#folcintera

[howlinginsolitude]

Had a dream the other night that has made me feel so shifty since, so enjoy some new moon art

[that-dreaming-dragon]

My Physiology, or Lack of Physicality

At the beginning, when I start to figure out what I look like, I think physics and biology were already rather loose as concepts.

In the earlier days of alterhuman community experience, I called my otherkinity spirituality based, but not because of a past life (though somewhat debatable due to my also draconic kardiatype). I say I am “a dragon soul”. I say that I was meant to be born a dragon, but also was tethered to this human body. I'm not living a parallel life, nor am I necessarily an astral entity that is operating this body. Although I do prefer to call this body of mine a vessel sometimes. I also like the sound of metaphysical as an explanation of my own draconity. I had utilized "concurrent life" as an explanation before, not realizing at the time that it's more meant as a synonym to parallel life. I had meant for it to be as something "current", to quote arethinn

"I haven't had any past lives as an elf, I just AM an elf soul in a human body" - arethinn on tumblr

Words have always been hard for me, to have the words to describe myself, my feelings? Abstract and nebulous, ephemeral, ethereal. All the wonderfully vague words to tell just what sort of dragon I am, and how I experience this existence. I am not physical, in the sense that my draconic body doesn't function like an animal, that I'm more akin (ha!) to a spirit, or perhaps I am a spirit. Incorporeal. cryptidanathema posted on Alterhuman Community a while ago, discussing the categorization of Pokemon. In essence, Pokemon, which is just Pocket Monster shortened, are a class that should be defined as "RPG monster" (it's even in the name!). Or more my favorite as quoted from xeyblades’ comment

"similar in substance to youkai or other japanese folkloric beings and even kami. some manner of magical entity that is not quite "real" but also very real" - xeyblades on Alterhuman Community

While I would say I have mostly figured out the property of my physiology, as a manner of speaking, this community post helped solidify my language even more.

Monster.

A word with complicated connotations. Some negative, some neutral. I'm going to skip over the negative connotations as it is not why I have that word as one of my self descriptor. I am something to be categorized as a RPG monster, I am something that is spiritual, folkloric, mythical. Like a youkai or a kami. I have Mew as a archetrope because the whole framework of what Mew is defines something of what I am. I have Flammie as a vague-flicker. I am folcinteric.

Perhaps that is how I am a shapeshifter? In which I function more like something that is pure energy rather than being composed of physical matter. The disconnect from this body, human or not, I think may also be why I have a hard time understanding holothere, physical nonhumanity (and perhaps how Akumu had a week of panic trying to drive this human body). I am a being, an entity, a cryptic creature. I am a dream dragon.

[paracosmic-gt]

Am I Borrower Folcintera?

The title is rhetorical :)

Author: J/June of Wanderstars

Word count: 786

📎🧵🌱🧵📎

Folcintera is something that describes a folklore connection right? If so, I think Borrower folcintera is the way I should go. I look at the way borrower and brownie are interchanged and I wonder if all this goes deeper...

(read on below the cut)

I tried archetropy, but I think this label is the way it's heading. So I'm gonna talk about it.

First I talk about myself. I have my own understanding of who I am that mimics the story of Borrowers everywhere. Beyond my current stature, my life seems to follow a Borrower's existence.

I found myself coming to front in the middle of a breakdown, as we hid in a closet, and I felt safe. Behind walls, peeking in at a house we never felt fully safe in. I've always been on the outskirts and underfoot, even going so far as to imagine what would happen if I suddenly was the size I hoped. I'd run and hide. I often felt that I would be safer with a stranger, with a chosen giant, than my own family.

"Be good to them and they won't squish you."

I am a vulnerable creature, sensitive and shy, suffice it to say I adopted this role wholeheartedly. Fawning and caring for everyone so I wasn't hurt. Hiding in the shadows and the corners, borrowing the smallest favours so I wasn't noticed for taking too much. Constantly stifled in a place I was supposed to grow, until now I take up such little space.

I look human, but I'm not on the inside.

As a child we loved fairies, used to write notes to them wishing for wings to fly away. Now I return to the depiction of a typical fairy and I wonder about how I look to them. I've been grounded, living inside a house for so long, crazed and wild as a feral mouse. How they welcome me into lush forests and calm grasses. Tell me that it's okay, that I'm safe now. That I've survived, and I'm still alive.

And then, well, I met my giant. And he reminds me I'm not all typical borrower. He reminds me that, just like Arietty, I haven't developed a distrust for all giants. I don't have the "sense". Like Sho, we met in greenery and I learnt to trust him. Because he is the one who manages to make me feel safe, comfortable, and loved.

I am a tiny, my size is incredibly important to me. It is affirming and lovely and spreads like vines to make me a bug, a borrower, and maybe even a fairy too. It's born from suffering, but now it is my choice to return to a giant's house. Running underfoot becomes a game, a happy and delightful game, as I re-enact my trauma and reconnect to my own heritage. Because as much as the borrower lifestyle is pain, it is who I am. I can no longer pretend I am human, and I embrace the good, and the bad.

Now it comes to folklore, how others see me. Borrowers as a species seem to share a strong resemblance and connection to brownies or broonies, which are household spirits from Scottish folklore. However, there seems a split between the two kinds in general view. Brownies are associated with Fae, goblins, gnomes, etc. while Borrowers are typically viewed as "tiny people" without any specified powers. Joining the ranks of Lilliputians and tinies everywhere. The depictions of both range vastly online and in literature, from insectoid to rodentish, and magical to mundane.

For me, the line between what I am and what I see depicted of my kind is blurred.

To what extent am I mystical? I don't have magic, but when I get really excited I feel wings buzzing behind me as if I was Fae. Scientifically, I can't exist at my size, so there must be something else inside me. I also don't find it alarming that I am a Borrower who is therian identifying, a lot of my nonhuman-ness feels very in line with being a tiny creature forced to survive on the outskirts of society.

To what extent am I human? I have written stories myself, of a giant meeting a borrower and coming to realise they are the same levels of intelligence and sophistication. I sometimes look it, but inside I don't feel it. I've lived inside a human dwelling and adopted their customs but I'm not a human. And I think my fellow literary Borrowers would agree.

So I am left with a bit of a puzzle to fill, but pieces are coming into place slowly. All I know is that I'm a Borrower, whatever that even means, and folcintera as a term seems to acknowledge all the points I mentioned above.

Another thread untangled, in a complex yet simple appearing web. All starting with giantess comics on DeviantArt and a kid who wanted to fly.

[bardkin]

i'm still very early in doing the challenge, so i decided to re-do & expand on my [second] attempt at @who-is-page's folcintera writing challenge! this iteration goes in much better depth of my experiences.

🐾 DAY ONE 📜

What is your species? How do you experience aspects of your nonhumanity?

while my identity contains multitudes a number of different aspects [such as being Steven Universe & Shadow the Hedgehog], at the end of the day, i am physically & internally a beast. in practice, for me, this is similar to gender stuff. it's also kind of tied into my gender stuff, but that's another post for another time. my thought process is rather simple: "if i am an animal, my body is as well."

the initial name i had for this animal was "gulodae," but i'm currently workshopping something new. it is a mustelidae beast; primarily resembling wolverines & fisher cats, with traits inspired by some mustelinae [stoats, weasels, minks] & martens.

the gulodae is something of my own design; a coalesced name/title for my animality. it's is not an effort to hybridize or "reduce" my therianthropy. rather, it's part of the experience itself.

alongside being an upright animal, i am a storyteller archetrope. being this affects all i do, all i am. my very nature is to weave narratives, worlds, cultures, regardless of my shape. it is truly the core of what i am, what i do, & what drives me. being a storyteller heavily affects my animality; it shapes my instinct, my mythos, my image. in turn, my animality heavily affects my storytelling; it shapes the lens & image of my art.

i grew up with animal stories, xenofiction, and always felt the strongest connection to the creature characters within those stories. in real-world social situations, i've always felt like an outlier - like i don't actually belong there, or that i'm "outside" of a given social dynamic. i'm the "person gets dragged to a party & befriends the house's cat" experience, except that i'm the cat.

i think that's why i was so drawn to the furry fandom. i've never felt more at home than i do with furry, because i think many others share that feeling of otherness & love/appreciation for animal characters. i only recently realized just how much of my animality has been shaped by furry culture - and how much my animality has shaped my furry experiences. a large part of the furry fandom is fursona crafting, and this hobby varies greatly between individuals. for some, a fursona is a one-to-one interpretation of themselves - just in animal form. for others, fursonas are more akin to "avatars" they use for self-expression, created from bits & pieces of theirself & expanded upon to the extreme. some people only have one fursona, others have a bunch.

i went through a lengthy questioning process with my animality. my fursonas throughout that time heavily reflect my mindset throughout this process; each one felt a step closer or further away from what i wanted for myself. furry is what inspired me to make a species for myself.

making this species & mythos has been & is something fun, introspective; it's an effort to cultivate a true sense of self for me & me alone.

[liondrakes]

The Liondrake Beckons

by Sivaan of Candlekeep

While wracking my brain for things to do for @who-is-page’s Alterhumanity Writing Challenge, I figured I would close it out by incorporating yet another challenge of Page’s.

For these next few days, I’ll be incorporating the Folcintera Week Challenge into my responses for the previously mentioned challenge. Being a folkloric

Day 23 of the AHPI Writing Challenge

Day 1 of the Folcintera Week Challenge

1. What is your species? How do you experience aspects of your nonhumanity?

That’s a loaded question for this beast, to say the least. I experience being so many things that I could fit them all into Noah’s Ark if I wanted! Even so, I’ll focus on the central ones in this response.

First things first, I am polymorphic. Polymorphs categorically neighbor shapeshifters, although the latter is more recognizable by name in a mythic or folkloric context. While our community has tried to specify what sets us apart for years, many will find that we have our fair share of similarities as opposed to differences. The same can be said of my core species. Indeed, being polymorphic isn’t where my identity ends.

I’m a polymorph in the same way a wolf is a canine. It’s a general descriptor for what I am, but it also contains countless ways of being. “Polymorph” is my clade if you will.

My species is Panthera leo draconis: the liondrake. I belong to the subspecies P. l. draconis aurum, otherwise known as the gold dragonne of Faerûn. It is my primary species as a polymorph, followed by being The Winged Lion. Although I have well over fifty ‘types, these specific identities are the most prominent of my experiences.

Both bridge between my draconity and my polymorphism, two experiences that are intrinsic to who I am. Otherworldly in ability, versatile in form and with a strange attachment to humankind, it’s hard to point out where the Gold Dragonne begins and the Winged Lion ends. They even share a background of being used as heraldic symbols!

As of lately, I’ve come to use the term “Liondrake” as a way of grouping them together. Truth be told, the only things separating the two would be their sources and how their folklore is portrayed in said sources.

That said, not every detail lines up between them. Under the surface, these fictomeres contrast each other in subtle yet major ways. Although both position themselves as allies to humanity, my presence in Delicious in Dungeon’s folklore displays malevolence. I can’t say that I blame the humans of that world as I’m rather parasitic towards them. Then again, not all folklore is whimsical and full of adventure (rarely so, in fact). It’s no skin off my nose knowing that they feel such a way.

On the flip side, the same cannot be said of my draconic species’s presence in The Forgotten Realms. The allyship of metallic dragonnes is thoroughly documented in Faerûnian lore. Our reputation is comparable to our siblings, the metallic dragons— and yes, the distinction in spelling is just as noteworthy. Yet, dragonnes of my canon are much more familiar faces to Faerûnian society since we tend to stick closer to civilization in contrast to other draconic beings. Many a banner or flag is embellished with the image of us, likely due to our histories of meddling aiding in human affairs.

The folkloric dispositions of these fictomeres are also reflected in my archetropy. I attribute the Gold Dragonne with my quest guide archetrope, fulfilling the role of setting adventuring parties on the right path. Conversely, I attribute the Winged Lion with my wise serpent archetrope. I may not be serpentine in the literal sense, but my behaviors and motivations within the dungeon are more than applicable to a wise serpent’s role in mythology and fiction alike.

When it’s all said and done, these conflicting qualities exist as a balance. They’re on opposite ends of a spectrum, and everything in between is rich with complexity. It’s likely why I experience them in tandem.

The juxtaposition of these fictomeres are a part of my everyday life, just as their fluidity is. Despite their differences, they’re still deeply intertwined and of equal importance to me.

[tempestgnostic]

The Werewolf: Archetype and Identity

Someday I’ll make a list of my alterhuman and otherhearted identities, but I’m not sure when that will be. For now, I’ll just talk about the the most prominent one: The Werewolf. I capitalize the name for both its significance and the fact that it’s an archetypal identity, so to speak. (I also use he/him throughout this essay, simply because I’m speaking of The Werewolf in relation to myself, and as myself.) I’m not a specific werewolf in any sense, and I’m not drawn from just one piece of folklore, or even one broad interpretation. It’s much bigger than that. Of course, explaining all the finer details would require an essay, and time is at a premium nowadays. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Pay no attention to the appropriately-timed readmore.

Let’s look at an example of what I mean: the eponymous baron in Bisclavret is a specific werewolf, but he’s also one of many depictions of The Werewolf as a somewhat noble being who is wronged by others—in this case, his wife—as a consequence of his true nature. This “noble beast” interpretation can be contrasted with folk tales of feral werewolves who threaten villagers and fear neither torch nor blade. Werewolves aren’t solely monsters meant to inspire empathy or fear, however. They can also serve specific literary functions, often as symbols of broader concepts and experiences. The werewolf story can be used as a metaphor for a young person coming-of-age, a challenging tale of tangling with the darker aspects of human nature, or even as an exploration of queer identity and the liminal spaces we occupy. These are certainly not unique to werewolves, and the latter is especially common among other creatures embraced by the horror genre.

Each broad interpretation of The Werewolf feels to me like a part of my identity on some level. I’m the werewolf who feels guilty for the harm he’s done, who tries to resist his feral urges, but I’m also the one who embraces that side and indulges in it. I’m the werewolf who was born this way, the one who was blessed (or cursed) by some spirit or deity, but also the one who was bitten or scratched—forever changed out of cruelty, indifference, or even a dark perversion of love. The only bits of werewolf folklore I won’t engage with on some level are those from practices and cultures that are closed for me. They’re not mine to claim on any level—certainly not in any way that would be respectful.

Like so many in our community, my connection to The Werewolf is intricately intertwined with almost all other aspects of my identity. I’m genderqueer, yet I strictly use he/him pronouns. I have a beard—a thick one, at that—and a flat chest, yet I also identify myself as butch and sapphic. It’s been uniquely gender-affirming for me to have partners who identify as lesbians—to be fully seen and understood as butch. It would feel incredibly uncomfortable and even dysphoric for me to be with a straight woman. Even within queer spaces, at times I feel either gravely misunderstood or utterly invisible. I am, on some level, expected to conform, and my refusal to do so marks me at best as ‘confused,’ and at worst as a threat.

I embrace the androgyny in my voice and mannerisms, and I easily—often unintentionally—slip into different social presentations depending on who’s around me. (I’m also autistic, to no one’s surprise.) Code-switching comes naturally to me, likely as a result of having to cobble together adequate social skills over the course of a decade, but also as a matter of safety as a queer person who’s only ever lived in red states. The Werewolf is a liminal creature, existing in several different worlds at once and moving through them with varying levels of ability. I am no different—charming and quick to make friends when I know the social landscape, and terribly awkward and clumsy when I don’t.

In the interest of keeping this even remotely readable in one sitting, I’ll wrap this up here. The Werewolf can be a charismatic yet dangerous lover, a pitiful and wretched thing, a creature just beyond the veil of understanding, or even a kindred spirit. I am and have been all of these things, both in my external life and my mind’s inner world. I experience phantom and mental shifts, and I see myself in so many depictions of werewolves in media. This part of my identity plays a vital role for me in kink—though I’ll save the details for a properly 18+ post—in my relationship dynamics, in my pagan spirituality, and many other parts of my life. It fits neatly over my gender expression like a second skin and provides a backdrop for my social presence. I am The Werewolf As Archetype: a being representing liminality, transformation, and embracing authenticity—at any cost. It is a vital part of me, without which I would cease to be.

[who-is-page]

I'm the one who made the borrower folcintera essay. Someone has brought up to me that folcintera was defined with identifying as an animal in mind.

I read this part: "experience of a person who experiences a form of involuntary, intrinsic nonhumanity with aspects of both animality and sapience" and was like yes! But now I realise it is also said to be identifying as an animal from folklore.

I'm wondering if it's actually okay to use your word if the being that I'm referring to is not really an animal. In some circles they are portrayed as rodents but typically they are a humanoid nonhuman. I wouldn't want to be using your personal word out of turn because It's your word.

If not, I am so fine with just sticking with borrowerkin and personally knowing I have all those folklore undertones.

Don't worry-- I'd honestly say that you interpreted folcintera correctly from the start!

I wrote an essay about it a while ago here that expands significantly on the term past its bare-bones definition, A Short Introduction to Folcinteric Nonhumanity, and I don't know if you've given it a read through already (although it could probably use an update tbh, it's three years old) but I think this excerpt from its The Limits of Folcintera subsection explains what I mean well:

"To be quite clear: there are virtually no limits to what ones’ species identity can be within folcinteric nonhumanity, so long as that species identity is inarguably non-human and the identity is connected to one’s personal mythos and outside mythos as well. Divine, cryptid, “earthly”, and literal fictional species are all considered legitimate species categories within folcinteric identities. The concept of lived mythology referenced earlier extends not only to superstitions and stories resonating in the modern day from hundreds of years ago, but to any sort of narrative that is “lived” and made real by humans."

So yeah, don't sweat it, you're accurate in how you're using folcintera.

[dogmandotcom]

Being a Folklore Dog

I’ve been meaning to write about my nonhumanity for a while now so hi, I’m dogbeast~! I’m a human-ish weredog shapeshifting fae dog monster ;-)

My system’s best guess right now is that I’m a fusion of two previous alters, but I would’ve fused before we realised we were a system so we don’t really remember how that process went down. I’m fairly sure I’m a fusion of a human lad and a black monster dog which is why I’m both human and a dog cryptid~ ♡

I’m specifically a black monster dog from British folklore like a barghest, shuck, gytrash or padfoot (I’m not a church grim even though they can appear as black dogs, that’s a slightly different kind of beast to me 😌). I have more of a connection to the area of the UK we grew up in than a lot of my other headmates and being a British folklore dog is really important to me and my connection to my home. I’m a pretty sociable and chill guy but I’m also super queer and it’s hard sometimes to grow up in a conservative rural area and feel like an outcast in a place that means so much to you. Black shuck is a monster but it’s a monster that belongs in East Anglia. I’m a medieval european historian too and it feels so right that I have this connection to the history of my home. I’m an old monster and I’ve always been here and always will be here.

✨Dehumanisation✨ reasons aside though being a black dog doesn’t feel like a negative thing for me at all. I’m a lot more stable and happier as a fused alter than either of my component parts were and I love being a big scary monster weredog~ Black dogs are also considered ghost dogs and fairy dogs and I think I can definitely see myself as a fae human weredog thing 👀

Literally in the middle of writing this lol I remembered that @who-is-page coined the word folcintera and I think that might fit what I am - a weredog who’s nonhumanity is intrinsically tied to British folklore 😌 Theriomythic works for me too I think! Honestly I haven’t existed in my current form for more than a few months so I’m still figuring out the details of what exactly I am haha but folcintera and theriomythic feel right for now