Panthera leo draconis

Nowadays, I see a lot of folks using alterhuman as a catch-all for not being human. While nonhumanity certainly falls within alterhumanity, alterhumanity does not exclusively refer to species nor is it synonymous with nonhuman identities (ex: otherkin, therian).

Alterhumanity includes but is not limited to:

Fictionfolk: An umbrella term that encompasses all individuals of fictional origin or hold a personal connection to fiction. This includes fictionkind, fictives, fictionhearted individuals, folks with fictional hearthomes, imagithropes, etc.

Factfolk: An umbrella term that encompasses all individuals who originate from this world as a past or present public figure or hold a personal connection with people, places, things, etc. within this world. This includes factkind, factives, faitkind, faitives, facthearted individuals, etc.

Otherlinkers: Individuals who choose and create, or “link”, various altertypes to incorporate into their personal identity. Some otherlinkers aim to become the subject of their linking, whereas others may choose a specific framework they want the subject to fall under (such as linking it as a hearttype, a hearthome, a paratype, etc). The term otherlink gets its roots from the term copinglink(er), which refers to individuals who choose kintypes, theriotypes or some other altertype(s) to cope with a specific experience or behavior. Two more forms of otherlinking include funlinking (linking for fun) and aeslinking (linking based on aesthetics or appearances).

Otherhumans: Individuals whose species is human but not in context to humanity as we see it in its current state. Some examples include human fictionkind, early humans (ex: Homo habilis, Homo floresiensis, neanderthals, etc), and humans from alternate Earths.

Imagithropes: Individuals whose identity/ies are created and/or formed, wholly or partially, through some form of imaginative play. This can include fantasy play, roleplay (tabletop, text, live action, etc), fanfiction, writing, art, and more.

Heartedness: A broad experience in which an individual may not identify as someone or something, but has a deep, personal connection with that person, place, or thing. This includes folk who are otherhearted/otherkith/synpaths, talehearted folk, and folk who have hearthomes (fictional or not).

Archetropy: An identity in which one heavily identifies with or generally experiences an archetype, trope, or pre-established character model in a way that is central to their identity.

Plurality: The state of more than one person within a body. That said, not all who are plural may relate their plurality to alterhumanity. Whether or not this framework applies depends on an individual basis.

Dæmonism: The practice of communicating with one's internal dæmon, a thoughtform stemming from one's subconscious. A dæmon is also given a sentient form, typically a nonhuman animal of sorts. Can be considered as a form of plurality but depends on the individual and their relationship to their dæmon(s).

Soulbonding: A practice in which an individual forms a personal bond or connection to a fictional character and communicates with them from their headspace or soulscape. Can be considered as a form of plurality but depends on the individual and their relationship to their soulbond(s).

Furry Lifestylers: A subset of the furry community whose position in the subculture carries into their daily life. Some members have described it as "furry as a way of life", in which being a furry is inseparable and intrinsic to oneself.

Past lives, parallel lives and/or future lives also apply as alterhuman experiences and may intersect with previously listed experiences.

I have alterhuman terms of my own to take into account as well:

Archaeosapiens: Individuals whose alterhuman identity is intrinsically rooted in prehistory, antiquity or mythic accounts of history. Although I don’t use it for myself anymore, I can say as the person who coined it that species is not central to archaeosapience; it is the distinct connection to one’s time that’s central. Anyone of any species can be archaeosapient. Note: Archaeosapiens are similar to the Paleofolk community and may also overlap with it, depending on the individual and their relationship with time displacement.

Ontoplanarity: In referral to ontoplanar, which describes individuals who originate from planes and realities outside of this Earth. While one could relate this term to alienkind and spacekind, ontoplanar focuses one’s own point of origin rather than one’s species. In that regard, anyone of any species can be ontoplanar.

There’s also human alterhumans who aren’t specifically otherhumans. The idea that humankind as we know it is completely alienated from alterhumanity is a misconception, likely tying into the assumption that “alterhumanity = nonhumanity”.

I originally discussed this in the Alterhuman (Tumblr) Community but I felt as though I should make this information publicly available, especially with how the term has been sifting around lately. I’m not the first to bring this up, far from it even. If anyone who’s learned something from this wants to know more, here’s some posts to check out:

The finalized coining of the term Alterhuman/AHPI (x)

Aster’s discussion on alterhuman as an umbrella, particularly its conflation with otherkin (x)

Rani’s discussion on umbrella terms in the community, addressing erasure in folks’ usage of both alterhuman and fictionfolk (x)

Rani’s explanation on the difference between nonhuman and alterhuman as terms (x)

A thread of terms and experiences that tie into the alterhuman community (x)

I understand being excited to find a community that speaks to you. We’ve all been there!

That said, inclusive language is important. Even more so when the terms we use were already inclusive to begin with.

I think the best example I’ve seen to address this phenomenon is Aster’s example referring to queer and its usage. Queerness is vast. It is not synonymous with one specific experience in the LGBTQ+ community. That much is understood online.

Also consider Mikinakoos' as they're extending support beyond their traditional service areas due to the scale of this emergency!

Donations for Namaygoosisagagun First Nation:

Donations for Whitesand First Nation:

1,600 Xbox employees were hit directly by the recent Microsoft layoffs, with an additional 1,600 from Xbox still planned for a total of 3,200 employees. This has included/will include those under the ZeniMax umbrella, including Bethesda, ZOS, id, and Arkane.

Jeff Gardiner claims that 35 were let go from Bethesda, and 95 from id.

According to ZOS Senior Content Designer Katherine Souze, this included "half" of the team in the Elder Scrolls Online content team, although she has since deleted the original post. We know this has included some very public facing people, including Lead Dungeon Director Mike Finnigan and Community Manager Gina Bruno.

Over this entire era of layoffs in the games industry, there has been a regularity to it that has become predictable. Across the industry, teams have been devastated if their project failed with the studio often shutting down. But successes can see the same thing happen.

Perhaps the only positive thing that can be said is that no studios seemed to have been closed for once. Studios were released and returned to independence or sold instead of just being shut down.

As gamers, we haven't really felt like this practice and atmosphere in the games industry has been producing more and better games from the AAA space.

If the new CEO of Xbox is right and the involved restructuring of their management leads to more good games that come out quicker, that will be fantastic. But the past waves of layoffs haven't managed to do that at all, there's no reason to think they'll suddenly work this time. The safe bet is that these layoffs are just not going to stop.

A list of people we know who have been laid off at ZOS and Bethesda:

ZOS

Community Manager Gina Bruno

Lead Dungeon Director Mike Finnigan

Writer Designer Andrew Siañez-De La O

Writer Designer Julianna Comstock

Senior Writer Designer Jeff Grubb

Project Art Director Marc Hudgins

Senior Concept Artist Christina Cornett

Senior Animator Ami DeLullo

Animator Evan Van Biert

Senior Tools Engineer Robert Bailey

QA Tester Page Branson

Producer Ethan Koltz

Environmental Artist Brandon Rush

Associate Sound Designer Andrew Jordan

Senior Sound Designer Daniel Costello

Associate Sound Designer Sebastian Theodoro

QA Tester Trevor Bream

DevOps Engineer William Novak

Realtime FX Artist Jacob Wynn

Senior VFX Artist Anelise Mize

Lead Designer Ed Stark

Senior Encounter Designer Morgan Goin

Encounter Designer Erinn Fecteau

Senior Encounter Designer James Audet

Tools Product Owner Sydney Thibeault

Senior Software Engineer Dustin Thurston

Live Game Lead Gregory Roth

Content Manager Milo Webb

QA Manager Erik Marby

Narrative Director Bill Slavicsek

Lead Narrative Designer Richard Baker

Writer Designer Alexandria Baker

Writer Designer Ameya Vinayaraj

Bethesda

Community Manager Jessica Clark

Game Designer Simon Préfontaine

GRC Engineer Wayne Saunders

Associate Quest Designer Griffin DeClaire

Quest Designer Stephanie Zachariadis

Systems Designer Jean Paul Salman

Gameplay Engineer Anne Barrett

Monetization Designer Kevin Benavides

Lead Systems Designer Jacob Naasz

Senior Build and Release Programmer Anthony Ford

Lead Quest Designer Joshua Moretto

@who-is-page and @frameacloud's panel at Othercon has gotten me thinking about writing essays about my own alterhuman experience... I was thinking maybe I should write something about why I write fiction, and how that relates to my own identity. But thinking about that made me realize that one of the reasons I write is because I identify as a fictional self-insert character that I created when I was a hatchling in make-believe games. Like, that's the way I view myself - not as a generic blue dragon, but as that specific character. Additionally, given that many of those games were based loosely in books I've read, it means that my identity is based in fiction as well. Though I don't identify as him, my name is even based on a fictional character's!

I've never really thought about calling myself fictionkin before now. When I joined the otherkin community initially, I had some bad reactions to talking about my identity in that way. And then some more bad reactions. My identity as a dragon is involuntary; I couldn't change it if I tried (and I have), and it isn't something I intentionally made into an identity. It's a bit of why I never really got why everyone insisted strongly on the distinction between otherkin and otherlinkers. Though I'm not opposed to the idea, I don't feel like my fictional identity was made by me channeling a past life either, which felt like it was the acceptable explanation for this back in 2016. Otherwise, creating a kintype wasn't "allowed."

For a while, I felt like I separated my identity into a dragon otherkin aspect, where I was just "a dragon", and had character me on the side as a fun thing - what I considered my "kinsona". But I think this is a false dichotomy. The two aren't really separable; who I am as a dragon was created through books and play. It wasn't really until @aestherians's posts in early 2021 - five years after I found the otherkin community - that I felt that the community had finally decided that the definitional line between kintype and linktype, voluntary and involuntary, didn't have to be such a strict line after all. (I'd been arguing that "involuntary identity" shouldn't be a part of the definition of otherkin for four years by that point, so yes, I'm still both smug and salty.)

So, though I didn't expect this to lead to me coining a new term when I started out writing out this post, I've decided to do it. I'm not sure if anyone except me is going to use it, but I think creating it as a concept gives it both a bit of legitimacy and permanence. I hope it will be of use to someone else, and if anyone else shares a similar experience, I welcome them to talk about it in more detail - at some point now, I think I definitely should describe mine.

Being psychological* otherkin, the concept of having a specific type of dragon that I am doesn’t always make sense for me. While I know that I’m a dragon, and a lot of my general features I’ve figured out from noemata (even if they sometimes conflict with each other), there are certain aspects of my draconity which I don’t know in that way. This includes details of physical features, along with some species-related instincts or behaviors. In many cases I don’t think these are things I have yet to figure out - I just don’t think that inherent knowledge exists.

Because of that, I’ve occasionally instead created parts of my draconity and what I consider to be my dragon species (in a sense, filling in the blanks). As an example, I write fiction with dragon characters, and sometimes don’t have an intuitive sense of what the correct body language for a situation should be. In these cases, I’ve often taken inspiration from canine, feline, or even human body language for my writing. Interestingly, because I write using my own dragon species as inspiration, this ends up changing my own species. What wasn’t there before becomes created knowledge that affects my own behaviors or appearance.

This isn’t noemata, which is inherent knowledge about one’s kintype and isn’t chosen. Discussing a bit on the Otherconnect discord, this doesn’t seem to be an experience that’s specific to me. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any terminology for it, and I think that it might be useful to create some (with ideas below). The idea behind this is to have a word that represents “knowledge about one’s type”, but that could be of voluntarily created origin, or possibly quoilintary or mixed-voluntary. Here I specifically used the word “type” because I don’t think this experience (nor noema) is limited to just otherkin, and that it can apply to otherhearted or otherlinkers.

Just listing out a few of the ideas for a word to describe it that were discussed:

-Aspect could be used to be any sort of knowledge about one’s type, with whether it’s involuntary or voluntary being a modified. For example, “an involuntary/inherent aspect” would mean the same thing as a noema.

-Linkstory or linkcanon could be used for specifically voluntary knowledge.

-Insight could be used to mean any sort of knowledge about one’s type, with kinsight and linksight being the (in)voluntary versions.

The nonhuman community has a habit of only discussing and focusing on therianthropic identities, but I'd like to share how prevalent my rodent kithtype is in my life and to me (sometimes in ways more important than my theriotype).

Growing up, I was often left to my own devices due to a dad that came home late and a mother who could care less for my existence. My activity of choice was being in the yard from the moment I woke up until the moment it was dinner time. Laying on the concrete one summer day, I heard rustling in the window well which would unknowingly change my life.

On hands and knees, I moved towards the well and peered in, where my eyes met a scared mouse's beady black ones. It couldn't get out of the well it had fallen into and would surely die. My parents didn't like rodents, so I tip toed into the basement and got a long poled duster and a roll of duct tape. I put the duct tape along the slick pole and dropped it down into the well which the mouse quickly gripped onto and skittered up. It hopped off and, while I expected it to bolt immediately, it didn't. It stared at me for a moment standing on its hindlegs before finally leaving, and that would be the end of a mouse saving saga... Or so I thought.

The next day, a mouse was moving under the wooden step on the patio. Seed by seed, grass blade by grass blade, the mouse I affectionately named Mr. Kibbles would make a home poetically at the entrance of my own human home. I tossed out scraps of food, a cap full of water, fluffy bits of fabric or hair, and soon enough, Mr. Kibbles brought a Mrs. Kibbles.

Seemingly in a few weeks, I had gone from saving one mouse from the well to saving several mice which all lived throughout the rocks and dirt. Even as a kid, I had the intelligence to cover the well and so I did. All was well and my parents didn't mind, until one made it into the basement one day. That's when the mouse traps started, but I was cunning. I'd sneak the mouse traps into the trash when no one looked. If more appeared, I'd sabotage them by breaking them apart. My parents loathed me, but I was persistent and knew how to exhaust them. If I had to, I'd go into the basement and open the spider web infested well window and reach my hand in, grabbing mice myself and putting them in a box to bring back outside. It all began there that for once, I felt I had a family. A real one, even if it did no providing for me... Sort of.

Mice provided me life skills applicable to an abusive home. I observed every survival skill these mice had to offer. How to sneak and move quietly. How to store food. How to hide. How to make a safe den. How to hide weakness. How to turn a trashed box into a home and scraps into a meal. The rats in cities showed me how to thrive in a heavily populated environment. Capybaras showed me how to relax and enjoy life. Hamsters showed me the domestic side of rodenthood, of living in an artificial world and remain enriched. The squirrels showed me a world above the ground. Even in movies, rodents took a precedence in my mind and taught me things. Ratatouille taught me how to cook and I became quite good at it. Arrietty, who reminded me so much of a mouse, showed me how to be small and resourceful in a world that felt bigger than me. The Tale of Desperaux helped me be myself and Willard was incredibly relatable.

My biggest life teachers and what really raised me were often rodents of many, many kinds. The "pests" and "scum" that mice and rats are seen as taught me how to be seen as good for nothing, and yet survive. Even thrive. As an adult, the skills and lifestyle of rodenthood still helps me stay happy. I still love cooking and learned how to essentially be a chef because of Ratatouille, so I am always eating well no matter what I have. I can identify dangerous people because I analyze who moves like a predator and who moves like a mouse. You will find cups shaped like flower heads in my cabinet as an homage to my family of a million individuals, each unique even in a colony. I also feel that I am more compassionate because I could find such great value in something so small and unwanted by the majority, and yet I am capable of standing up for myself just as the mouse who stands off with the cat.

Well, parahearthome kind of isn't a real term right now; someone off-handedly used the term in a question about whether that could be a thing or if it might have another word during the Q&A after my Othercon panel on hearthomes this year, and that's kind of that on that.

However, a "full hearthome" can also be a paratype. The feelings underlying your connection are not necessarily 'lesser' just because their origin lies in another identity. For example, my connection with bulls only sprung up after my awakening as a bison. But the bull is nonetheless a daily figure in my life. I've followed in the footsteps of the Minoans and the people of Çatalhöyük, to worship the bull - in part, because it's my paratype. A paratype can be as inherent or powerful as the identity it sprung from. 'Paratype' only tells you about the origin of the connection/identity, not its substance.

Excerpt of the coining essay (relevant parts bolded):

I just mentionned in an alterhuman serv that I was questionning a songkin/fictionkin identity and people reacted like "Is that possible ?" That one is okay, it’s okay not to know, just annoying people in alterhuman communities for months or years don’t know anything except therian.

Other people were like "Oh that’s too complicated… in my time we only had therians and mythical creatures" or even "It doesn’t feel right to me that people identify as something that’s not real". Thanks ya pals now I don’t even feel safe in my own goddamn communities. Sure y’all liked us better when the host was just a fox therian. I won’t miraculously stop identifying as something because it’s not is the teeny tiny window of what you consider palatable.

Hey therians. Unfriendly reminder that your communities were built by otherkins. Werewolves and fairies and elves and aliens. Seems like some of you forgot that. Now these people feel as alienated with you as they are with humans.

Non-therians have it hard. I’ve been fakeclaimed by folks because "You can’t be something that doesn’t exist". I can’t find safe spaces, have to explain what I am half the time (honestly that one is not a problem since I’m a yapper), feeling constantly left on the side. People use animal-centric language because sure if you’re not human you’re an animal. A living animal- a mammal - a carnivore - let’s say it, a dog. Just I’m not a homo sapiens doesn’t mean I have paws and a snout. We can’t find euphoria tips, gears, we’re constantly forgotten. These are the same for therians with rare theriotypes, monkeys, herbivores, invertebrates, birds.

Otherkins and fictionkins and therians with rare theriotypes have it hard, but don’t get me started on factkin, conceptkin, otherhearted, songkin, plantkin, objectkin. CONSTANTLY FUCKING EXCLUDED. It’s therian this and therian that and sometimes otherkin and the rest is forgotten.

Ok don’t get me wrong. I love my therian brothers and sisters and sibling and friends and elders.

But if y’all therians really care for your non-therian pals you’d better show it right now.

What gets me is some folks go “God forbid we have a little whimsy” to this and it’s like brother, the majority of centaur-focused fiction alone incorporates slavery into their worldbuilding at some point. There’s a couple of exceptions but even something as lighthearted as A Centaur’s Life featured a school lesson on how centaurs eventually gained their freedom from centuries of enslavement iirc (at least in the anime, idk about the manga). Orcs are probably the most notorious punching bags for themes regarding racism and discrimination. People in general have a morbid curiosity in the exploitation of fantasy or mythical groups in fiction.

Fiction is fiction but oftentimes, people use what they’ve seen in this world as a basis for it ESPECIALLY with these groups’ relationships to humans. So, I think we have more than enough ideas on why people would come to this conclusion.

Is it killing your whimsy, or is it going off of a very clear pattern that authors also recognize? Y’know, considering what people have historically done against anyone with the slightest differences from them irl? 💀

I'll be posting at least one free book each day with a nonbinary character (except on July 16, which is Drag Day and will focus on books with characters in drag.)

Some previously-featured books with nonbinary characters that are still free include:

Unbury the Bones by Coyote J.M. Edwards - cozy fantasy with a nonbinary vampire protagonist

A Strip of Velvet by Rien Gray - nonbinary forest deity/female huntress

Of Melodies and Maledictions by Maddox Grey - romantasy, female witch/nonbinary thief werewolf

Last Gasp by Emily Riesbeck - science fiction with a nonbinary alien and a human man

Coffee and Faeire Cakes by Laura Simons - fantasy romance with a nonbinary faerie protagonist

nonbinary people are not only valid, but an important and foundational demographic of the queer and trans community, and we deserve to be treated as such. we deserve to be taken seriously. and to my fellow nonbinary people reading this: your existence makes the world a better place. you deserve to have your identity not just tolerated, but appreciated and respected. i love you. please stay alive

PBS and NPR were never beholden to the US government.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created so that the US government could fund public media without public media being influenced by the government. It was a private non-profit funded by the government, not a part of the government itself. This is by design. This was a good thing. It meant that even small local TV and radio stations, could afford to create media for the public good, without government influence.

This meant TV and radio stations for poor communities. For non-english speaking communities. For rural communities. For minorities. It meant that free and accessible media could be created for everyone, even if the government didn't like it.

That's why conservatives defunded it.

Because if they couldn't control it, and if it helped the people they hated, then they would have to destroy it. Do you really think that a fascist government would defund their own propaganda machine?

Not only is the idea that PBS before being defunded was propaganda wrong, but ignores the fact that defunding it is going to have long-term negative effects on vulnerable communities.