Glossary entry
Otherhearted
Feeling a deep kinship with a creature, as family and not as self. Identifying with, not identifying as.
- Also written
- kith
In depth
The whole meaning of otherhearted turns on one small word. A therian identifies as an animal. An otherhearted person identifies with one. They feel that the creature is their kin, that they are of its heart, that its ways are familiar and dear in a manner that goes well beyond liking it. But asked whether they are that creature, they answer no.
The word gives a home to an experience that is real and common and that used to be pressed, uncomfortably, into other terms. Someone who is wolf-hearted is not a wolf therian who has not finished thinking. They have thought, and this is the accurate report. Kith is another word sometimes used for the same relationship, taken from the phrase "kith and kin."
In practice
- A person feels toward crows what one might feel toward a family lived among for years: recognition, loyalty, ease. They do not feel that they are a crow.
- A person questioning whether they are a dragon otherkin concludes, after a long while, that dragons are their kindred and not their self, and finds that dragon-hearted fits without strain.
Common questions
Is otherhearted a weaker form of therianthropy?
No. It is a different relationship, not a smaller amount of the same one. Kinship and identity are not two points on one scale.
Can someone be both?
Yes. A person may be a therian of one species and feel hearted toward another.
Related terms
Read further. The guide to the alterhuman umbrella compares identifying as with identifying with.