otherkin plurality
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2026-08-15

This was mostly written by Bjorn, Neil, and Selene. Aspen helped.

disclaimer

We were not around the otherkin or plural communities when these words were originally in use, so Our knowledge comes only from reading surviving documents about them. Our interpretation and understanding may differ from how they were used 20+ years ago.

background

Once upon a time, there was a mailing list called Otherkind-Hosts: nonhumans in the system.

The word 'host' was used in the otherkin community then to mean something similar to what we mean by 'system' or 'collective' today. Specifically, hosts were understood as collectives who contained individuals originating from Elsewhere (e.g. walk-ins). The phrase 'otherkin host' (or simply 'kinhost') was used to refer to hosts who contained nonhumans. Hosts were considered to generally be more multiple or distinct, as opposed to being median. This meaning of the word 'host' is, of course, rather different from the clinical meaning (the "primary" alter). Collectives who had nonhumans may have gravitated to otherkin spaces on account of having been disbelieved in some multiple spaces.

The phrase 'otherkin multiple' was used to refer to anybody who was both otherkin and somewhere on the plural spectrum. Examples we read of included these otherkin hosts as well as...

An otherkin multiple might have fallen into any combination of the above three categories.

The Crisses (Rev. Criss Itterman) also made a point to differentiate between members formed from splits and members from elsewhere (whom they termed 'guests'), as well as between permanent members (whom they termed 'residents') and temporary members (whom they said are channeled).

what it means to Us

Our plurality and nonhumanity are so deeply intertwined as to be inseparable. And not only is Our nonhumanity inseparable from Our plurality, but so are Our fictionfolk and factfolk experiences. When We call ourselves an otherkin host, We are using the broad definition of otherkin that includes fictionkin and factkin. For as long as We can remember, We have been nonhuman, We have become Our friends, We have spoken with fictional characters. Our natural state of being is to be full of nonhumans, fictives, and factives.

Our internal demographics look like this:

We have residents, all of whom come ultimately from this body in some way. Here are some of those:

Fairyland and the Darkness are "places" (I use that word loosely) in Our internal world. Fairyland is a temperate jungle. Only people from Fairyland seem to be able to travel there and no one ever remembers what happens in it. The Darkness is like that trope where The Facility™ somehow keeps going deeper and deeper underground. It's also somewhat like the Underdark. Other internal locations include the Outlands (which is loosely modeled after the location of the same name from Lego: Legends of Chima) and the beach (which is modeled after a real beach We visited many times as a child).

In addition to Our residents, We have a rotating cast of visitors. These people are typically outsourced fictives and factives, but there is also the occasional visitor to front from somewhere within (often the Outlands or the Darkness). Sometimes a visitor is associated with a particular resident and other times they're just here on their own. It's Our visitors that make the concept of 'host' so important to Us, and their (and Our residents') typically nonhuman and/or fictional nature that makes Us otherkin.

It's also worth mentioning that a lot of visitors come from Minecraft culture. Being Our main special interest, Minecraft-as-a-concept inhabits a lot of Our brain space.

for what?

We've had a lot of trouble over the years finding a framework that works for Our plural experiences. We met some collectives who had the same few members for many years. We met others who were constantly gaining new residents. Some were one central person who channeled characters. Some were a person making sense of their parts. We saw many more. Whom We didn't see many of were plurals like Us.

We were offered many explanations for what plurality was, what it meant, what to do about it. We were told it was a trauma response. We were told it was the presence of multiple souls. It was a quirk of neurology. It was a useful social construct. A framework. A gift. A curse. Plurality was rare. Everybody was plural. None of this explained Us. "Pick a side," but it was all half-truths, incomplete and limiting.

While working on the Otherkin Wiki, We decided to look more into this old concept of "otherkin hosts." The otherkin context was an old, comforting friend. We had known We were otherkin before We even knew We were trans. What We read had so much room in it too, room for Our body, for trauma responses and channeled spirits alike, for alters and soulbonds, for permanent residents and vagabonds passing through. We found that this was Our paradigm. We are one human organism, a few nonhuman people who emerged from that organism, and, at times, many more who emerged from Elsewhere.

We know that We're not the only plural system out there like this.

If you, like Us, have been struggling with how to frame your plurality, and you find that you relate to any part of this, We encourage you to consider adopting the framework of Otherkin Plurality. While We did notice three categories of otherkin multiple in the documents We read, We see no reason somebody using the label of otherkin multiple or otherkin plural would need to fit into any of those. As far as We can tell, any combination of being plural and being otherkin is welcome.

p.s.

If you're a flickerer and you relate to this, yeah! We relate to you! Our experience is kind of like the plural equivalent of flickering.

sources