In what way are you a wolf?

[frameacloud]

The animal design within the brain in the second-to-last panel is based upon the White Mare of Uffington, a 370-foot design etched on a British hillside in the first century BCE.

[Edit 2017-04-03: Updated link.]

Comments

[elynne.livejournal.com]

*is very much looking forward to comic* :D

[ngarewyrd.livejournal.com]

It's supposed to be up at 1 am PST, yes?

[lunar-dragoness.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same, since it's 1:25AM out there now, by my clock...

[frameacloud]

That's peculiar...

The http://therithere.comicgenesis.com/rss.xml says that the comic updated at 2:12. I do have it set to update at 1:00, though. I guess there can be over an hour of delay.

[laurenthemself]

I love it very much.

I recently had a Deep and Meaningful Day with a group of close friends to discuss draconity, soulbonding, and various other suchlike ideas, and one of the things that we were asking all the dragons was, 'How did you find out? Why do you think you're a dragon?' and we got a few different origin stories, and I like that the comic addresses that.

[inuki42.livejournal.com]

If I were griffin, I would so be stealing the "other in spirit" panel for an LJ icon. I'm not sure why that panel is so compelling, but something about it really catches me. The "both human and other" panel would make a great icon, too, if the detail is still visible when scaled down...

It's interesting to see all these possible meanings of the same phrase - "I am __." In my personal use of the terminology, all of these would be "otherkin" - a being whose physical shape does not match their mental representation of themselves - except the last. Role-players of all intensities are furries, and it's possible to be both otherkin and furry. (I count as both, though my roleplay is primarily confined to self-depiction and AIM-pouncing.) I tend to think a therian is someone identifying with an Earth species, fae are the humanoids (elves, pixies, goblins...), undead are the vampires and zombies, angelics are the angels and demons, and mythics is everything else (dragons, griffins, centaurs...). Next to those are two more categories - furry and were. A furry is someone who role-plays and self-represents as an animal, most commonly an anthropomorphic animal, to others, whether or not they believe themselves to in any way be that animal. A were is someone who has the ability to shapeshift into a limited number of forms - not necessarily physically in this lifetime, but a werewolf is not the same as a wolf therian.

Wow, rambling. That's entirely my personal use of terminology, and I don't expect anyone to agree with me except in the general sense of "yeah, most/all of those terms apply to this type of thing."

..blame all that on it being between 5 and 7am local, if any of it doesn't make sense or is exceedingly random. ;)


Suggestion: entry with screened comments. Anyone who feels comfortable doing so can share their personal awakening story (and, if they're comfortable enough, indicate they would like it unscreened). If there's enough response, there will probably be a pattern, or several patterns, of "typical" awakenings. Might help solve the problem of not being quite comfortable sharing your own, and not wanting to single anyone out in particular, but needing to handle the topic somehow... just a thought. :)

Little Sleep Means I'll do Stuff Like This.

[zuki-san.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Not sure what I want to say. But I do think this is particularly neat set of visual representations for everything.

I'll second Inuki-san's comment for the "Other in Spirit" panel. Whether a representation of phantom-limb syndrome, or the shape of someone's aura, or just a visual shorthand for the way the sense of a different perspective overlays someone's life, it's working. Also, because I can see it representing all these things.

"Other in a Past Life": Hah! Guy looking over his shoulder, startled. As if to say, "Oh! So that's what I've been doing.

"Want to Become Other": Not mutually exclusive with any of the other identifications by far. And nor is wanting to be something other than in the human shape we're all sharing exclusively the province of 'kin and theris. For that matter, "What would you be, if you didn't have to be human? Or live on this earth?" is a question I like to ask my friends. Some people won't really answer the question--they're quite happy in their skins. But I've got at least once acquantaince who answered dragon, and another close friend of mine that I'm sure would be a kitsune (el asian shape-shifting fox trickster spirit) in a heartbeat.

For that matter, the practice of imagining what it would feel like to be to have a tail, or wings, or paws, or pointed ears, isn't exclusive to therianthropes or 'kin. Sure it's no phantom wing, but I'm not the only one of my friends who does this either. I've asked around. ~^.=.^~

Human and Other: Also a neat little illustration here! Shades of Yin and Yang, intertwining in a whole, a circle.

Other Ancestry: Honestly? I got nothin' to say on this, as I've done little reading about it, and I don't know a soul who ascribes to this. But I like the illustration. I wouldn't mind if my great grandma had pointed ears. ^.=.^

Other as a Trait of the Brain: Also a theory I've only just heard about, but kind of like. I also didn't catch the wolf at first--etched as it were into the folds and wrinkles of the person's brain. But I like it. Again, cute little effective pictures.

And then...yes. The infamous Roleplaying. You're being a bit more sympathetic here than most. I imagine the shouter in the back to represent the Oppressive Weight of The Community, so to speak.

--Oi! Largish post. I somehow feel the need to apologize for this much verbage--but, on the other hand, I like analyzing things. Mmm, literature classes. Mmm, webcomics.

Re: Little Sleep Means I'll do Stuff Like This.

[frameacloud]

Long comments are good comments. No need to apologize. Analysis is very good, since it helps me know what other people see in the comic, and whether the intended message got across. Thank you. :)

[delcan.livejournal.com]

*snurk* Love the last panel. Like some irate 'kin snuck into the comic and got in the way of the shot.

[genmaicha.livejournal.com]

I agree with a few of the above comments that mentioned the "Other in Spirit" panel; it really really works.

[valkyriur.livejournal.com]

The last panel was kind of interesting. I know there is some anomosity between the 'kin community and the RP furry communities because we get confused with each other, so I thought the person in the background of the last panel was kind of appropriate.

There is something else to consider though: a lot of RPers are also 'kin and the other way around.

[zuki-san.livejournal.com]

*nods* This is true. This is very true. There are probably a couple therianthropes out there that started the road to realizing what they were by role-playing. I think I know at least one.

I'm also 'sort-of' an example of this.

My nickname originated from a corruption of a short-lived role-play character, which was then recycled for a dragon character on a MUD which I was fond of RP 'ing on, and after the MUD died it just became my general all-purpose name. Considering that the Internet is a place where you can visually represent yourself however you damn please, It became associated with my "dragon side," as well. Then again, a number of my close friends will also address me as Zuki, and I'll happily respond to it. The fact that I offer it as an alternative to saying my real name wrong seems to be increasing this number...

[micha-forrest.livejournal.com]

inuki and zuki san have basicly said all i wanted to say. i found this strip just today by randomly clicking around and introduced it to two of my close friends who are also otherkin.

i do take offence to zuki san grouping vampyres with zombies in an all emcompassing 'undead' category. in their own way vampyres are as confusing as all types of theri's combined in that strip.
i also know fae who would take offence at being confused for elves or goblins.

i personally do not draw a line between werebeast and therian, but you make a good point inuki. some therians just are while weres actually shift. but i call meself a werecat, feline therian, Child of Bast, or just cat. I am who i am and some people get it, others don't

may Love, Darkness and kittens follow you wherever you go. =^.^= mau!

[zeeth_kyrah]

in their own way vampyres are as confusing as all types of theri's combined in that strip

Indeed. In fact, some therians/Otherkin may also be vampires, since their energetic bodies need extra support that their human aspects can't give them.

[zuki-san.livejournal.com]

No rudeness or hostility intended, but...

Where did I mention vampires? Or vampyres, if you prefer?

I'll certainly grant you that there are people on the internet that label themselves as such. However, I know next-to-nothing, make-that-squat, about that particular community. But I can certainly believe it would be complex and confusing. If someone directed me to the website of a notable vampire, I might be able to form an opinion.

Or are you mistaking something that I said, with something that someone else wrote? I seem to recall that maybe waywind* mentioned vampires/zombies/undead in a single category. Of course, I could be wrong about that too. I've never been a vampire person.

And you all can just call me Zuki. The "-san" is a japanese honorific suffix. Ah, The perils of getting the right username.

*What do I call you? Seriously. I knew you first as Orion Sandstorm, but I seem to recall you saying something about not caring so much for the name a while back. Also, a lot of blog-reading has fixed "waywind" as your term of address in my head. So I guess I'll just use that, unless ye say otherwise.

[inuki42.livejournal.com]

My apologies if anything I said offended in any way! I certainly didn't mean it - nor are those categories I listed off in any way definiative, or the only way to group us.

I explored the topic a little more thoroughly in a locked post of mine, and explained that they really were broad categories. Within each, there's huge variations - for example, dragons can be further subcategorized by breath weapon or not, wyvern/Western/Eastern/other, environment... Depending on the characteristics you choose to focus on when you make your categories, you can end up with a totally different grouping scheme than someone else.

I only put vampires with undead because that's how I've always understood the "traditional" or "classic" vampires. One of the biggest problems of trying to classify anything is that there's always exceptions, no matter how strictly you try to define things. (Like the egg-laying mammal, platypus.) Same with fae - a better name for that catchall category might be "humanoid," with further subcategories.

I'd be interested to see how other people attempt to categorize everyone. I offered my thoughts because it seemed appropriate to. :)

[elynne.livejournal.com]

hee... now I'm wondering where Rasha and I would fit on that spectrum. ;) I'm really liking the human/other yin/yang image; I'm very tempted to swipe the idea to make a Rasha/me userpic.

[frameacloud]

There were several panels I designed but chose to leave out of the comic, intending to use them for the article later on instead. (Including "other is a spirit guide," "other is an archetypal totem," and "other symbolizes traits of personality and/or appearance." I left out the first two since they're relatively seperate from the self, even though the illustrations were pretty cool; and I left out the third because I couldn't figure out how to illustrate it.) I'm not sure where you and Rasha would fit in, since it's an unusual situation... another panel I almost used, "other is a version of yourself on another earth," is similar to your situation, but not quite.

I spent ages and ages designing and redesigning the therianthropy yin-yang. I wanted the animal side on it to be a wolf, not a cat, but if the "other" is something with a long muzzle, it doesn't look like a yin-yang anymore! Go ahead and use it, if you can, since it'll probably be swiped and adapted by everybody.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_intropy_/]

I love the detail that goes into each of these comics. And the LYNX! I LOVE the LYNX! Your comment about everyone seeing some of their favorite species represented has already come true ;)

This is a great breakdown of possible ways to be something other, at least the most common ones. But for myself, and probably many others, there isn't one there that is clearly the best answer. It's more complicated than that; I can't point to the one way that I'm a dragon. Dragon in soul? Check, mostly dragon by my reckoning. Dragon in past lives? Check, but also other things. Dragon as a were-side? Check, often see it as an animal/human blending or duality, complete with shifts. Brain differences? Possibly. I haven't ruled it out. Which of these is the right answer? All of them. I don't think I could easily use one to the exclusion of the others.

Possibly this is why I lately identify first and formost as a dragon, and secondarily as one of the specific phenomina.

[valkyriur.livejournal.com]

I've found that when speaking with people it is often best just to state your species, rather than the phenomona, as you put it. :) It just seems easier to understand.

[frameacloud]

"Which of these is the right answer? All of them. I don't think I could easily use one to the exclusion of the others."
I'd be using several of them in combination, personally. It's probably that way for most people.

please dont hurt me....

[duku6.livejournal.com]

ok no one hurt me for this cuz I'm just confused!
i all ways Sal my self as a human/dragon as in, dragon with human characteristics. so i all ways called my self a furry! but know as i read i see that some are saying kin and furry are to different things?!?! please some one help me!

by the way i love this comic. it really touches my heart and my beliefs

Re: please dont hurt me....

[frameacloud]

Yes, otherkin and furry are two entirely different groups, though they have some things in common. Refer to this article to learn more:

http://www.weyr.org/~raki/drp/compare.html

An individual can be both otherkin and furry, so it's not a dilemma or anything. The real question is that of authenticity.

[wolph.livejournal.com]

i really liked this weeks comic and was draw to the 'other in spirit' panel its close to how i view myself.as i read from some of the commnets others were drawn to the panel to,you have definatly drawn something that resinates with many of us!so i iconised it i hope thats OK waywind.:)
free for everyone of course : > .

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v39/greenpaw/OTHERSPIRITLJICON.jpg

Furry Girl is Confused.

[(Anonymous)]

Late to the party, I know. Story of my life.

But I gotta say, while I do understand that there is a difference between run of the mill furries and otherkin, I don't understand the animosity. In my experiance, many "furries" I know would properly be classified as otherkin, but the term otherkin isn't as widely known as furry, so furry is what they go with. I myself have always classified myself as furry, because I had never heard of otherkin before. When I stumbled upon this webcomic it was like a lightbulb in my head turned on. "OH! THAT'S what I am. That's way more specific."

Also, have you all heard of Fursonas? For those who haven't, it's like a character a furry RP's with, but a specific one they use the most that is basically what they are themselves, in their "other" form. Rpers who have a fursona I think are closer to otherkin. From the last panel and the discussion, it seems like you seem to have the impression that furry = someone who pretends to be otherkin in RPs, but has no real otherkin characteristics in real life. (I could - and am very likely to be - very wrong on this point, but that's just how it comes across to me). I think furries like myself who have these full-fledged fursonas that they see as their true selves are more like otherkin than "imposter" RPers.

I hope I didn't offend anyone. Just my thoughts.
~Kay The Wolf Girl