Otherkin Wiki

Aquatic is an umbrella term for people whose species live or spend much of their time in water. The common experience of being an aquatic creature living on land draws together many people with animal identities, but also mermaids and other mythical humanoids.

A "calling" towards bodies of water or the act of swimming is one of the most common experiences reported by aquatics.

The fae are a type of European folkloric beings that are usually depicted as humanoids. Many types of beings from independent cultural mythologies are considered to be under the fae umbrella in the modern day[...] They are usually defined by magic, glamour, and an association with nature.

A noema (pronounced noh-EE-mə or noh-AY-mə, plural noemata) is intrinsic knowledge about one's kintype, hearttype, or other alterhuman identity. Noemata may include memories, things one experiences as memories but which are not believed to be real memories, gut feelings, and general knowledge about the looks, life, or habits of one's alterhuman identity. Noemata may have a psychological or spiritual basis, may be a mix of the two, or may have unknown origins. As noemata are intrinsic knowledge, knowledge from external sources such as books, films, and games are not noemata.

Wolves are a species of wild canine. They typically live and hunt in extended families known as packs. Wolf-identifying nonhumans tend to report phantom features such as ears and tails, shifts that involve wolfish behaviors and heightened senses, a desire for a pack structure, feeling drawn to wild spaces, dysphoria over their human bodies, an aversion to humans or human spaces, and a connection to domestic dogs. Wolves have historically been a plurality, or sometimes a majority, of the therian community.

Voidpunk is a subculture of marginalized people reclaiming dehumanization. Voidpunks aestheticize nonhumanity, particularly monstrousness and the surreal and eldritch, as a way of coping with their oppression. Voidpunk takes inspiration from other punk movements with its roots in resistance and politics. Some voidpunks create voidsonas representing their nonhuman aesthetics. Voidpunk is not considered an alterhuman community, but many voidpunks are alterhuman or have an overlap in experiences.

Fictives, factives, and introjects, oh my! This is our longest article yet, and in addition to those folks, it also touches on soulbonds, walk-ins, and spirit mediums.

In plural systems, sourced individuals are those people or entities who are, are based on, or in some way resemble another pre-existing person or character. Fictives are or resemble fictional characters or species. Factives are or resemble pre-existing real people. Introjection is a psychological phenomenon that involves internalization of external ideas. Soulbonds are versions of fictional characters that one develops a mental connection to. A walk-in is a soul that enters a body after that body's birth.

My personal favorite part of this article is that, as long as it is already, we still have sources we haven't incorporated yet. People have so much to say about sourced system members!

Instincts are behavioural inclinations that are innate to a being, and occur reflexively, rather than being learned and deliberately executed. Many alterhumans report instinctual behaviour related to their phenotypes. Community writing has paid particular attention to "ugly" instincts, such as prey drive. The acceptability of experiencing them, and how or whether one can responsibly manage such feelings, has been much discussed.

Elves are mythical humanoids originating in Germanic folklore. They are typically depicted as tall, ethereal beings with pointed ears who are particularly attuned with nature and magic. The popular image of elves was enormously influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's works, and this is the idea many elves align with. The otherkin community grew out of elven communities in the 90s, and elves have continued to have a strong presence in otherkin spaces. They have also formed many sub-communities based on shared culture, memories and ideas about themselves. As a result, many see elf as the archetypal kintype. Elves may also be considered a subtype of fae.

Fictionfolk is an umbrella term used to refer to anyone with an alterhuman identity based in fiction, such as fictionkin, fictives, soulbonders, people with fictional hearttypes, and people who experience fictionflickers. The term is also used by some individuals as their primary identity label as opposed to a different term fictionfolk encompasses.

A hearthome is a location or item that feels familiar and integral.[3] Typically, one's hearthome is a place that they have been to seldom if ever. A person who has a hearthome, or the state of having one, may be called hearthic.[4]

Hearthomes can be places from real-life or from fiction. Usually, if a person's hearthome is from real-life, they've never been there or they haven't been very much. But sometimes, people might decide to move to their hearthomes.

A multiple system is a group of distinct people who share a body. The word median (also known as midcontinuum or singtiple) describes all the shades of plurality in-between multiple and singlet.

A median system might be one person with parts, many people with little differentiation, otherkin with separate-ish kintypes, or any number of other things.

Happy Trans Day of Visibility! Otherkin and other alterhumans report being transgender or nonbinary at a higher rate than the general population. Having an unconventional relationship with species can directly influence one's gender experience as well.

Our latest article! Dæmonism (or daemonism) is the practice of creating and interacting with an animal personification of one's subconscious, inspired by the His Dark Materials series. The daemonism community also created the word "otherhearted."

A soulbond is a fictional character you have a mental connection to. The character can live with you in your head, communicate with you from their home universe/world/story, or travel back and forth. Soulbonders may or may not consider their experience to be plural. Soulbonding can be another name for the “living character” phenomenon, where authors’ characters sometimes come to life in their heads. It was soulbonders who popularized the word “fictive” among plural systems.

Articles on the Otherkin Wiki begin as drafts, and are released to mainspace (being a regular wiki article) when they are ready.

Hearthome is one of 14 drafts we currently have in the works. In this particular draft, you will see a link at the bottom of the page that isn’t part of the references list. This is common in our drafts: someone puts a link that could be a useful reference, and then they or someone else later uses it in the article.