The Otherkin Glade
The Alterhuman Umbrella
Several related identities have grown up around therianthropy and otherkin. Since 2014 they have shared a common roof, the word alterhuman. This page sets them side by side.
The word alterhuman
Alterhuman was coined within the community in 2014. It was meant to be roomy. It covers anyone whose identity is, in some lasting way, an alternative to the common understanding of what it is to be human, and it does so without asking which particular identity that is or how it came about.
The word is used by choice. It is a convenience for those who want it, and nobody is counted under it against their wishes.
Two questions that sort the terms
Most of the confusion between these words clears up when two questions are asked.
- As, or with? Does the person identify as the creature, meaning that it is what they are? Or do they identify with it, meaning that it is their kin, their likeness, their heart?
- Found, or chosen? Is the identity something the person discovered in themselves and could not have decided otherwise? Or is it something they took up deliberately?
Neither answer to either question is better. They simply lead to different words.
| Term | As or with | Found or chosen | Typically |
|---|---|---|---|
| Therian | As | Found | An earthly animal |
| Otherkin | As | Found | A being of myth or legend |
| Fictionkin | As | Found | A character or species from fiction |
| Otherhearted | With | Found | Any creature felt as kin |
| Copinglink | As or with | Chosen | Any creature or character taken up on purpose |
Therian and otherkin
These are the two oldest terms and the two from which the rest descend. A therian identifies as an animal; an otherkin as a being other than human, usually mythic. Both identities are involuntary and both are a matter of being, not liking. Their separate origins are described in the history.
Fictionkin
Fictionkin identify as a character or a kind of creature from a story. The term has been in use since the early 2000s, at first under other names. It has sometimes been received coolly by older members of the community, who worried that it blurred the line between identity and enthusiasm. Fictionkin answer that the line is exactly where it has always been: on one side, loving a story, and on the other, recognizing oneself.
Otherhearted
To be otherhearted is to feel a creature as family. A person who is wolf-hearted, or animal-hearted more generally, does not say "I am a wolf." They say that wolves are their people. The term rescued a real and common experience from being treated as a half-finished version of something else.
Copinglink and otherlink
A copinglink is an identity deliberately adopted because it helps: a person facing a hard season may take on the steadiness of a bear, or the lightness of a bird, and find real strength in it. When the purpose is not coping, the more general word otherlink is used. These terms were coined so that chosen identities could be honored honestly, without being confused with unchosen ones.
The casual phrase "to kin" a character, meaning to relate to them, grew out of a misreading of this vocabulary. It is widely used in that loose sense, but it is not what any of the words on this page mean.
Neighbors under the roof
Other groups sometimes stand under the alterhuman umbrella too, among them some people who experience themselves as more than one self sharing a body, and some who feel a kinship with machines, places or ideas. Their vocabularies are their own and lie beyond the scope of this library, which keeps to the animal and the mythic.
Choosing your words
If you are trying to find where you stand among these terms, the two questions above are the best tools. Answer them truthfully, give the answers time to settle, and use whichever word then feels like plain description. If none does, it is entirely in order to say so and go without.