Otherkin / therians / other-hearts

Been thinking about throwing together a thread for this since I joined... guess I finally worked up the courage!

This is a space for otherkin, therians and other-hearted folks to talk about their experiences and whatnot. If you don't fall under any of those categories, don't worry - you're welcome to come, sniff around and ask questions! ^u^

Thread rules

> No role-playing. There's an entire forum for that!

> Be respectful of everyone's individual beliefs and experiences.

> Healthy scepticism is allowed, but don't go overboard. No grilling.

With that done... some of you are probably wondering what otherkin / therians / other-hearts actually are. Well, I can explain a little!

Otherkin: someone who identifies as non-human on a personal, integral level. Otherkin are aware that they are physically human, and that they have human minds and human thoughts - but on some level they feel like something "other", for spiritual, psychological or sometimes neurological reasons. Otherkin can be any non-human species, e.g. elf, dragon, demon. 

Therian: a subtype of otherkin; someone who identifies as one or more Earthly animals on a personal, integral level. Therians can be any species that lives or has lived on Earth, e.g. wolf, tiger, dinosaur. 

Other-hearted: someone that feels a strong identification with a non-human species without feeling like they are that species. Feeling a strong sense of kinship, familiarity and/or comfort in relation to a non-human species. Can be spiritual or psychological in nature. It is possible to be both otherkin and other-hearted with the same species, or be 'kin with one species while being 'hearted with another.

That's everything, I think! I hope you all enjoy the thread~

Oh, I'm a cat, raccoon, fox, & some unspecified big cat therian! <3 i wanted to mention something but i wasnt sure if anyone else here was...

I'm a psychological therian. :)

Housecat and some sort of raptor theropod.

Eyy, I'm glad I'm not the only one! It's nice to meet you both ^u^

I realise now I forgot to actually introduce myself! I'm a Eurasian wolf (so I guess this is the perfect game for me, aha) and also a nimravid (a kind of prehistoric, sabre-toothed proto-feline) and a nature spirit. For me, I believe it's a mix of spiritual and psychological reasons - I believe in past lives but also brains are weird and complicated and do strange things sometimes, so who knows!

I'm not in the community much since I have been reevaluating my own personal beliefs. After going through several species I really settled into werewolf. Werewolf hearted? Psychological? Can't really tell ya.

Either way I'm a werewolf of sorts. What that means I can't explain but it makes sense to me.

I always love seeing that I'm not the only one! I'm a wolf and a husky, it's nice to meet you guys! c:

I am a dire wolf otherkin ❤️ Nice to meet everyone  :)

howdy all! i'm kinda new to the community and idk quite how to describe my other-ness but i identify with werewolves, hyenas, and jackrabbits! i have a complicated relationship with my identity bc of funky mental reasons so that may be why i relate more with these species instead but who knows! :)

Therian here! I love how quickly this became a topic ^^ I'm more of a psychological therian, and still trying to 100% pinpoint myself. I would need to preface this with like a 10-page essay about it, so instead I'm a wolf/husky/retriever -esque canine (goberian?) with feline tendencies (other-hearted?) Nice to meet you all!