Curated Collections About Alterhumans

About this resource

Other people on itch.io have created hundreds of wonderful things about alterhumans. I want to help bring them appreciation, and make them easier to find. This page is a collection of collections. In the collections below, I carefully curate and review each thing I add, with content warnings as needed. I also list some collections curated by other people. The HTML file download is a copy of what you see on this page.

This project is a work of love for our communities. I curate this web page and my own collections by the means of hours of work by myself and my peers. I don't use so-called artif-cial int-lligence to g-nerate any text or images. To the best of my knowledge, neither do any of the projects in these collections. I declare this with Nova's "alterhuman made" icon, shown at right. The cover image for this project is derived from Allium House's alterhuman emojis (public domain). In rows from left to right, the symbols in the cover image are for otherhearted, transspecies, therianthropes, alterhumans, otherkin, furries, transhumans, and plurals. Other derivations of them appear on this page below, together with Page's fictionkin symbol (public domain).

Enjoy exploring these collections! If you want to ask me to add or remove your creations from my collections, or if you have other comments, you can use the forum at the bottom of this page.

Alterhumans

What are alterhumans? This definition is from "A list of some alterhuman identities and groups," an essay that I helped co-author, together with House of Chimeras, Page Shepard, Dinocanid, Ryuu Yumemoto, Draconic Wizard Workshop, and others:

"In 2014, Lio of the Crossroads System created [the word alterhuman] as an umbrella term and identity for anyone who feels they have an identity beyond the scope of how one might typically think of 'being human.' [...] it includes but is not limited to nonhumans. Some groups who can opt-in to considering themselves under the alterhuman umbrella are otherkin, therianthropes, fictionfolk, plural systems, daemians, vampires, voluntary identities, furries, and more. This umbrella is very broad because its purpose is to give these communities something to unite under without erasing their distinctions."

Each of the below collections is about one of these identity groups, or has things that would be interesting or useful to them.

Plurality

What do I mean by plurality? Another excerpt from "A list of some alterhuman identities and groups:"

"Plurality (or multiplicity) is an umbrella term for all experiences and identities in which more than one entity, consciousness, or pseudo-consciousness exists within one physical body, for systems who are or can be diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly called multiple personality disorder (MPD), as well as systems who do not meet those diagnostic criteria. Plurality and multiplicity as terms have always been inclusive of systems regardless of their origin or diagnoses. Some plural systems have members who aren’t human or who are fictional characters or species. Multiplicity can be an interchangeable synonym for plurality, or multiplicity can mean a form of plurality in which more than one person, self, or identity is within a single body."

Here are some collections about plurality, curated by myself and others.

• Orion Scribner collected "Plurality."
• LB Lee collected “Plural Stuff.”
• The Corvidae Collective collected  "Plurality."
• Cube Well collected “About Plurals By Plurals.”

Fictionfolk and experiences of fictionality

Psychology as well as informal communities recognize a variety of ways that people can have a profound sense of personal connection to a piece of fiction. To explain, here is another excerpt from "A list of some alterhuman identities and groups:"

"Fictionfolk is an umbrella term for many sorts of identities that come partly or wholly from fiction. Fictionkin identify as characters or species from fiction, and their community started in the early 2000s. A plural system member with origins from fiction is a fictive, which psychologists call a fictional introject. When someone has the brief experience of becoming someone or something from fiction, that’s a fictionflicker, which psychologists call experience-taking."

Additionally, when a person feels a strong identification with a fictional character, but doesn't see that as who they literally are themself, that's fictionhearted. When someone feels a sense of belonging or homesickness about a fictional place, but doesn't consider themself to literally come from there, that's a hearthome. These are only some of the sorts of experiences of fictionality that people can have.

Some creators on itch.io have created games and zines that fit within that category. I curate this collection of them: "Fictionfolk and experiences of fictionality."

Therianthropes, otherkin, and nonhumans

These communities are decades old. The following definitions of them also come from the essay "A list of some alterhuman identities and groups:"

"Otherkin are elves, dragons, or other beings, usually from mythology. It’s always an important part of who they are throughout their lives, not role-play for fun. The community started in the Elfinkind Digest mailing list in 1990, when they started calling themselves otherkind or otherkin. Their reasons for being otherkin are often spiritual, for example, from reincarnation. However, otherkin is not a religion. [...]

"Therianthropes are people who have a lifelong identification as a certain species of animal on an integral, personal level. Some are other species than animals from Earth. The therian community started in 1993 in an online group, alt.horror.werewolves. They developed jargon about shapeshifting to describe feeling more animal-like at some times. These changes are mental or spiritual, not physical. Some have sensations of phantom limbs. Some feel consistently animal-like at all times. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, therians started mingling with the otherkin community. [...]

"[Nonhuman is] An umbrella term for those of us who identify as partly or wholly not human: therianthropes, otherkin, and more. Many nonhumans opt to include themselves under the alterhuman umbrella."

Many people on itch.io have made creations about therianthropes, otherkin, and other nonhumans. Here is my collection of those creations: "Therianthropes, otherkin, and other alterhuman nonhumans."

Xenogender

According to the Nonbinary Wiki, the word "xenogender" was coined in 2014 to mean:

"A gender that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other creatures/things."

I curate a collection of people's itch.io creations that are (or can be seen as) part of that idea: "Xenogender." Some creations in that collection are about real people who feel this way, some of whom also consider themselves nonhuman. Other creations in that collection are speculative works about what gender might be like in nonhuman societies or in the future.

Other alterhumans and similar

I curate this collection of creations for more sorts of folks:  "Other alterhumans and similar." These are more alterhuman and alterhuman-like identities and experiences than fit into the above collections. As of this writing, this one has a little about transhumanism and real vampires. Daemians and furry lifestylers would be in that collection too, if I find any creations about them. If I later find and review enough creations about any of those, I'll make them collections of their own.

More creations that alterhumans might like

I curate these next collections of creations on itch.io that aren't (necessarily) about alterhumans, but which alterhumans are very likely to find appealing, relatable, or useful.

• "Animal protagonists." This is a collection of games where the player character is inherently a nonhuman animal, and that is important to the story and play. Therianthropes tend to enjoy these.
• "Nonhuman protagonists." In these games, you play as other sorts of nonhuman characters than animals: dragons, ghosts, elves, robots, plants, and more. Otherkin and other nonhumans may find something relatable here.
• "Nonhuman protagonists (not reviewed yet)." When I take a closer look at these later, I'll move them into one of the two collections above, with added descriptive blurbs and content warnings as needed. Since this collection doesn't have those, please explore it with caution.
  
• "Human-passing protagonists." Games about nonhuman creatures trying to fit into human society can be metaphors for various experiences in real life: passing as a member of another ethnic/gender/class group, masking your autism, social anxiety, impostor syndrome, or looking at familiar experiences as strange. Some of these games are supposed to be about alterhumans.
• "Character creators." Plural systems enjoy using games and tools for character customization for creating pictures of their system-mates. I add blurbs about what sorts of characters these can depict, so therians and otherkin can also find tools for pictures of their nonhuman selves.
• "More that alterhumans might like." This is a catch-all collection of even more various games, books, and tools that might resonate with alterhumans, for various reasons. In some cases, it's because alterhumans were involved with creating them. In some other cases, the creations seem similar to an alterhuman experience but they don't come from that context.