wandering starthing

[remade blog] spiritual otherkin + therian; i'm an astral being and a utahraptor therian. here to reblog photos that remind me of home(s), community posts, and whatnot. header credit: wiresandtrees / designbyahad.com

[this-great-world]

A dense forest during a rainstorm

[duckwithdeviousintent]

I wanna refresh my alterhuman knowledge, if you see this please feel free to yap and/or rant/vent about your alterhuman identity to me, I am accepting of all identities so please don’t be scared of judgement if you wanna share

[godoflosership]

i'm gonna yap about otherlinking for a bit since you said you didn't know a ton about that one!

otherlink is pretty much just otherkin but voluntary. How does it work? The identities are very intentionally created. Those who are linking a particular type have to reinforce the identity until it sticks. it's a sort of "fake it til you make it" approach!

I linked my fictomere in this way, although it's become partially involuntary, so i currently identify both with the label "fictionlink" and "fictionkin". I'm inspekta, a fictional character from the game great god grove. I formed my identity intentionally by telling myself that i was him, making a sona, taking on his name, and imagining myself as him. eventually, i wasn't pretending anymore. the identity became very integral to who i am. there's no me without him.

I chose to link inspekta mostly because of dysphoria. i used to be otherhearted. i saw myself as having a close bond to inspekta while still being distinct from him. unfortunately, i was part of the unlucky bunch that consistently experienced a very intense longing to be my fictomere. it felt unfair. i felt like i should have been him, but i just wasn't. i felt like i was partially him at most- and the prospect of changing myself so much as to become him frightened me (although it didn't end up being so bad!) it was making me genuinely depressed. luckily, that dysphoria ended up fading away as my identity began to take hold.

despite common belief that otherlink identities are inherently psychological, it can be spiritual as well. mine is both- the way i view it, the spirits of me and my fictomere were once separate, but we merged, intigrating into one person. at the same time, i think this process was influenced by various psychological factors such as hyperfixation, relating very hard, and, of course, the reinforcement.

there's a common misconception that otherlink identities are less serious than otherkin identity but it's not the case at all. this is a massive part of who i am, i simply wouldn't be me without my linktype- and i AM my linktype!

I hope this was an interesting read! i really love talking about this stuff haha

[kitten-of-bast]

Maybe I'm mistaken but it feels like these days in the tumblr therian community its much more common to be 0% human.

Feel like a bit of an outsider now. Somecreature posted a more poetic version of this sentiment a few days ago: something like too beastly to be human, too human to be beast.

[manymorph]

Being a selfshipper and nonhuman is so funny like hi I ship myself with this already unusual looking character and I'm the weirdest part of the pairing

[barley-beak]

I feel like folks need to talk more about types fading. We grow up, we change, and we figure out our identity more. That doesn’t mean that what we experienced wasn’t real. That type helped us understand ourselves more and we simply no longer connect with it and that’s okay.

I recently lost my connection to Cloudjumper and no longer feel that I am him. I still love him dearly and what he represented to me as I was discovering my fiction identity will always be important.

I think with all of the younger alterhumans joining online spaces, there is a heavy want to know exactly who you are right at the start. That’s not how identity works. It takes lots of time and you’re gonna make mistakes. The internet has made it really easy for others to shame individuals who haven’t fully figured out their types or change their types. You are growing and changing so your types will change to.

Something might fit right now, but one day you may find out about a creature that represents you more so that connection to the old type fades. That doesn’t make the new type or the old type and more or less valid then the other.

Take your time. There is no rush to finding out who you are.

[long-lost-coyote]

Maybe it’s because I’m just so used to living a human life, but often I imagine myself as an anthropomorphic animal of my theriotype. I am still an animal, but I go to work and play instruments and do all the human-y things that I still enjoy.

Image from Enid Blyton's Fourth Brer Rabbit Book, 1953

[the-wolf-and-moon]

NGC 6357, Celestial Cathedral

[sidereal-sightings]

.a return to form.

.This was a piece I made for an assignment during my previous semester's art course. We were asked to make a collage, self portrait piece of art that was inspired by the work of Henri Matisse.

.I made this piece to represent me embracing myself, and who I am. Every aspect of my being, especially the ones that evoked joy and whimsy. Here is an excerpt from the essay I wrote:

"The stars are an extension of my soul, literally bursting out of the chest of the human figure that is meant to represent me. The variety of hues of the stars symbolize the many facets of my inner world and personality, while the saturation of the colors is meant to evoke a sense of whimsy and playfulness."

.And I think it's very important to make the distinction that, while this is, in many ways, a reflection of my other identity, it's also very grounded in the human concepts of journey and finding oneself again. Especially right now, as the culture around us is steeped in shame and hate. That is one piece of my journey to rediscovery, and ultimately my celestial return that I've already managed to figure out. Rebuffing shame, embracing whimsy.

.Because I think it that being aware and actively nurturing the parts of me that exist in human form are important. Being a celestial is a wonderful thing. I am wholly a star, that's a fact. But at this moment, I am living in a world that will impact me, whether I like it or not. I will internalize, whether I want to or not, unless I build up the strength to be who I am. And tending to my body and brain, my heart and the part of my spirit that is forever touched by the others I've shared this planet with for the last few decades.

The full essay also goes into my artistic process. If you're interested in seeing that published here, do let me know ^^.

Light and mass ﹒⊹﹆ֹ

[leavinghere]

august 18, 2025

[manymorph]

For me, being a paleotherian is as much about what is missing as what I feel. I can't look up videos or photos of my species; we died over 100 million years ago. My memory of the earth is a ghost; it lingers in the forests and floodplains of modern day but is misaligned, a little to the left. It's an unscratchable itch. Something about this earth is incongruent with how I remember, how I feel it should be - as beautiful as it is. Like an old friend who comes back changed; you still love them dearly but the memories drift out of sync with who they have become.

There is no longer any objective truth to be found about my species' behavior; we can not be studied except through old bones that never tell the complete story. There is speculation, and I am grateful for every advance science makes, but it will never be the same as being able to go out and study the natural behavior of, say, a modern wolf. I am an endling raised by humanity and I don't even know what I don't know. A chick that never learned to be a bird.

I have my instincts, another ghost that I carry with me, but I know some of those are likely flavored by the life I live now. Every raw feeling I have, every flash of memory and instinct, I treat as a priceless treasure. It's all my kind has now. I am a creature out of time and place, alive again in a world so painfully close to and different from my own.

[vagabond-beast]

Am I a Therian? [A Greymuzzle's Insight]

"Am I a Therian?" you ask with a quizzical expression.

"I like bathing in the sun. I hate taking baths. I'm highly active at 3am," you explain, and so you conclude, "I must be a cat therian!"

Why?

Don't humans also like sitting in warm sunlight? Don't some humans hate the sensation of baths? Aren't some humans more active at night than at day?

Aren't those normal human behaviors?

"I like to howl, bark, and growl! I like to dig in the dirt and play tug-a-war!" you shout excitedly, and so you conclude, "I must be a dog therian!"

Why?

Don't humans also like to be vocal; shouting, hollering, and yelping? Don't some humans love digging in the dirt to see what's beneath? Do you not see the kids playing tug-a-war? Aren't those normal human behaviors?

"But..." you pause and you think. You finally state, "I feel a call to Nature. I feel at home among the trees, when my bare feet touch the Earth. I feel a pain in my heart when looking at my body, like it doesn't feel right. Surely that means I'm a Therian."

Why?

Aren't there humans who feel a call to Nature? Who live by themselves in the woods? Aren't there humans who also feel like something is missing with themselves?

Aren't those normal human behaviors?

"Then how do I know if I'm a Therian?"

Why... are you asking me?

You clearly know yourself better than I do. You have already given so many reasons as to why you must be a Therian, right? So why ask me what you are?

"Cause you're a Therian, too, aren't you?" you ask.

"I am," comes the answer.

"So then tell me," you urge with impatience. "Am I a Therian?"

"I can not tell you," comes another answer. "Because I do not know. I do not know your identity. I do not know what bristles beneath your skin or echoes in your heart."

There are no set rules to define someone who is a Therian. There is no checklist to go through to determine who is a Therian. There are no guidelines to follow under to know who is a Therian.

"Are you an animal?" comes the question. "Are you, in any sense or form, an animal?"

You pause. And you think.

You already know the answer.

"I am an animal."

Then congratulations.

You're a Therian.

[a-dragons-journal]

How'd you figure out the colors and patterns of your kintype? I'm currently struggling with it because I wanna draw my kintype more to express myself but idk how I look exactly other than two specific patterns and colors

Honestly? I… kind of didn’t. I have a very clear indication of the colors I depict myself in - blue scales, blue-white wings - but for all I know I could have patterns and other colors that I don’t know about.

At a certain point, you just kind of gravitate toward what “feels right” - appearance is one of those things that’s really hard to “know” for certain, because even those of us who believe we Literally Were that creature at some point often don’t have access to memories of seeing our own reflection. Which I know is kind of an unsatisfactory answer, but unfortunately it’s the one I have - you don’t need to know every feature of yourself 100%, and you’re allowed to fill in gaps with gut feelings or even just “I think this looks good, so I’m going to represent myself that way until and unless I feel like it’s inaccurate” if you want to. Don’t let not being sure of something stop you from drawing yourself.

[tanix-dragon]

I don’t really have any advice to add on to this other than “just go for it.” Do what feels right, or, hell, just what you think makes sense. If you aren’t sure you had something, but think you look better with it… who cares if you add it on? I’m not sure I had stripes all down my back! I’m almost certain I had them on my legs, but I don’t know about my back–but it just makes sense to me that they’d be there. I’ve never had strong feelings that they Absolutely Were There, and I’m not even certain that they’re red! It’s just what seems right and what I think looks cool and makes me look the way I’d like to look.

Maybe I’m wrong. There’s a good chance that I will never know 100% exactly how I looked. And that’s okay! No one can tell me that I’m wrong, and even if I am, so what? What does it matter if I didn’t really have stripes? Does anyone really care?

Just do what feels right and what makes your drawing of your kintype feel more like you.

[indornaga]

this!! while realistically, i wouldve taken on the appearance of a local cobra, with options being beige with black stripes, or a solid shiny black, (depending on which region i was from) but yknow what feels way more cool and Me™? iridescent black. as an indoraptor, i’m certain i was the standard black, but the yellow stripe looks all wrong. is that because of my variation? or bc i, now, am biased? and what about that white indoraptor with the blue stripe…. :thinking: dont forget that gut instinct works pretty well a lot of the time! realism is a guideline.

[xenodelic]

Appearance can be especially tricky if you’re something that has very little real life or fictional guidelines to go off of. Or, even more difficult, if you’re something that a human brain can’t even properly perceive in the first place.

I’m a 4th dimensional being, which makes my true form inconceivable to my current brain. I know that eldritch beings, deities, void, and some other alien creatures have a similar problem.

You can start by working with what you do have. I knew that I’m an alien, and I knew that I’m 4th dimensional, and I knew I have a strong connection to tesseracts (4D cubes). I also figured that I would not have a static form. So I gradually theorized and pieced things together til I came to something plausible. Then I tweaked it just a bit more until I stumbled on something that clicked.

For me this involved adding things into the design that have always resonated with me, such as bright colors, glowing body parts, and more. I’ll be completely honest, I have no idea if this is truly accurate or not, but it feels right and that’s what matters to me. It helps to have a concept of your form that you can grasp and cpnceptualize yourself as even of it may not be 100% true to life.

(Pictured is my concept art of my alien self)

[a-dragons-journal]

Oh yeah, that’s another thing - even for someone who’s a 100% physical being in the typical sense, we forget sometimes that, for example, species see colors in a million different ways, and humans are far from standard on that front. Many other species see more, less, or a different range of colors than we do, and the human brain often simply isn’t capable of translating that correctly - for all I know, I might have actually appeared solid black to human eyes, but because my species could see into the ultraviolet spectrum, it gets translated to “bright blue” by my current brain. Or I really was bright blue! Who knows?

[cottageaesthetic]

[cottageaesthetic]

[talon-dragonbeast]

When you say your body is human but you’re completely nonhuman, can I ask how it works for you? I wonder if I relate

it's kinda hard to explain, but ill try. so, im not physically nonhuman, right? my body is completely, 100% human; i look human, i have human physiology, i have human organs and human cells and human DNA. but my body is not me. "me", my mind, my conscience, what some people would call my soul, isnt in my body; its in my brain.

if you removed every organ of my body but left only the brain (and managed to keep me alive somehow), i would still be me. if you only removed my brain, but left everything else, i would not be me anymore. does that make sense?

my mind is what is nonhuman. i am a dragon with a human body, a human with a dragon mind. if i am not my body but my mind, then i am completely nonhuman, even if my body is not.

[words-of-wolf]

This is very similar to how I feel!

Except in my case, I don't feel like I am my brain either, but rather an inhabitant of the brain which I am using. My body is my vessel; it's mine in the same way I could own a vehicle.

Driving a car doesn't mean I AM a car. Owning a car doesn't mean I'm a car, despite it being "my car". I utilise the car's functions and internal mechanics to drive it; I am limited, in the process of driving, to the capabilities of the car.

While driving the car, I still know how to swim, but I can't make the car swim, yeah?

And though the car only moves according to what I want it to do, and though it is indeed mine, I'm still not a car - just the person who's driving it.

In a similar way - I am entirely physically human, in that I am inhabiting a human body which functions according to its own human biological mechanisms. But I am not at all human. This is true even though I look like a human and work like a human, and in a lot of cases do think like a human. These are effects of the human brain I'm driving, which has its own gears and mechanisms which I can't directly control (same as I couldn't just reach into a car's engine and change how it works, but I don't need to be able to do that to drive it)!

Sometimes I feel at odds with my own human brain, because it doesn't feel like me; it doesn't feel like home. But also, a wolf can't think up a fictional story and a spirit monster can't pet a cat, so I think it roughly balances out. ^^