I’ve been digging through a rather odd book called “A Field Guide To Otherkin,” written by some gregarious psychotic named Lupa. Lupa herself has written a few books about magic that I don’t really care to read. The name of the book is a bit odd—the words “Field Guide” make one think of African explorers, or of going out into the wild and looking for weird people who think they’re dragons, strutting about in some sort of full-body costume. This is, of course, improbable—most Otherkin, in all likelihood, never leave their basements (in the quest for objective journalism, I’ll have to say I don’t really have any proof of this, since I’ve never actually seen an Otherkin inside or outside a house in person).

But I digress. I’d known that there is a broad range of Otherkin—from crazy and poorly read, to crazy but rather kind, to crazy and elitist, to complete yahoo dingbats—but only recently discovered that there are distinct groups of Otherkin and that there is a hierarchy to these groups. Some are considered more “real”—better able to give a good face to the public and, most of all, more truthful. The highest types are treated with respect, while the lowest are treated like misled crazies (at best), people who give Otherkin a bad name and need to be ostracized from the community at once. (Personally, I do not see how one can think that Otherkin could possibly, in any sort of sane universe, end up with a good name.) So, without further ado, here are the major types:

Therians:

Therians are the “top dogs” (no pun intended) of Otherkin society. Simply put, Therians think they are earthly, real animals stuck in human bodies. They are often the ones who write publically about Otherkin, talking about Otherkin and trying to convince non-Otherkin that Otherkin are a legitimate, reasonable group of people who need to be treated equally and with respect. For example, Lupa, the writer I mentioned earlier, is a therian—a wolf, to be precise. In fact, it seems that most therians are wolves, though I’m not certain to what percentage.

Many therians claim that they can shapeshift into their animal. Though having this ability is often seen as proof that one is an Otherkin, others simply say they feel that their soul (rather than body) is one of an animal. A surprisingly elegant quote about this mode of thinking comes from Erryn, a character (whether or not he exists is up for debate) in Lupa’s book, who states, “I would say that sometimes I feel like I manifest certain senses derived from the animal spirit.”

Vampires:

In many ways, I’m a bit weary of calling vampires a type of Otherkin, since most don’t claim to have the soul of a vampire, but instead claim to actually be vampires. Their numbers are also quite stunning and they often make separate forums devoted entirely to their kintype. In addition, vampires can be further divided into two types, Sanguine (those who “feed” on blood) and Psychic (those who “feed” on psychic energy).

Out of both, the Sanguine vampires are the only ones who really scare me. Though they obviously aren’t actually vampires, they do attempt to feed on people, albeit with consent, by arranging to meet vampire-loving humans and literally drinking their blood! This seems like a great way to spread diseases or possibly die in some horrible way. In contrast, Psychic vampires just hang around people and claim that they’re “feeding off of their psychic energy.” Kind of weird, but entirely harmless.

Elves:

Elves are by far the oldest kintype, dating back to the hippie movement. A strange group of pagan eco-hippies called “The Elf Queen’s Children” appeared in the 1970s, claiming to have memories of past elven lives. They vanished in 1977, possibly due to some sort of messy mass suicide that no one has bothered to look into. Nevertheless, they stand as an important group of proto-Otherkin.

Most elves tend to be decent people, although a little too eager to shove some sort of environmental message down your throat. I don’t know…they seem the most stable out of the whole lot, but obviously still pretty twisted.

Dragons:

Dragons…what can I say? I need to do more research. I know what a dragon is, but their dragons are nothing like any sort of dragon I’ve ever heard of. First off, they always refer to colors and shades, but never explain what they mean. For example, a dragon might say, “I’m a red dragon with the powers of a white dragon.” Okay, then what are the “powers of a white dragon” exactly? Well, I can’t seem to find a source, so screw it. All I know is that there are a lot of dragons, most of which keep to their own. This will be expanded upon in my next article.

Otakukin/Mediankin:

These guys…these guys…these guys are up a damn tree and around the bend. They’re so crazy that other Otherkin tend to go out of their way to get them off the forums and out of the community. To put it simply, they think they’re fictional characters, most often from different anime and webcomics. Pretty damn wacky, especially when they all think they’re the same character and get into fights with each other.

Ok, that about wraps it up. Those are the most common kintypes, though there are a lot of smaller ones that I didn’t mention. But whatever, I’ll see you next issue.