further-fields

[further-fields]

let me change into something more comfortable *turns into a beast*

[further-fields]

HowlCon attendee registration is now open!

Time sure flies - the con is only two and a half months away! So attendee registration is now open for HowlCon!

What is HowlCon?

HowlCon is a virtual camping-themed convention for alterhumans and nonhumans being hosted September 19-21, 2025!

We are often so scattered across the web, we hope to serve as a gathering place for folks to meet others like themselves, make friends and generally have a good time. Our goal is to bring our community together for a weekend of fun and learning.

Register here!

The form will close a week before the con - September 12, 2025.

Also!

Panelist and artist applications have been extended to August 20

Looking for a way to engage more with the alterhuman and nonhuman community?

There's still time to register as a panelist or artist!

It's a great way to get a bunch of other critters together to do something fun - or learn something new! Make friends, share your ideas and put yourself out there. 

Artist application

Panelist application

[further-fields]

Hello gay people in my phone

[further-fields]

Otherheartedness, Synpaths and Hearthomes – A Quick Rundown

We've seen some posts around like this for other subsections of the community, so we figured we'd make a 'heartedness one. This isn’t extensive, nor does it cover the entirety of the hearted experience–but it should serve as a general rundown of the community. This post has a PDF version that's going to be archived on our Neocities.

Terminology

Otherhearted:  – Synonyms: “Otherkith”A person with a strong connection to a species, character or other entity, usually defined by identifying "with", but not "as". More on what exactly this means later.

Concepthearted: A person whose otherhearted identity relates to concepts. (Emotionhearted, songhearted, timehearted, etc).

Facthearted: A person whose otherhearted identity relates to real, this-world people, places or individual animals. (Hearttypes including specific oceans, public figures/celebrities, specific animals, etc).

Fictionhearted: A person whose otherhearted identity relates to fictional characters, species or places. (Nightfuryhearted, Mariohearted, etc).

Planthearted: A person whose otherhearted identity relates to plants. (Treehearted, sunflowerhearted, etc).

Theriohearted: – Synonyms: “Animalhearted” A person whose otherhearted identity relates to animals. (Wolfhearted, bearhearted, etc).

Hearttype: – Synonyms: “Kithtype”, debatably “Synpath”The entity that an otherhearted individual identifies with.

–hearted: A suffix used to denote your specific hearttype. For example, a person whose hearttype is wolves would be wolfhearted.

Hearthome: A hearthome is a place–be it real or fictional–that a person has a deep connection with, often to the point of considering it a “home” regardless of if they’ve never been there in their current life/body.

Synpath: A thing someone identifies with and not as, used similarly to "hearttype", though there's nuances separating the two terms depending on who you ask.

Symbols

The otherhearted symbol or diamond heart was proposed by tumblr user aestherians in 2017, chosen by the community using a poll. The design features a ring interlocking with a heart, which converges into a diamond shape in the middle.

What Does It Really Mean?

“Identifying With”

“Identifying with” is a broad category that’s understandably, quite confusing. This explanation aims to make it a little more understandable, but this absolutely doesn’t cover the entirety of what “identifying with” can mean. “It” in the following points refers to a hearttype or potential hearttype, whatever that may be.

You feel like you “should have” been it, but you aren’t.

You feel like you “could have” been it, but you aren’t.

It is a part of you even if it’s not entirely “you”.

You feel like you will be it in a future life.

You believe that in another life, you are/have been it, but right now you’re not.

Your sense of self wouldn’t be the same without it as a part of your life.

It’s your ideal self, or a representation of it.

You feel at home around it or imagining being around it.

It’s the form of your daemon.

You believe it’s a parallel life of yours, but you’re not it right now.

It influences your identity in some way.

It’s a special interest or hyperfixation that feels tied to your sense of self.

You feel like it is a part of the same family as you.

You feel like it is, in a way, kind of almost you, but a little “to the left”--too distinct to be you in a literal sense.

You feel like you belong with it, but you’re not literally one of them.

It is a part of your identity in some way other than you being literally them.

A lot of the above points relate in similar ways to hearthome identities, but reworded to incorporate “it” as a place instead. Additional points for hearthomes include:

Feeling like you should be there.

Feeling like you were there once, and it’s left a mark on your identity.

That place holding a special place within your identity.

Feeling a “pull” toward that place.

FAQ:

How is this different from otherkin/therians?

A therian/otherkin identifies as their kintype, whereas an otherhearted person doesn’t, and will have a different type of connection to them. Think of the difference as “I am [kintype]” vs “[hearttype] is a part of my identity”. However, there’s plenty of nuance, grey areas between them, and these identities can even shift and become each other over time, so this is a general statement not accounting for those nuances.

Both things are still alterhuman, and no identity is “lesser” than the other–hearttypes can have just as much influence over a person’s identity as kintypes can.

Can hearttypes be chosen/voluntary?

Yes! There’s a divide between otherkin and otherlinkers in this way, but this hasn’t ever really been a need for the ‘hearted community to define or draw a line between.

What things can be a hearttype?

Anything! Generally, if you are currently experiencing it, the rule is that it can happen. You’re experiencing it, after all!

Hearttypes can be (but aren’t limited to): 

Animals, mythical creatures, plants, fungi

Oceans, forests, off-planet locations, buildings, fictional locations, other natural formations like rivers and mountains

People, real or fictional

Emotions, colours, aesthetics, sounds, seasons, songs

Objects, robots, machines, artworks

Book series, tv shows, movies, games

Do otherhearted people shift?

Otherhearted people absolutely can experience shifts, as can any other alterhuman and even non-alterhumans. Shifting isn’t a thing exclusive to otherkin/therians.

Is this different from a special interest or hyperfixation?

For some people, yes! We’ve seen many people (including ourselves) who experience these things with a lot of overlap. For others, no–they’re distinct things even if there might be some similarities.

Hearttypes can be the same thing as your special interest/hyperfixation, or they might not be. Sometimes hearttypes form spins/hyperfixes and sometimes it’s the other way around! It’s really up to the individual to decide whether these things are hearttypes or not–there’s no set default for this.

Further Reading:

Alterhuman Archive’s Otherhearted Section: https://www.zotero.org/groups/4956615/altarchive/collections/R9URWR67 A compilation of heartedness related writings from across the community.

Otherhearted-Culture-Is: https://otherhearted-culture-is.tumblr.com/ A culture-is blog for otherhearteds that’s turned into more of a general purpose otherheartedness blog.

A Short Guide for Questioning a Hearttype: https://otherhearted-culture-is.tumblr.com/post/717226958368489473/further-fields-a-short-guide-for-questioning-a A questioning guide to otherhearted identity.

[further-fields]

2020s-era "kinnies" start shaking and trembling when a real honest-to-god fictionkin walks in the room

[further-fields]

We are the beyond normative community. We should always challenge what's "normal" "typical" or "stereotypical".

[further-fields]

I'm Fictionkin-ish? Coining: Imagithrope.

@who-is-page and @frameacloud's panel at Othercon has gotten me thinking about writing essays about my own alterhuman experience... I was thinking maybe I should write something about why I write fiction, and how that relates to my own identity. But thinking about that made me realize that one of the reasons I write is because I identify as a fictional self-insert character that I created when I was a hatchling in make-believe games. Like, that's the way I view myself - not as a generic blue dragon, but as that specific character. Additionally, given that many of those games were based loosely in books I've read, it means that my identity is based in fiction as well. Though I don't identify as him, my name is even based on a fictional character's!

I've never really thought about calling myself fictionkin before now. When I joined the otherkin community initially, I had some bad reactions to talking about my identity in that way. And then some more bad reactions. My identity as a dragon is involuntary; I couldn't change it if I tried (and I have), and it isn't something I intentionally made into an identity. It's a bit of why I never really got why everyone insisted strongly on the distinction between otherkin and otherlinkers. Though I'm not opposed to the idea, I don't feel like my fictional identity was made by me channeling a past life either, which felt like it was the acceptable explanation for this back in 2016. Otherwise, creating a kintype wasn't "allowed."

For a while, I felt like I separated my identity into a dragon otherkin aspect, where I was just "a dragon", and had character me on the side as a fun thing - what I considered my "kinsona". But I think this is a false dichotomy. The two aren't really separable; who I am as a dragon was created through books and play. It wasn't really until @aestherians's posts in early 2021 - five years after I found the otherkin community - that I felt that the community had finally decided that the definitional line between kintype and linktype, voluntary and involuntary, didn't have to be such a strict line after all. (I'd been arguing that "involuntary identity" shouldn't be a part of the definition of otherkin for four years by that point, so yes, I'm still both smug and salty.)

So, though I didn't expect this to lead to me coining a new term when I started out writing out this post, I've decided to do it. I'm not sure if anyone except me is going to use it, but I think creating it as a concept gives it both a bit of legitimacy and permanence. I hope it will be of use to someone else, and if anyone else shares a similar experience, I welcome them to talk about it in more detail - at some point now, I think I definitely should describe mine.

Imagithrope - An alterhuman whose identity was created and/or formed, wholly or partially, through some form of imaginative play. This can include fantasy play, roleplay (tabletop, text, live action, etc), fanfiction, writing, art, and more.

[further-fields]

Maybe controversial but I want to bring it up, a large reason I don’t like any anti human sentiment from both humans and nonhumans is that all of the reasons cited for why humans are horrible honestly isn’t exclusive to just humans. Any animal species if it evolved enough would take over the world. ANY animal species. And that’s really the goal of every single animal species as well, it’s just kept in check by others and environmental factors. If they could, they would. They all want to succeed and populate and spread as much as possible that’s innate to being a living being, plants as well. And as for stuff like greed and atrocities and horrors and division I think all of that is just because humans happen to be apes. I think we’d see the same thing out of another highly intelligent and evolved ape species. The more I think and learn about ecology and biology the more so much of that kind of belief doesn’t make sense or is completely false. Humans are animals and nonhuman animals are not any more unique or special or pure than humans are. Please research ecology even on a basic level.

[further-fields]

I swear we've seen a poll like this before (maybe we've even made one before) but I'm making it again now anyway! We've been seeing not much rep for human-identifying alterhumans so we wanted to throw out a little poll to see how many are out there.

No orthohuman/non-alterhuman option to not skew the results.

Also, "fully nonhuman" means whatever you'd define it as--it can include physical nonhuman identity, or it can include simply fully identifying as a nonhuman in a human body. Up to you!

[further-fields]

Draconity: A Draconic Zine || Info Doc

It’s time to celebrate! Let’s come together to create something for the community. Whether you got scales, feathers, fur or otherwise we want to hear from you. What does draconity mean to you?

This zine will be a collection of pieces created by nonhumans and alterhumans about any aspect of draconity they feel called to share. Also, this zine imposes no set definition on what is or isn’t “dragon enough.” If you feel like the label applies, you’re included! 

What Can I Submit?

Both fiction and nonfiction pieces are accepted. As long as what you have in mind fits the theme, it’ll probably be a-ok. 

Off the top of our head, we’re thinking of:

Essays of your personal experiences

Short stories 

Poetry 

Mock advice columns

Alternative covers

Fictional advertisements

Comics 

Recipes

We welcome you to think outside the box and share whatever inspires you about being draconic!

How to Participate

Fill out our google form to submit an entry.

A name you would like the piece attributed to 

Title of your submission

Any content warnings that you feel are necessary for the piece

Any social media handle or personal website you'd like linked in the contributor section

A logo or icon for the contributor section

**If you would like to stay anonymous let us know

Submit the form multiple times for multiple entries. Members of systems are welcome to submit individually or collectively. Please let us know your preference when it comes to attribution.

Once the deadline has passed, these submissions will be put into the zine and it will be posted on itch.io as a free PDF. 

Submissions are due by November 1st, 2025.

Submission Guidelines

Each individual may submit up to 3 works to be featured in Draconity. Comics and multi-image works count as one piece. Individuals within a system may each submit up to 3 works. All work must be your own! Anyone caught plagiarizing or submitting AI-generated work will be barred from entering Draconity and any future zines from us.

Written submissions and multi-part art entries should not exceed 10 pages. Please keep in mind the zine’s pages will be 8.5x11 and entries will be scaled accordingly to fit that size. We request all art submissions to be sent in either .jpg or .png file formats. 

For stories that use multiple different fonts, we will do our best to preserve the general "feel" of your piece but cannot guarantee we will be able to use the exact fonts or sizes due to restrictions in what fonts we have access to, readability and overarching zine style.

Submissions Must Fit the Thematic Criteria of:

About draconity / being draconic

That’s it! Go wild.

As stated in the summary, we will not be policing what is or is not considered “dragon.” If you self-identify as draconic you count! No portfolio or prior zine experience is needed to be included either.

FAQ

Q: Where will the zine be hosted? What will it cost?

A: The zine will be hosted digitally on our itch.io and will be free to download. 

Q: Is there a cap on submissions?

A: There is none, as long as the file doesn’t start getting too big for our computer we’ll do our best! If there are an unprecedented amount of submissions, we may have to delay the release. In the event that happens, we would communicate that through updates on our tumblr.

Q: Can I update my application after it’s been submitted?

A: Yes you may, as long as it’s done before the submission deadline.

Q: Can I rescind my submission?

A: Yes you may, as long as it’s done before the submission deadline. This is because once we begin work on the zine, having to remove content mid-way through would throw off the formatting of everything else after. Please take this into account before submitting. 

Q: Will this zine allow NSFW entries?

A: No, nothing 18+ will be accepted.

Q: Can I submit already completed/published works?

A: Absolutely! It’s ok to submit past work that has been posted to your social media or website. Our only stipulation is that it cannot have been previously featured in another zine. This helps us keep each of our annual Draconity zines unique and distinct from one another.

Q: What is your timeline for the project?

A: Our submission deadline is November 1st, 2025. Our goal is to have the zine live by the end of the year. If something unforeseen happens and we are unable to make that deadline, we will post an update about it on our tumblr.

Q: I have another question!

A: Feel free to reach out to us at our email RuffledGryphgon(@)gmail(.)com with any other questions you have about the zine.

Previous Community Zines:

Modern Draconity

My Gender is [NOT] Human

[further-fields]

HowlCon Panelist & Artist Applications Now Open

Artist

Apply Now

Signing up as an artist is the best way to maximize the visibility of your commissions during the con.

Artists are given exclusive access to post their wares in our artist alley channels. And, if they wish, to add art streams to our official con schedule.

HowlCon is not responsible for any sales that take place.

Panelist

Apply Now

Have an event you want to host? This is what being a panelist is about! From meet-ups, lectures, discussions, gaming together, arts and crafts time, and many more ideas we don't have the space to list. Your topic does not have to be explicitly about alterhumans or nonhumans.

We accept panels hosted live, pre-recorded and through text. Applications close July 1, 2025

[further-fields]

So I learnt that with being Otherhearted comes this feeling, a place. Called your Hearthome-

It seems like it's just like...your place. Your space, environment, location, universe, world, wherever that is, that makes you feel the safest, the most welcome the most euphoric the most true to yourself. A place where you can just feel free and live how you want to live surrounded by the things that make you feel the absolute most happiest. A bit like the Species Euphoria, but with a place.

I think I have multiples of these, and then one true sort of main one. I dunno if there is a word within Hearthome that sort of separates those. But there are so many movie universes I would absolutely kill to be a part of, like the HTTYD universe, or things like Narnia, or this place at home irl, where we go on holiday a lot and is my favourite place to go on holiday.

But the place I truly feel the most at home and free spirited and euphoric is the beach. Any beach, really, but there is one specific one I think of. (I won't say the name because I'm not doxing myself xD) and I've known that for a few a couple years now. It took me soooooo long to realise, it was a real journey. But when I went there on holiday and then came back I found myself missing the atmosphere, the sounds, smells, sights, everything, soooooooo much!

So I'd say my Hearthome is the beach.

[further-fields]

Being a system practicing projection and/or imposition is so funny because why is there a reshiram standing over me in the kitchen? Why is Tomura Shigaraki standing ominously in the doorway? Why is there a dragon on my bed?

[further-fields]

We originally submitted this piece to Mosaic of the Unhuman, but it's been a while and we don't think the zine is happening anymore. So here it is!

The theme was: "illuminating your alterhuman identity in the way that makes most sense to you."

[further-fields]

I've noticed that when someone is asking if they might be a therian (this happens more on YouTube, TikTok, etc), and they describe having a connection to an animal, there will sometimes be a reply that goes something like "Oh, you are probably just otherhearted!" Just. It's a small word but it changes the attitude. You're not that animal, you just have a connection to them. It makes it seem like being otherhearted isn't as deep as being nonhuman/semihuman/fictional. When it can be and often times is. For me, the connections I feel to my hearttypes are just as important to me as my kintypes and nonhumanity.

This leads into the bigger issue that I've noticed. Otherhearted beings (seemingly) are often brushed off as less than, when they are still an alterhuman/alterbeing. They are apart of this community just as much as any alterbeing is.

And further more, I've noticed that humans in the alterhuman community are overlooked. Perhaps this is just what I've seen because I spend my time in primarily nonhuman spaces. But there are plenty of humans in this community, and they are just as alterhuman/alterbeing as any of us are.

[further-fields]

"We're complimentary"

(Originally this was drawn for the Mosaic of the Unhuman zine, but after two years of no updates I think it's safe to say it's not getting released)

Everyone say hello to a rare depiction of Atleir. I wanted to convey how we're complimentary parts of a whole through the contrast of warm and cool tones and how certain parts, from the arms to the mane, can be looked at as though they merge into the same body. Note how the hand with phantom claws rests over the heart. The way things run parallel to each other is my experience otherheartedness and daemonism.