype, the most important thing is to remove as much influential stuff as possible. If you think you’re a dragon, and you keep researching what’s Normal for dragonkin, or immersing yourself in Flight Rising, you’re not learning about yourself as much as you are impressing an external idea into yourself. Asking yourself what feels right is more important than seeing how you compare, in the early stages and frankly in general.

Especially considering how startlingly easy it is to give yourself false memories based on external influence or internal expectation, as hard as it is I recommend leaving it alone for awhile as opposed to trying to label and box and define and display Right Now. It’s harder to unlearn something than it is to learn it, and if you’re convinced that you must be A Thing and then you talk about it with all of your friends, multiple layers of perceived pressure can prevent you from considering the idea that you might be wrong.

Let it percolate a little and come back to it before you start poking it with a stick. If it’s a kintype at all, it’ll come back louder and more defined when you can’t ignore it anymore, in my experience.

This is something I talked about a little bit ago in a Discord server, at length. It’s important that this community sort of re-learns the art of introspection and grilling yourself. Introspection, in my own words, would mean looking inward to first understand how you feel, when you feel it, why you might feel it, and how those feelings affect you. Grilling, again, in my own words, would be basically the same process, although now you’re involving multiple outside parties to ask you these same questions. These processes serve a few vital purposes, IMHO, that should not really be “skipped over,” and I will elaborate why I think so. Not only does extensive introspection & grilling by outside parties helps keep you safer from the influences of echo chambers (which are not always a bad thing!), predatory manipulators, or simply “trendiness” of a kintype affecting the ‘outcome’ of your identity, but it can help you better understand yourself and even strengthen your confidence and understanding about your kintype in general. (Although many people avoid this process [grilling and introspection] because they are very insecure of criticism or are insecure in their identity and do not want to endure the uncomfortable process of having to justify or explain themselves - I do understand that many people simply cannot deal with the social pressure of having their identity poked at, or cannot deal with introspection either due to difficulty with identity for any reason.... I will however reiterate I still think that building your identity up, breaking your identity down, both with yourself and others, can be an extremely beneficial thing that I would encourage all those that fall under the alterhuman or otherkin umbrella to do.)

Elaborating more about the “echo-chambers-influencing-your-identity-questioning-process” bit, let’s run with the example of dragonkin, above.

If you feel like you may be dragonkin, but you’re unsure... You might seek out various kin social groups to help you figure all this out. Especially if you are new to the concept of otherkin in-general. Since you are participating in the enjoyment of various dragon media, joining dragonkin social groups and only consulting dragons on identity-related questions, you WILL be subject to a little bit of bias. If you present the topic of conversation to dragonkin, “I feel x and y and z, do you guys think this sounds draconic?” - well, first off, this is a group of dragons, so they are very likely to give you answers that encourage you in the direction of reassurance and reaffirmation. But the entire POINT of introspection is to question yourself and make absolutely sure you’re comfortable in your assessment. Another thing to mention, as well, is that a lot of the community (of alterhumans in general) seem to base questioning PURELY off of personality and character traits. I’m not just talking about KFF either, therian and otherkin spaces frequently encounter people who present questions like this: “I like to collect things, I am strong, and I like to stand up for my friends. This counts towards being a dragonkin [or insert other species]?” To continue with the “dragon theme” as an example.. Dragons are such a broad/vast concept in general. You can apply almost any experience to a dragon. There are large, looming, powerful, domineering dragons. There are smart, calculated, methodical, wise dragons. There are small, meek, timid, fairy-like dragons. There are eager, excitable, motivated, and heroic dragons. So by presenting a dragonkin group of otherkin with “I feel sorta like a dragon, do you think these traits sound draconic?” questions.... How do I put it lightly? It doesn’t narrow anything down, it doesn’t really help to ask “am I [x] thing based on my personality and character?” because you can apply almost any human emotion or experience to almost any animal, fantasy creature, fictional character, etc. So hopefully now my stance tends to make a bit more sense, right? I find it just a tad bit concerning that people often just sit back and let others reaffirm them when not much work has gone into really investigating themselves in the first place. Otherkin who are new to the community I find are often lonely, impressionable, and often seeking companionship or a sense of belonging. The fact that many otherkin communities also, lately, seem to trend towards rushing to only quickly reaffirm people’s identities, and not encourage the questioning of people’s thought processes, identity, and kin-feelings in a more methodical method, might actually lead to newbies being fed exactly what they want to hear by manipulators or by (not necessarily bad!) a sort of echo chamber, such as wolf pack groups, or kintype-focused-servers, for example. Ask me how I know. “So, you have all these complaints, Rev, but what is your advice? Do you have  any suggested remedies?” Great question, and good criticism.

I would personally encourage all questioning otherkin, new and old to the community, to be a little more patient and extend the period of questioning yourself. I know, I know, it’s uncomfortable and a little anxious to have kin-feelings and not immediately understand where they come from or what they’re attributed to. I also understand it’s exciting and beautiful to discover new things about yourself! But it’s important to keep in mind a few questions, especially if you involve others in your questioning process. Ask yourself: 1. Is anyone other than myself benefiting, in any way, from me adopting or acknowledging my suspected kintype?

2. Why, how, and when do I feel the kin-feelings? (it’s ok to not have an answer to “why” - but answering the “how” and the “when” might help you) Do my feelings change, or cease, when I am no longer interacting with people who are affirming my identity? (your kintypes are for you, not for other people - if you notice your feelings fading during the questioning process when you are not being actively reaffirmed, it might be a good time to step back and do some introspection on your own to see if this is really an identity that is true to you or not)

3. When others are interacting with me, what sort of bias may they have towards our shared identity, or towards reinforcing my identity? I would also personally say that hesitating for a few months before joining any kintype-focused servers/groups/chats might also help. It may be useful to take some time for yourself to research and try to put things into your own words, before letting any potential social pressure reach you.

Might as well toss in my methods/ perspective:

One thing that helped me develop my identity into something i could understand more was having multiple ideas for what your type might be. Note what may be attributed to what. I will say though identity isn’t a fact id argue its pretty normal for identity to change or shift. How we express these things is up to us. What Id say is find what is comfortable to you and follow that feeling with every question. What gives you euphoria? What makes you feel at home? Try learning about and acting as a hyena for a day does it fit? Is it fulfilling? Do you enjoy the mannerisms displayed? Does it match your internal mannerisms? If not back to researching. Its an active alive process. It is also never finished it just gets easier.

I didn’t identify as a parasite in a mimicry body for many years. Because how could I know something that tricky off the bat. Or conversely. The way I’ve grown and developed as a person has also made my identity grow and change.

I feel like most people have at least a general gut idea of what they are. Whether its super apparent or not at the surface. It’s our job to take that feeling and interpret it in a way that brings us joy. I’d argue there is no final answer there isn’t a final pin you place and go “thats it” rather an ever changing identity we use to describe ourselves. For some that change may be in animalistic behavior for others it could be the animal or kintype.

If you wander into a dragonkin server questioning being a dragon and be a dragon for awhile id say that isnt wasted time. It only becomes a problem when you feel that those experiences are not benefiting your identity anymore. That your forcing a connection. If you feel you have to force a connection with something to fit in thats not a great time at all

Its normal to hop between communities and experiment to. I’m in a chosen ones server, hyena kin, werewolf kin, ive tried dragon kin, dinosaur kin. You get the idea. Exploring is apart of the adventure. It can be stressful jumping from identity ideas just know everyone experiences those shifts as well.

Id also point out that inital identity is just that, initial. I don’t see anything wrong with it being encouraged or nurtured until a newbie feels strong enough to question something more diverse or deep because learning or becoming aware of your non humanity is a long process that takes a new level of self awareness. I dont think a majority of new otherkin that are joining asking “am i x?” Are participating or being led into echo chambers. An echo chamber would actively silence an opposition. I dont think most spaces im in at this point harbor an attitude where they silence someone for diviating from their identity group.

Bit of a retort so far but my advice for newbies can be summarized as follows:

This already a long post and I'm sure it's longer somewhere else but I'm adding a bit in as someone who was (I'm using this word semi-lightly) saved by introspection.

My most solid and long lasting identities emerged well before I was on the internet, let alone learning what otherkin or therian was. However, I can't say I did any 'questioning' or 'introspection'. The awakening came naturally. The werewolf identity (now being questioned, ironically) was somewhat a result of being exposed to werewolf media but persisted even without that media. The android identity formed itself naturally, with information and depth occuring steadily through introspection without any media exposure.

Do I know if I'm 'right'? Well, I'll never know that. But it feels right now and that's what matters.

One can be drawn to media containing ones -type without that media actually being the 'reason' you feel that way. This could actually be a natural part of discovering yourself. So it's not necessarily always going to be that the media is imposing an identity on you. It could be distressing in fact to isolate yourself completely from media that makes you feel connected to that identity. But chances are if you need the media to feel the identity, you're fictionflickering/experience taking or possibly constelic. All of which is completely fine and lovely to be. Otherkin/therian are not the only 'valid' identities.

There's never ever going to be a time where external factors aren't influential if you engage heavily with the community, but if you still feel how you feel after a few days of no interaction that's worth some time reflecting for sure.

If you have found a sense of self and belonging in your identity we are not saying you can't ever talk to others or engage in media to do with it or you're faking, just see if it persists alone after a while or if it fades away. Might not be a -type but could be something else, ya know? Not necessarily that you're not alterhuman. There's no one true way to introspect. It's important to balance engaging with media and the community, and spending some time alone away from those influences.

Scenario time!

A is a young person new to the alterhuman community. They saw some cool wolves on tiktok, then talked to some cool wolves on Tumblr, then joined a server for wolves and asked some questions. They started to identify as a wolf, making a Tumblr account just for the wolf identity, making theriotype outline pictures, wearing gear, doing quads, learning community history, defending the community etc. They felt at home in the community as a wolf from day one.

How do they discover if they're not a wolf then (or were a wolf whilst it felt right but actually something else feels more right and or are something else and maybe also a wolf)? Especially when having shifts (including instinct shifts and phantom limbs), memories of being that thing etc aren't a requirment. Especially when it brought them so much happiness.

Well, maybe they suddenly learn what a coyote is and something clicks. Or look at a husky and realise how those typically behave makes them feel better than the wildness of a wolf. Or maybe they're just not a canine at all and suddenly realise they are actually a dragon with canine-like movements and behaviour. Or they suddenly just don't feel right identifying as a wolf any more but don't feel human. They might disengage with the community, still feel like a wolf weeks later, and come back as a polytherian or wolf therian again. Identity is fluid!

THINK!

Therian isn't the only identity and it doesn't have to be spiritual. Are there other labels you feel fit you more? Do you understand the identities you're looking at fully, not just the basics/stereotypes of being that identity? How does calling yourself that animal or that characters name make you feel? How does acting like them feel? It should feel as natural or even more natural than using your current name and just existing as yourself day by day. Is anything or anyone around you making you unsure if you are that thing or do you fear losing community/a friend if you aren't that thing? Never be afraid to be wrong or to change how you feel, real friends won't reject you for being wrong. Know your own limits, when it stops feeling right stop engaging with that identity and let it sit and never feel the need to list or label yourself.

Rushing into any label or specifics can cause confusion and a deeper sense of internal disturbance. Trust me, I know. Story time!

When I was done being a stupid self-denying anti, I started to list basically every fictional character I'd ever roleplayed, cosplayed or liked a lot. Uh oh! (Having lots of kintypes isn't the issue here btw, it was my methodology). I even 'took on' kintypes that matched the source or types of a friend I was trying to connect with. This relationship ended up being particularly toxic with me doing a lot of giving and him a lot of taking and not much in reverse, ending in him suddenly blocking me entirely for 'being bad for his mental health' and 'talking about stuff he didn't care about' and 'making a joke he didn't like'.

But this kicked me in the arse and made me blink at the sun for a bit. Why...had I been trying to impress this person? A person who didn't even want to know me properly, and simply accepted my dependency on him, returning my affections only to keep me keen? I started to go through the kintypes one by one using the THINK method. The THINK method really did work for me and still does.

Maybe none of us will ever actually know our 'true' species or identity. The important thing is that you feel like you got to actually choose to be this way (by choose I mean, nobody told you 'you are this' or made you feel you had to identify a certain way). The important thing is that being this identity makes you actually happy, connected to yourself, to the world, to your sense of being. If you're later wrong about the specifics, so be it!

Try to ask a general question of many otherkin/therians/fictionkin like "what does it feel like to be otherkin?" "how did you know you were a therian?" "how do you know if you're fictionkin?"

These are vague questions that will result in multiple different answers from each person you ask and this can create a deeper web of information worthy of unpicking and introspecting on.

In the end, you can also try otherlinking. You might not be sure if you are a wolf, but you can become a wolf this way anyway. So long as, again, you are doing it for you and not because it would please someone else or because you've got FOMO.

I'm still introspecting my identities. Sometimes I just sit and be quiet for a bit and think on it. It's difficult. There's no one question you can ask yourself that might not result in accidentally leading yourself. You just have to trust what you feel in the moment.

Nobody is going to or should tell a questioning person 'no, you are not this because you're working on stereotypes!' but I do think more of us need to gently say "I can't tell you what you are. Only you can tell you what you are. If being a dragon makes you happy, then be a dragon, but don't let others influence you." or something along the lines of this.

We need to balance support with encouragement to introspect because we don't want to chase anyone away.

Unfortunately some are just looking for instant affirmations. But without introspection, or the encouragment of being wrong and changing and it being ok to change and be wrong, we're just going to end up with a bunch of bitter 'ex-kin' etc people who have incorrect ideas about what goes on here. The average wolf who affirms another wolf is not trying to be manipulative after all, but a human who thought they were a wolf looking back on this time in embarassment might contextualise it as such. There's no one answer to anything. But like I said, gently encouragement to reflect and advice to not rely on others due to potential to be influenced will go a long way.

Alterhuman Shifts and Self-Discovery Tools

Heyo! This is Ryuu Yumemoto. Whenever I saw questions about getting alterhuman feels or shifts, people 9/10 times talks about meditation, and I dislike how meditation is the always answer. It leaves so very little else, when it just don’t always work for everyone. So have a list to try out.

This is gathered with the collective input and observation from the various alterhuman discord servers and other socmed spaces I’m in.

And it seems like this sort of question gets asked a lot, so I decide to drop this on tumblr and my personal site/blog

Remember that any tools and guides can be applicable for any other alterhuman identity discovery!

General metaphysical & spiritual

General Psychological

Media & Entertainment

Others

*meditation frustrated me on how to categorize it. It definitely span across the psych, the spirit, and just metaphysics at times.

Guides by others

If interested in the specifics and details of some of these methods, Hemlock has written this guide in the Alterhuman Community.

Another detailed listing of various ways of getting kin euphoria by Tigris (@transfelid) https://www.tumblr.com/transfelid/700392418830385152/kinrichment-expressing-nonhumanity-and-indulging

Links to Dragon Character Builders (Made by Other People) Collected and published on March 9th, 2025 by the creator of Monster Brain Soup Dragon Builder, Lukas Stormskull

'Type Specific

*These are tools that can be useful for anyone but provide potentially the most benefit for the related species or 'type.

Draconic

Flight Rising’s Predict Morphology

More detailed explanation on FR morphology predictor by Solomon (@majoramasc) tip-for-all-dragonkin

Monster Brain Soup Dragon Builder A dragon maker made by a dragonkin! A bit of introduction here.

Dragonita's Dragon Builder (3D)

For the draconic type of being. Tools that are similar to piccrew or make-a-creature type of tools provide you with a set of parameters that you can mix and match to get the desired result.

Feline

Mweor’s cat design generator

Requires (free) sign-up.

Please do reply with anything additional if you have suggestions!

As much as I find modern therianthropy/otherkin discourse tiring, I am genuinely relieved to see how the community has evolved over the years.

Not to date myself, but when I awakened, people would look down their snout at you if you had more than one kintype; there were derogatory terms for it and everything. Maybe they weren’t shitty about it to your face, but they were probably being shitty behind your back or at least saying shitty things were others could see it.

I agonized for years over whether I was a cervid or a canine, because I couldn’t possibly be both—I wasn’t going to be like one of those polykins (implicitly: fakers). How many years I wasted denying parts of myself because I was too young to understand that those people were elitist. I wanted so desperately to fit into the narrow idea of acceptable nonhumanity. Blegh.

I’m glad we can talk more about our different experiences these days. I have immense respect for those of you who discuss what about yourselves others label aberrant, weird or dangerous even amongst other nonhumans. I see you, and even if I don’t relate or fully understand, your earnestness is a genuine source of comfort. I hope the space continues to move towards compassion and understanding for all types of nonhumanity.

Sometimes I feel like I am uniquely bad at being nonhuman.

A good day for me is one where I have enough energy to wash my hair. A good day is one where I can walk around the block and listen to the birds.

The thought of returning ‘home’ fills me with fear. With dread, even.

Safety is the human bed, the human meds, the mobility aids. Safety is the human who checks on me, who washes my hair when I can’t, who sits on the back step with me and strains to hear the birds when I’m too tired to walk.

Maybe I’m a bad animal. I’ve been too sick for too long to stay alive in the wild. Nonreleasable. Domesticated.

Too feral for human society; too weak for the wild.

THETA DELTA NECKLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RARARARARRARA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The strong desire to fly above the trees in the middle of the night, wind stirring the thick fur that keeps me warm. A gap parting the trees for a river flowing away from a basin at the foot of a waterfall. Thirsty, I dive down, and before I hit water, I transform from a winged wolf into a water dragon. From beneath the water I swim to the waterfall and surface. I relish the way the water falls onto my scales. The underwater currents swirling around my body. The water from the waterfall is cool, crisp, and tastes so refreshing, befitting the thirst of a creature as majestic as I.

So I tilt my head up to drink from the falls, open my mouth, and GAWSGAHRWGLRASGH that yummy wator.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, this was so beautiful and majestic, I was seeing it all in my head and smiling and even flying/swimming there with you-

AND THEN WHEN I READ THE GAWSGAHRWGLRASGH PART MY BRAIN INSTANTLY PROVIDED A VERY CARTOONY ANIMATION OF A GOOFILY DRAWN DRAGON WITH WIDE, CROSSED OUTWARDS EYES AND A HUGE OPEN MOUTH, JUST THROWING ITS HEAD BACK AND FORTH AND MAKING THAT SOUND WHILE GETTING PUMMELED BY THE WATERFALL😭😭😭

You, you see my vision

˖⁺‧₊˚ -⃝⃤ ˚₊‧⁺˖

Having fictives is so funny sometimes like. no he would not fucking say that. he told me so

did you know: only a few mammals actively hunt humans AND I'M ONE OF THEM GET SCARED GET SCARED GET SCARED GET SCARED GET SCARED