Ela'harek yomay

Therian/Therianthrope: Someone who is a nonhuman animal or animal-like creature in some way. Any therian may identify as either fully nonhuman or as both human and nonhuman.

Physical Therian: A therian who feels that their physical body is not human*. Many physical therians experience their bodies as being nonhuman due to delusions and/or hallucinations (e.g. clinical zoanthropy), but others have a physical identity due to beliefs about their personal origin (e.g. that they have nonhuman ancestry, or were born nonhuman and shapeshifted into a human at a young age).

Holothere/Holotheric Therian: A physical therian who also identifies as nonhuman in all other ways, such as mentally and spiritually, and does not identify as human in any way.

Transspecies: Someone who is nonhuman in some way and feels that those experiences fit a trans narrative, usually either due to being both nonhuman and transgender and seeing those experiences as similar or inseparable and/or due to a desire to "transition" toward nonhumanity in some way (such as socially or through body modification). Some transspecies people use it as their only label, but many use it as a modifier (e.g. "transspecies therian"). This term is entirely unrelated to tr*nsID identities and existed long before that community formed.

Phantom Shift: Feeling the presence of limbs or features (such as a tail or feathers) that do not exist in physical reality. A person having a phantom shift may "see" those body parts in their minds eye, but will know that they aren't physically there. Phantom body parts may react to physical reality and give sensory feedback, but they cannot physically interact with anything and often pass through objects like a ghost. Phantom shifts are a common experience for all types of therians. Some therians feel the presence of phantom parts 24/7, while others only feel them occasionally. Not all therians experience phantom shifts, however, and not everyone who has phantom shifts is a therian.

Physical Shift: Feeling and/or seeing one's bodily features literally, physically change. Physical shifts are typically experienced by people who have hallucinations, and have never been documented to occur in consensus reality. That is, physical changes are experienced in someone's subjective (personal) reality and cannot be seen or measured by other people.

i do think that it is very telling how i see a lot of folks saying that they have "outgrown" the therian label and taken up holothere instead, saying that it feels more real and legitimate.

something about it wigs me out. and i think that it has to do with perceived seriousness and a bid for legitimacy. linguistic shift is normal and expected, it's not like this is really avoidable. but the difference between holothere and therian is not the same as therianthropy vs. therianism.

therianthropy vs. therianism is really just people using the wrong term. it's not intentional. it's what happens when "therianthrope" has been shortened so much that the original tenses and forms of the word are just forgotten. it's an arguably pretty normal linguistical shift. im a little annoyed by it, mind you. "therianthrope" and "therianthropy" are some kickass words that I think should be used more. but i can't really be shocked or even upset that it's happened.

holothere is different. while the coining of the word + the way many use it can be very genuine, there is undoubtedly a growing population that uses it because of its perceived to be more serious than therian. it's adopted as a way to been seen as a more legitimate identity. and i can't really be mad at that, either. to say that therian has lost some of its.... idk.... power? due to it being picked up by certain demographics is not wrong. like there is nothing in the reasoning or the desire that is bad or wrong with any of this.

but it does make me a bit squemish, I think? Because it introduces therianthropy as something lesser within the community. You have an internal conflict with legitimacy, here. And it's based off the label you use. In the past, the community has negotiated legitimacy through grilling. And I am not calling for a return to grilling, I don't think it was a great thing, but... it is something I'm noticing.

How we are changing the way we assert our identity's seriousness is now based off of the initial words we use, as opposed to the understanding of that word.

Physical identity has recently usurped spiritual identity as the "most real" in people's mental hierarchy, so there's a social pressure to say you have a physical identity even if you don't– and it's easy to use phantom shifts to justify that if you're coming from TikTok and don't know that most therians have them, or if you feel like you won't be taken seriously otherwise. It's watered down both therian and holothere/physical therian as terms because the difference between them has been reduced to Vibes when there is actually a very specific distinction (the "physical" part is literal).

"Language changes" was actually one of the biggest arguments KFFers used to justify their appropriation of the word "otherkin", and I'm not about to let people think that ceding a decades-old community to a social media trend is a reasonable and justified thing to do.

I wanted to do a little art project for the community, bringing a focus on unity

So I’m hoping to do a couple separate drawing of me and other beings who wish to participate,

So otherkins/therians/fictionkin/hearted/links/holotheres/ and any others let me know if you want me to draw a little duo drawing of us together! Feel free to message me with a ref of what you want!

It might take me a bit and I’m not sure how many I will do but if you have interest don’t be shy!

A fan of atmospheric glow from lake to sky.

t h e f i s h

fish is a minor npc from my dnd campaign. she is a nixie who appears as a school of fish underwater, and humanoid on land.