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Content warnings: none.

2015-02-11: Mikh'to and kiilas launched an early version of the Darkfang Archive, a directory of all kinds of resources for otherkin, therianthropes, and vampires. The new web-site has room to grow. From Mikh'to's description of the site, as given on the Elfinkind Digest mailing list, and quoted with permission:

"This is a curated database of otherkin, therianthropy and real vampirism sites, media and social spaces. It's partly inspired by otherkin.net and other older resource sites, and is trying to make an up-to-date online resource (it is not a wiki) that gives people a way to look into these things without problematic influences or needless dogma. It separates content by 'category', so each 'kintype'/'theriotype'/'phenotype', subgroup, experiential slant, mythos, etc. that is covered has its own page, so it doesn't lump everyone in into some big 'otherkin' umbrella. It is designed for both desktop and mobile browsers.

"It's currently in a 'preview' version - it's intended for feedback, so it's unfinished and possibly buggy. Data submissions are welcome and greatly appreciated. We are also interested in mirroring old/defunct sites and media in the future with permission."

Personally, I've browsed the site a little, and it looks like one of the most useful resources for the otherkin community that I've seen in some time. I hope some of our readers will offer feedback and help make the Darkfang Archive excellent.

jarandhel.livejournal.com

On October 20, 2014, Salix (formerly Sandstone, formerly Kodama) announced that Otherkinsight would be closing on the week of November 2nd, 2014.^[1] In a post announcing the reasons for the closure, Salix stated: "Members have been extremely disrespectful to other members and consistently breaking rules. Moderators are having difficulty maintaining the peace, as am I." and "I am left with the difficult choice of either banning quite a few members or shutting down the site completely. Considering my other priorities, with a heavy heart, I choose to close down the site."^[2]

jarandhel.livejournal.com

There seems to be a significant migration of otherkin to a new service: TurtleSeed. I had never heard of this service before today, but from what I've been able to determine it is a service similar to Twitter which allows people to make microblog posts of 140 characters or less. TurtleSeed is unique, however, in that it is built from the ground up with an eye towards privacy, eliminating trolls, encouraging positivity, and even the ability to designate certain words as triggers in one's user settings. By default, turtleseed posts expire after 3 days, for privacy reasons, though one has the ability to change that setting on an individual level.

There are already a wide variety of otherkin "clans" on TurtleSeed. These are roughly equivalent to facebook groups or livejournal communities, organizing around a particular discussion topic. Some of these are public, while others require approval to join. Some are permanent, while others have a set duration they will be in existence. And some even allow all posts to them to be made anonymously. One of these clans, /otherkinchat, already boasts ~328 members despite just having been created on August 20, 2014. And it's more active than most otherkin groups I've seen, on any medium.

The otherkin clans of which I am currently aware are:

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/otherkinchat

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/Otherkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/fictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/hetaliakin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/robotkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/pokekin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/felinekin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/spookykin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/faekin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/aquatickin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/HqFictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/tgfictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/vocaloidfictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/shslfictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/ygofictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/drfictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/forfictionkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/AngelkinChat

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/angelkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/dragonkin

http://www.turtleseed.com/ts/Therians

The communities there do seem to have been influenced, IMO, more by tumblr otherkin culture than the culture of the wider community, but the activity level definitely makes it something to keep an eye on.

frameacloud

Website helps you keep notes on this life, for reference after you reincarnate.

overlord-mordax.livejournal.com

After a several year hiatus, From Fiction, a large resource for otakukin and fictionkin has been archived at its original address (http://otakukin.atspace.com/). New content will now be uploaded at the new address on tumblr. The attached 'More Than Fiction' message boards will be maintaining their familiar address.

jarandhel.livejournal.com

From what I hear, they're already open for posting again: http://forums.therianthropy.org For the folks who don't know, this is one of the oldest online therianthropy resources coming back after a hiatus of several years. The old threads do not appear to have been archived as far as I can see at the moment.

frameacloud

Content warnings: None.

September: The web domain of Otherkin Alliance, otherkinalliance.org, recently went down. The web-site had a forum and a collection of articles for otherkin. There was no warning about this downtime, and the site's Twitter doesn't say anything about it. Does anyone have an explanation of what happened, or a live location to find its content?

Sources

Ketrino (crystal_waters), "OKA???? [updated for other sites]" 2013-09-27. Otherkin (community blog). http://otherkin.livejournal.com/582202.html
A blog post pointing out the downtime of Otherkin Alliance and Otherkin.com, although it appears to be incorrect about Otherkin.net being down.

"Otherkin Alliance." AnOther Wiki. http://anotherwiki.org/wiki/Otherkin_Alliance
A wiki article about Otherkin Alliance.

"Otherkin.com." AnOther Wiki. http://anotherwiki.org/wiki/Otherkin.com
This wiki article notes that Otherkin.com went down less recently, back in January.

frameacloud

Content warnings: None.

September: After a down-time that lasted most of this summer, I revived my personal web-site. Now everybody can link to and read my books about therianthropes and otherkin again! That includes a couple of bibliographies, the Otherkin Timeline, and the relatively new Otherkin Lexicon.

(I haven't revived the comic Theri There yet, though. I don't think there's a really slick way to set up a comic browser in a sub-page in Google Sites. Is there? Anyone know?)

I finished a new article. It's A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes. This article tells the basics of what people mean when they say that they are therianthropes and otherkin. It also tells about the difference between therianthropes and otherkin. It's for readers who aren't therians or otherkins, and might not have heard of anything like them before. This article is different than many similar introductions, because it's in Simple English. That means it mostly uses common words, and avoids idioms, so it will be easy to put into other languages. (I did need to use a few unusual words where common words couldn't work. That's okay in Simple English, if you make the words clear from context. It's still much simpler than how I write most of the time!) Because of this, it should make sense even when put through an automatic translator, such as Google Translate. However, I want to get the article translated into many other languages, the proper way, by real people. If you can translate the article into any language, please leave a comment here, or e-mail me.

(Please also contact me if you find any editing and formatting mistakes in my site.)

- Orion Scribner

frameacloud

Content warning: Dubious business.

August: A business called Haunted Curiosities not only claims to interview vampires and werewolves, it also shows what it claims to be an authentic video of a physical shape-shift into a wolf-man-like creature. The business also sells expensive supernatural “transformations,” which require the buyer to be flown to another country in person. For more information, see the exposé at Disinformation.

Source

Frater Isla, “Haunted Curiosities’ Guide to Duping Goth Kids and Twilight Fans.” 2013-08-15. Disinformation. http://disinfo.com/2013/08/haunted-curiosities-guide-to-duping-goth-kids-and-twilight-fans/

frameacloud

Content warnings: For this article, none. For the linked site: Body dysmorphia, and essay about recovering from an eating disorder (anorexia).

August: Khamaseen revived their personal web-site, Feral Limbo. The web-site contains their essays about their personal draconity and chimerical therianthropy. This includes "Body being: my experience of phantom limbs," and an essay each about their experiences of being marbled cat, giraffe, and horned owl. Khamaseen plans to further improve the site.

Source

Khamaseen, Feral Limbo. http://www.ferallimbo.com/

frameacloud

Content warnings: None.

August 25: Administrators of Draconity.org are looking for more staff for their web-site. They want help with running their newsletter, wiki, movie night, and contests. The closing date for applications will be on this September 22.

Draconity.org is a web-site for otherkin who identify as dragons. The site has a forum http://www.draconity.org/index.php and a wiki. http://wiki.draconity.org The wiki is more specifically about otherkin, whereas the forum is open to anyone who likes dragons.

If you're interested, read the job descriptions and apply.

Source

Aurelia, “New staff-with-a-twist applications!” 2013-08-25. Draconity.org. http://www.draconity.org/index.php/topic,8623.0.html
(A public forum post by a site administrator.)

frameacloud

Content warnings: For this post, none. For the mentioned web-site: profanity.

July: Gazerwolf, administrator of the Tirnanoc.org web-site, took that site down for maintenance. In the site’s latest version, it had been a blogging site for otherkin. Spam bots overwhelmed it. The site didn’t have much content to save. Gazerwolf wants to redesign the web-site so that it’s for otherkin in some way, but wants ideas from other people.

This post was made with Gazerwolf’s permission over e-mail.

- O. Scribner

frameacloud

Content warnings: For this article, none. The linked web-site contains some images that are unsettling because of how they blend human and animal bodies: body horror, the uncanny valley, and artistic representation of injury to humans and animals.

August: A fine artist and therianthrope named M. Bolalek (“your-deer”) created a web-site titled The Artist Bestiary. The web-site is “a collection of art and artists merging the human and the animal,” “approached from a therian perspective,” to “inspire and inform within the therian community.”

Bolalek wrote, “At the moment, there are seven entries, with at least 40 more to come, as well as intermittent critical analysis and musings. I am aiming tentatively for an update schedule of 2 to 3 entries per month for now.”

Some of the artwork showcased in The Artist Bestiary will be familiar to Otherkin News readers, because we have also made note of some of the latest fine art that blends human and animal. Please see the “art” tag on Otherkin News for ours. For example, I'm pleased to see that we both reflect upon Art Orienté Objet's intriguing transformation-as-performance-piece May the horse live in me (mine, theirs). Between both blogs, we'll miss less innovation, and be more enriched. I look forward to seeing more discussion of therianthropic explorations in fine art.

- O. Scribner

Sources

M. Bolalek (your-deer), The Artist Bestiary. http://artistbestiary.wordpress.com

M. Bolalek (your-deer), “About.” The Artist Bestiary. http://artistbestiary.wordpress.com/about/

M. Bolalek (your-deer), “The Artist Bestiary.” Your-deer. http://your-deer.tumblr.com/post/58836997334/the-artist-bestiary

frameacloud

Content warnings: None.

June 2013: Arawn Bheur created a web forum for people who identify as animals of kinds not found in Earthly nature. The forum is called “Betwixt and Between: A resource for animalistic otherkin, theriomythics, and non-Earth animal therians.” The site statement says it’s for “those who find themselves ‘betwixt and between’ the therian and otherkin communities.” The site’s goal is “to bridge the gap between therians and ’kin [otherkin].” Like many therian forums, it has some rules to reduce confusion about therianthropy: no role-playing anywhere in the forum, and no claims of real-world facts without real-world proof.

Source

Betwixt and Between: A resource for animalistic otherkin, theriomythics, and non-Earth animal therians. Created 2013-06. http://betwixtandbetween.lefora.com/

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: None.

The therianthropes.com web-site appears to have gone down this month. The site shows only an error message. Therianthropes.com has been around since at least 2006, and had information about non-fictional therianthropes and otherkin, along with information about shapeshifting animals in fiction and folklore. The Internet Archive has an archive of the site.

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: None.

Last May, in the Beyond Awakening blog for otherkin: a therianthrope/otherkin named Meirya rounded up a list of otherkin and therian projects that are calling for submissions. In short, this includes:

- Under the skin: Therian community voices, an anthology of short writings about being an animal person.
- Radiant obscurities, an anthology of writings about uncommon types of therianthropes and otherkin.
- The 2013 Therian Census, collecting demographic information about therianthropes.
- Project Shift, an informational site about therianthropy.
- Birds of a Feather, an anthology of writings about identifying as a bird or bird-like creature.

For more details on each project, and how to submit your work to it, see Meirya's post.

Source

Meirya, "Calls for submissions." Beyond Awakening. 2013-05-30. http://thehornedgate.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/cfs/

citrakayah.livejournal.com

AnOtherWiki, a MediaWiki about therians, otherkin, and associated communities, has recently been created.

From the about page:

Welcome to AnOtherWiki. This project is meant to create a free encyclopedia written by, for, and about the Otherkin community. If there's information about websites or people in the community, gathers, chatrooms, jargon, or anything else we want to see it here. We also take the view that a community is only as good as the collective memory it has, so we're particularly interested in information about our community's history and shared culture.

We've chosen to take a very broad view of the Otherkin community with this project, and so invite information about other related communities such as the Therian community, the Vampire community, the Draconity community, the Faeborn community, the Starseed community and any others which share in the experience of not considering themselves entirely human. We also invite information about communities which historically have had significant overlap with our community, such as the Multiplicity community, the Psionics community, or the Guardians community.

In terms of editing policy, things are relatively relaxed here. We strive mainly to write from an Objective point of view, in the journalistic sense of the word. This means we embrace the principles of fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship. Our goal, like any good reporter, is to get all the truth about the subjects we cover and nothing but. We're not perfect, however, and none of us can know everything about our communities. That's part of why working together is such an important aspect of a project like this. Accordingly, we also have a policy of no personal attacks here on AnOtherWiki, to help promote cooperation between editors. If you feel another user is behaving unreasonably in editing an article, and you can't work it out with them on the article's talk page, please contact an administrator rather than starting a flamewar or edit war with them.

shiroulv.livejournal.com

Wulf Howl (http://www.wulfhowl.com and http://therians.com) will be offline from 1/18/2012 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM EST in protest of the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. These acts, which are intended to stop piracy, will do nothing of the sort, and will actually decrease internet security and pave the ground for a censored internet.

We are doing this in order to raise awareness and encourage the community to take a stand against these unconstitutional and down-right silly proposals. Upon visiting Wulf Howl during the black out, you will receive information on how you can help take a stand against SOPA and PIPA.

We recommend visiting http://sopastrike.com/strike for more information on how to contact your congressmen, or the US State Department if you are not a US citizen in order to oppose the bills.

Wulf Howl will be operational again at 8:00 PM EST on 1/18/12. 

The future of the internet is in our paws, together, we shall be victorious.

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: erasure.

The purpose of a diversity statement is to establish that a place is willing to include everyone. Feathertail noticed a problem in the diversity statement¹ on the blog-host Dreamwidth.org. Diversity statements often include an assumption that everyone identifies as human, but Feathertail doesn’t. Feathertail filed a bug report, asking that the diversity statement be “modified so as to reject speciesist language, and include otherkin.”² Dreamwidth accepted the suggestion, and is now updating its diversity statement. Feathertail says this update

“doesn’t mention otherkin specifically, but says that people of any ‘identity, and self-identification’ are welcome, and removes all speciesist language. I guess welcoming ‘people of any species’ is a little too progressive for Dreamwidth at this time. ~.^ But the new language doesn’t exclude us, either, and allows wiggle room for otherkin to squeeze in. I’d say that’s good news for those of us who identify as non-human.”³

This is a good example of activism that helps the otherkin community, because many small actions of this kind will contribute to a future in which otherkin are acknowledged and accepted.

Further discussion points out some concerns, and some suggestions for further improvements in wording, hopefully to explicitly include otherkin.⁴

- O. Scribner

( Sources )

frameacloud

Trigger warnings: none that I can think of for this article itself, although the majority of the linked articles do talk about species dysphoria discomfort, and a few talk about harassment, but this will be clear from their titles and descriptions.

New resource documents for otherkin

“Theories of causes of otherkin,” by Meirya, 2011-12-06. A list of various ways that people explain why and how they are otherkin, whether spiritual or secular. This is a newer but simpler version of an earlier article by Meirya, “Otherkin and therian theories of cause or origin,” 2006. An anonymous sidhe replied with an additional item for the list.

“The Hall of All Souls - A shared 'kin space and meditation,” by Tsu (Avianthrophile). 2011-12-05. A guided meditation for visiting an imaginary space, based on the idea that if many people visit the same imaginary space, then it will gain shared energy, and perhaps even stable enough that we can meet one another there. Trigger warning: occult. [Edit 2011-12-27: Tsu informs me that thebrit-thespirit has recorded an audio narration of this guided meditation, which is much easier to follow along with.]

“More advices on finding your species,” by Tsu. 2011-12-14

“Otherkin/therian/nonhuman facts,” by Tsu. 2011-12-01. On the diversity among otherkin.

“Occupy the otherkin tag,” by Tsu. 2011-11-30. The otherkin tag on Tumblr.com has suffered an increase of vandalism and harassment during the past couple of months, so this article offers wise advice on how to deal with that.

“Non-human book list!” by Tsu and Autisticwolfchild, collecting books of fiction and folklore “which have good nonhuman characters, feelings of nonhuman identity,” and so are popular or likely to be enjoyed by otherkin. 2011-11-30.

“A Directory of Otherkin Writings and Other Works, Organized by Topic” by O. Scribner. This has updated to version 0.5, with much better organization, and many more articles.

“A directory of kin and interested persons” summarizes some such bloggers on Tumblr.

Other new writings about otherkin

“Shapeshifting into Kin: Part One” and “Part Two” by Lupa. 2011-12-06 and 2011-12-15. Trigger warnings: pictures of animal pelts and nudity.

“Vampires at Occupy,” by Deacon Gray, who interviews two vampires (not identified by name) at the Occupy campaign in Boise, Idaho, who say that vampirism “has very little to do with Occupy,” except that the problems in the country affect the vampire community as much as everyone else. 2011-12-12.

“Interview with a vampire combat vet,” by Deacon Gray. An interview with T., a Senior Master Sergeant who also happens to be a sanguinarian vampire. Trigger warning: mention of blood drinking.

“Otherkin in a vampire community,” by Deacon Gray. An interview with Sarah, who calls herself an otherkin wolf.

“Life as a multiple kitsune otherkin transgender dragon/phoenix,” by Feathertail: part 1, part 2, and part 3. The personal reflections of Feathertail. 2011-12.

“The skeptical otherkin #3: How inappropriate,” Feathertail’s article about cultural appropriation, now has a couple of follow-up articles: “The skeptical otherkin #3b: When it really is inappropriate,” and “The skeptical otherkin #3b, take two.” 2011-11.

“The skeptical otherkin #4a: How to tell fundamentalists apart,” by Feathertail, 2011-12-13. Trigger warning: description of intolerance.

An untitled post by Pery, a shapeshifter. 2011-11. Points out the big difference between a human and an otherkin saying that they wish they could fly. Trigger warning: erasure.

“If otherkin feelings were a ‘normal human experience’ shared by most people…” by Tsu, 2011-11-28. A list of ways in which mainstream culture would be extremely different if it were true that the experiences of otherkin were commonplace. This was written as a retort to outsiders’ ignorant claims that the experiences of otherkin are no different from the experiences of everybody else. Trigger warnings: erasure, longing.

New poetry and fiction about otherkin

An untitled poem with the opening line “if skeletons were wire framed / and could be bent to correction” by herhandswereleavess, a shapeshifter therian. 2011-12-06. Trigger warnings: species dysphoria discomfort, longing.

An untitled piece of flash fiction with the opening line “She tries on the horns, to see if they fit…” by Tsu, 2011-12-03.

New otherkin blogs

Otherkin Ask maintained by Sky (Capricarnal) and Fox (Foxyfoxfox). “Primarily this is an ask/answer blog, but there will also be signal boosts, story reblogs, and conversation.” Anybody can anonymously ask questions, and the maintainers will offer very brief answers.

Trans Kinfolk, a blog for people who are both transgender and otherkin.

Kin and therians of colour, a blog for people who are people of color as well as otherkin or therianthropes.

The Graveyard Press, “a modern magazine for a modern vampire community,” just started in November. [Edit 2011-12-27: Sylvere ap Leanan points out that the Graveyard Press has been around longer than that; it's just that it has recently returned from hiatus and moved to a new site.]

New sites

The Equine Dream Foundation site has returned to public view. It argues for the right to morphological freedom, and includes discussion of methods for transforming one’s self by means of surgery, particularly into the semblance of another creature. [Edit 2011-12-27: I should clarify that the Equine Dream Foundation doesn't say that it's affiliated with the otherkin or therianthrope communities, although it is part of a transformation enthusiast community, along with another site named If WisheRs Were Horses. Thanks to Jarandhel for pointing this out.]

- O. Scribner