Clinically Jackal

Therian = someone who identifies as an animal (sometimes you'll see this defined as earthen animals only, but this is historically not necessarily part of the label - if it's animalistic, it qualifies)

Otherkin = someone who identifies as nonhuman (be that animal, plant, sapient nonhuman people, object, concept, etc.)

Connotatively (ie, in terms of associations and cultural nuances), there are some cultural distinctions as well. The therian and otherkin communities actually arose completely independently, and only later started interacting so closely that in many ways they've nearly merged.

The otherkin community originates from a few separate groups of elves, namely the Silver Elves and the Elf Queen's Daughters, both of whom originate somewhere in the 1970s (exact dates often difficult to pin down) and which then led to the Elfinkind Digest, a mailing list originally intended for elves but which quickly expanded to other nonhuman beings, within which the term otherkind (which would rapidly become otherkin, as far as I can tell due to typographical errors that accidentally got preserved in the lexicon) was coined to avoid the inconvenience of having to write elfin-/dragon-/orc-/hobbit-/etc-kind constantly within the Digest. The influence of these groups and communities has meant the otherkin community has always had heavy influence from New Age and neo-pagan philosophies, and has always leaned toward spiritual explanations - though certainly never exclusively.

The therian community, on the other hand, originates from a messaging board called alt.horror.werewolves, often abbreviated to AHWW within the therian community these days, in the early 1990s. While this messaging board was originally a fansite for werewolves, at a certain point people started turning up who felt themselves to be (were)wolves under the skin, and gradually that kind of discussion took over much of the board. (Not just wolves, either - some of the earliest weres I remember seeing in logs include a bat and, of course, the now-famous werePontiac.) If you've ever seen animal-people, particularly older ones, calling themselves weres instead of/in addition to therians, this is why - that was the original word we used for the concept. Culturally speaking, the therian community has always been very focused on the concept of shifts because of these origins - it is, if I'm not mistaken, where the otherkin community adopted that terminology from. The therian community also tends to be more focused on the animality of being non-human - which is why these days that's usually used as the primary distinction between otherkinity and therianthropy.

ALSO you can feel comfortable with both your human identity and your animal identity. many therians feel part animal and not fully animal, if you get me. i feel part snow leopard (mostly spiritually - like part of my soul is snow leopard) and not fully snow leopard. you can sometimes feel more animal and sometimes less animal. it's not required you feel 100% animal all the time to be a therian. (at least according to my research - if im somehow wrong, people can feel free to correct me, just please don't start yelling at me or sth 🥀)

I’m personally not a physical therian so I’m just trying to understand better how those two terms correlate ^^

I'm on a bit of an internet hiatus right now, but I saw this notification and wanted to provide an explanation!

Ɐ (derived from the mathematical symbol meaning 'for all', and pronounced as 'Turned A') is a symbol/term for any and all within our overlapping communities.

We (those involved in coining this term) realised there was no actual term that encompasses all identities, seeing as not everyone identifies with alterhuman or nonhuman.

EDIT 10/08/25 - Another important clarification - while we know this label is, on the surface, very similar to alterhuman and other available labels, it was made specifically to not centre humanity as the default or central point of reference. This is not to say a connection to humanity is a bad thing at all (and this label is welcome to be used by human adjacents, those who are partially human, fiction folk, etc) but it removes it as a whole from being the centrepiece of an alternative label.

This symbol is for:

Anyone and everyone who doesn't identify with the traditional definition of humanity. This involves alterhumanity, nonhumans, therians, human and nonhuman fictionkin, otherkin, endels, holotheres, clinical zoanthropes, linkers, otherhearted, and ANYONE else who has an addition to their humanity, isn't human in the slightest, and everything in between.

Anyone who is ready to celebrate the overlaps between our communities, and allow us to experience a wider community without trying to put everyone under a human or not human label.

The celebration of being different! To laugh in the face of 'cringe' and embrace your unique experience of life.

We're also, in this post, coining the acronyms N/AHAA and/or ASAA! These are Non/Alterhuman and Adjacents, and Alterspecies and Adjacents! They both mean exactly the same as Ɐ, but are an easier to pronounce alternative.

The symbols in the pictures are completely free to use! They also don't have to be pawprints - we're working on alternate versions for different species.

Involved in coining:

@lycantheon (me!), @koirankusema666, @canis-dentem, @howlinginsolitude and @devotional-devouring !

you can just be cat, you can just be dog etc. it does not make you less than !!

i used to really struggle with my therianthropy because i thought i *had* to identify with a specific species and i felt bad because i couldn’t fit my experience in a hyper specific box

which is stupid !! labels are supposed to work FOR you not the other way around.

this would fix me I think -

all I want is a pack to hunt, live, and love with. that unbreakable bond through survival and strength. the familial community within the isolation of the deep forest.

i don't even know what else to write, there's more feelings there that I just can't articulate. sighhhhhh