The Draconic Wizard Workshop

Daemonism is a practice. The concept of it can be used by anyone: alterhuman or not, plural or not. It can be pure playfulness. It can be imaginary, and that's okay! That's a beautiful experience in its own respect!

There's no universal daemian experience because we accept and embrace that our minds, and our experiences, are ours alone.

The community isn't built on a shared experience – just a shared idea which we all create unique versions of.

Some people stick closer to the basic idea we started with. Some just take what they like from it and throw out the rest. Some only take vague inspiration from it. Some people adapt it more than others, sometimes due to being neurodivergent, plural, and/or alterhuman.

It's still daemonism because daemonism isn't defined by us all "doing the same thing" or "having the same experience".

Daemonism is, for the most part, defined by a person deciding that they want to call what they are doing or experiencing daemonism.

And a large part of that is often in connection to the community, whether directly or in a peripheral way, by taking inspiration from the practice, making use of the community's writings, and so on.

This is why I think daemonism is often misunderstood in an alterhuman context. Daemonism is not an experience, it's not an identity – it's just an idea we each take and make our own. And that's what it should be. That's the beauty of it!

Anyone could be a daemian if they want to. There's no requirements. A lot of people get started with daemonism purely because it sounds fun! A lot of people start with only their imagination, and many people remain so.

For others, it might become something else in time, or they might discover there was something underlying their imaginings all along. It's no more or less a practice of daemonism, either way.

A lot of alterhuman concepts don't apply to daemonism because of this. Fact is, there's plenty of daemians who are orthohumans too, and plenty of people who specifically see their daemonism as an orthohuman practice.

I see it get included under the alterhuman umbrella a lot, and I feel like it gives the wrong first impression to come at it from that angle by default.

Really, it's more comparable with being a furry. For some people, it is a deep, impactful, life-altering experience, and the people who feel that way are a vital part of the community. But equally, for some it is an exercise in whimsy, playfulness, or creativity – and those people are no less members of the community for it.

We're not united by being plural, or having thoughtforms, or being alterhuman. We're united by being a bunch of people who were inspired by some books (or a film or TV show) to play around with the idea of daemons, and ended up sticking with it for one reason or another.

I hope this was a misclick because if it's not I feel bad for the "lil babies only" system out there

to the headmates who can't talk about their sources.

to the headmates who feel ashamed about what their sources were about, even if they're disconnected from the events in that source.

to the headmates who can't talk about their source without fearing people will go "oh... okay" and never look at you the same way again.

to the headmates who had no say in how they came to be or why they came to be.

to the headmates who think they'll be shunned for talking about how they formed.

to the headmates who hate their brain for forming them how it did.

to the headmates who can't talk about their origin at all.

We used a lot of euphemisims and code words. I think those sprung up when we broke off from the NCR and it became harder to talk about Followers business in public, no matter how innocouous it is. People who weren't Followers percieved us as being overy direct and open. That wasn't really the case.

Personally I like watching longplays of games that I don't wanna play myself, to understand the sources of fictionfolk that I know. I might not get a hands-on experience but it can be just as good as watching a movie or series at the least.

I think we need to have a lot more interest in general fictionfolk experiences and unity there! I do think that means we do kind of need to give some context when making posts about our experiences if we want them to be parseable to an audience unfamiliar with our source, but theres also definately just. A lack of interest I see with fictionfolk for interacton with fellow fictionfolk outside of source mates. And I think thats really sad.

And with that said, I am very interested in general fictionfolk experiences and interaction with my fellow fictionkind! If anyone wants to reach out or just interact on tumblr I am here :D I sometimes write essays on my general fictionkind thoughts or talk about my specific experience with source in a way I *hoooppee* gives some context fort he important emotional beats even if you dont know the characters.

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I think a lot of people kind of conceptualize "animals" as one big... fandom, for lack of a better word? Anyone who's super interested in one animal at least tangentally cares about animals as a concept. Meanwhile, I don't watch TV, read comics, or listen to podcasts at all. I don't care as much about enjoying a fictional source as identifying shared experiences with the person who has it, so this doesn't serve as an impediment to socializing, but I can totally see how it'd feel like a bigger "gap" than therianthropes have to deal with.

I've noticed that the fact my video game is set in a this-world location can help people who don't know anything about it connect with me. I've got a few followers who are mostly here for the desert aesthetic posts. Because I have that "hook", so to speak, I don't think I have anything on this blog that explains story beats / plot elements / really what F/N/V even is? Maybe I should put together an Arcade 101 post. I don't think much of anyone would read that. I don't know. At the very least the Rangers' website could really use a "what is a Desert Ranger anyway" post.