A decently abridged history of kin (Old version)

This is the old version of A decently abridged history of kin. I'm only keeping this up for posterity's sake as a lot of the information in here is inaccurate, but I don't want to lose my writing. (It's also just easier to keep this up than accidentally make every other entry in this series have a dead link.) I'd recommend giving the new one a read, even if you've read this version.

Not entirely sure which category this should go in - hopefully it will find a home here.

For anyone who finds this in the future after going through a similar rabbithole I did, this post was originally written on 14 Feb, 2022 in a Google doc, eventually making its way to Spacehey in the form of a blog post on 15 Feb, 2022. Happy Valentine's Day! I'll be writing other posts about this, so feel free to check here for easy access to all of them.

It was last updated on 13 Oct, 2022.

What changed: Unlisted/Link-only

17 Apr 2022: Link to rewritten post

26 Feb 2022: Small correction on the etymology of kin

22 Feb 2022: Added link to find my other posts about this topic

15 Feb 2022: Added a glossary of sorts + explained kin-adjacent communities. Glossary includes some words I didn't explain in the post.

Did you know the concept of kin is older than Dungeons & Dragons? The first group that followed a similar concept is the Elf Queen's Daughters, who came to be around 1972 among the Wicca scene. There are many conflicting sources as to where they started, but the Silver Elves’ blog states that the founding sisters come from Illinois, known as Susie Creamcheese (Arwen) and Mary Sunshine (Elanor). They had a mailing list known as Elf Magic Mail, sharing lore and philosophy called the ‘Elven Way’.

In 1975, a group called the Silver Elves were ‘awakened’ by the Elf Queen’s Daughters and formed a vortex (coven) in Carbondale, Illinois known as ‘Elves of the Southern Woodlands’. They went through the following moves and name changes:

• 1979: Gainesville, FL - Sylvan Elves

• 1981: California - The Silver Elves

• 2008: Hawai’i - (No name change)

The Silver Elves have created books and continued Elf Magic Mail since their creation, with a brief pause in 1977.

I don’t know exactly when, but when in-person meetings became held, other fantasy creatures began coming out of the woodwork and joining (such as dragons). In 1990, the term ‘otherkin’ was coined, and is still in use today. They were somewhat common on Usenet and were a target of the meowers (Meow Wars) - some meowers were otherkin themselves. For those that don’t know what the Meow Wars were, it was essentially waves of trolling across Usenet.

Kin at this point was solely a spiritual thing, as would be the case for a couple decades. Otherkin believe they are a reincarnation or parallel incarnation of whatever they’re kin with, usually nonhuman creatures.

The more straightforward answer to where the word 'kin' comes from is that it's due to your kinship to whatever you're kin with. However, the actual etymology comes from the word 'elfinkind', a term used to refer to elves. The Elfinkind Digest first mentions otherkin as 'otherkind' in issue #16 - the D was eventually dropped, though 'otherkind' and 'otherkin' were used interchangeably for a while.

It should be noted that communities similar but different to kin came about around this time, but developed separately. The oldest of these groups is 'real vampires', which appear to have existed as early as 1987. The community was not active online until 1994, and didn't see a boom in popularity until 1997. There are varying types of people considered real vampires, with some being psychic vampires (who feed off psychic energies) and others believing they need to drink actual blood.

There also the faeborn and other supernatural beings, which appear to have come about around the same time as otherkin. I don't really know much about either of these groups, but the faeborn believe that fae have been interested in them since birth.

The group that's likely made the biggest impression (both within kin communities and not) are therians, who are similar to otherkin, but with nuances I likely don't understand. They also only have a connection to animals that exist or have existed in this world.

Therianthropy started around 1992, however it was referred to as 'Lycanthropy' until around 1994. I personally don't know much about them - my only real impression is that they look down upon otherkin and its various branches (I've even seen some say that otherkin are a stain on the transgender community, which makes little sense as being otherkin has nothing to do with being transgender).

In 2003, a concept of ‘otakukin’ or ‘otakin’ came to be - I have no idea if it originally started as a joke or not, but it was adopted and eventually had a sizeable community. Otakukin branched off of otherkin, acting as the same thing but with fictional characters instead (namely anime, it seems). Around 2007, the Livejournal group for otakukin debated on a name change, eventually opting to call themselves ‘fictionkin’, which has stuck ever since.

Around 2011, trolls came and created the term ‘factkin’, meaning the same thing as before, but with real people (usually historical figures). It was used to mock fictionkin in ways such as ‘OMG you’re fictionkin? I’m kin with Hitler LOL’ or other similar jokes. Some people seem to consider themselves legitimate factkin, however these people are typically mocked by other kin communities because of how blatantly disrespectful they can be.

The concept of fictionkin specifically seemed to boom around 2014, though there were no major definition changes. The majority of people who got into kin around this time were teenagers (with some even as young as 12), which lead a lot of people to believe it was a fad (which was likely the case in the 90’s with otherkin as well but I haven’t looked into it).

There were a few things adjacent to kin as we knew it that came about around this time:

• Nokin ID: You identified with or felt that a character was you, but you weren’t kin with them - there was no past life. Other people don’t seem to remember this term but I do.

• Psychological kin: A nonspiritual alternative to spiritual kin. It’s similar to a nokin ID and is a coping mechanism. A small group are also very similar to spiritual kin, though don't believe in reincarnation.

• Copinglink: The creator of this term apparently does not consider this to be a kin term, however it’s common enough to point out. Basically the same as psychological kin, but I feel like there are nuances I’m not familiar with.

• Divinekin: Most commonly godkin. People who believe themselves to be reincarnations or parallel incarnations of a deity which may or may not exist in this world. There is also the smaller branch of angelkin. They tend to be as uppity as therians, and many fictionkin who are kin with fictional divine beings do not identify with this term. There are some that use the alternative term godshard and believe they are fragments of whatever deity.

Kin is notoriously very hard to explain as it has and had many definitions around this time. Along with people not in these circles trying to explain it, you had the rift between spiritual kin and psychological kin, and they were eventually conflated with each other. The result of this definition mixup (even nokin IDs got in on this!) was what I like to call new-age kinning. This concept became a thing around 2018. It encompasses all variations of itself, though most of this group tend to kin for fun rather than for coping and are very rarely spiritual.

One of the biggest things I’ve noticed about this (very large) group is that they use the term kin as a verb. Older kin communities prefer to say they’re ‘kin with’ something, while a new-age kinnie will simply say they kin whatever they’re kin with. Some people find this irritating, I personally don’t care. The oldest kin communities may be seen using 'kin of', as it became popular before 'kin with', but I've been told they're used somewhat interchangeably.

New-age kinnies predictably lost touch with older communities, and in 2020 the term ‘delusional attachment’ was coined - this can be explained as a delusion of grandeur related to a fictional character, however it seems to be used by most people to explain something similar to psychological kin or a nokin ID that has gone too far. Many new-age kinners seem eager to claim that memories of a past life aren’t real, and are quick to label spiritual kin as delusion.

There’s a decent amount of drama that currently exists within the new-age kin community regarding delusional attachments. People with delusional attachments will swear up and down that they don’t kin the character, but will police new-age kinnies on what they can and can’t do, and actively seem to involve themselves in that community. I personally just consider them extreme kinnies, because that’s what they act like. You’d find similar in 2015 with more extreme spiritual kin who would say things like ‘don’t talk to me if you’re kin with/think you're me or my friends’. History repeats itself, huh?

SOURCES (that I have proper links to)

AnOtherWiki

Silver Elves’ website

Silver Elves’ blog: Who Were the Elf Queen's Daughters?

O. Scribner: Otherkin Timeline: The Recent History of Elfin, Fae, and Animal People

^{This goes over the timeline of otherkin, but does not seem to mention fictionkin.}

From-fiction Livejournal group: Community rename, Y/N?

My friend Anam who is smarter than me

A handful of this is also from personal experience, so if you want to take it with a grain of salt, go ahead.

• Kin: Believing that you or your soul is a reincarnation of something
• Elf Queen's Daughters: First traceable group with a similar concept to kin
• Awakening: The process one goes through as they realize they might be 'kin. Old term, often only really used nowadays by the Elf Queen's Daughters and their various offshoots, but was used even by fictionkin for a while
• Silver Elves: Branch of Elf Queen's Daughters that became its own thing
• Real vampires: People who believe themselves to be vampires - ranges from feeding off psychic energy to drinking actual blood
• Elfkind: Term used to refer to elves
• Otherkind: Antiquated term for otherkin - likely still in use in some older communities
• Otherkin: Kin, usually with animals or other nonhuman creatures
• Kintype: What you're kin with (eg foxkin)
• Therianthropy: Similar to otherkin but not, usually only with animals that exist in this world. Was Lycanthropy until 1994
• Faeborn: People who believe the fae have been interested in them since birth. Alternative term: fae-touched
• Meow Wars: Wave of trolling on Usenet
• Meowers: Perpetrators of the Meow Wars
• Otakukin (Otakin): Kin, namely with anime characters
• Fictionkin: Kin, namely with fictional characters. This was what otakukin rebranded to
• Kin memory: Often shortened to kinmem. These are the memories one may have of their kintype (can also be called 'past life memories')
• Kinshift: Often used if one has multiple kintypes. Your current kinshift is whichever kintype you are most connected to at the moment
• Permashift: Used by some people. A kinshift that you rarely, if ever, shift out of
• Double: A double is someone who is kin with the same character as someone else. Some people don't like them, others do, most people don't care either which way
• Source: Where the thing you're kin with comes from (eg Dragon Ball)
• Canon: Your specific past life
• Sourcemate: Two people who are both kin with Dragon Ball characters would be sourcemates
• Canonmate: Someone from your past life specifically. If you were Goku, this would be your specific Vegeta
• Factkin: Kin, but with real people. Started out as trolling, some people seem to be genuine
• Nokin ID: Identifying with a character heavily, but no past life
• Psychological kin: Nonspiritual alternative to spiritual kin, a coping mechanism similar to a nokin ID (though some are almost the exact same as spiritual kin but don't believe in reincarnation)
• Copinglink: Similar to psychological kin, but not using the kin name
• Divinekin: Umbrella term for godkin and angelkin
• Godkin: Same as otherkin, but with deities that may or may not exist in this world
• Angelkin: Same as godkin, but with angels
• Godshard: A more sane version of godkin, where one is more like a fragment of said deity than the whole deity itself
• Kinbait: Used by spiritual and new-age kin, essentially means a character or animal that you think you may kin/be kin with but don't have a real way of knowing
• Kintrope: A common theme one may have with their kintypes
• New-age kin: What happens when you don't know what you're talking about
• Kinnie: Term for people who kin. Usually used by new-age kinnies, but some find it offensive
• Delusional attachment: What happens when you give new-age kinnies the DSM