What are fictionkin?
Fictionkin are people who believe that they involuntarily and immutably share the identity and ‘self’ of a fictional character. They believe that they are that character in some particular way.
What is a kintype?
Kintype is the word for a fictionkin person’s self. Someone who believes that he is Legolas from the Lord of the Rings can be said to have Legolas as their ‘kintype’ or said to have a ‘Legolas kintype’.
What are metaphysical (or spiritual) fictionkin?
Metaphysical (also called spiritual) fictionkin, are fictionkin who believe that the source of their identity as fictionkin has a real and concrete metaphysical or supernatural explanation. Metaphysical fictionkin reject the idea that their identity is based in human psychological phenomena and embrace the belief that their identity is part of a magical or scientifically unknown circumstance,
Metaphysical fictionkin are the originators of the term ‘fictionkin’. While the term fictionkin has grown over the years to also encompass people who believe their identity is a form of mental illness or other psychologically based phenomenon, the original fictionkin community was based around metaphysical belief in the multiverse and reincarnation.
What is the history of the term fictionkin?
The term ‘fictionkin’ was created on livejournal around the year 2007. It was created to replace the former term ‘otakukin’ which was agreed to be in poor taste, and not encompassing all of the community. The term otakukin had previously been coined in the otherkin community in the early 2000s.
The term fictionkin was specifically created in and gained traction in the livejournal community formerly known as “otakukin.livejournal.com” and then changed to “from_fiction.livejournal.com”. This community was the only otakukin/fictionkin community hub active at the time, and was wholly metaphysically based, with the majority of members believing specifically in fictionkin reincarnation.
What does it mean that being fictionkin is involuntary and immutable?
All fictionkin believe that their identity is involuntary: their kintype is not something they chose, but something that happened to them by itself, without deliberate intent. It is not something that is decided, but rather something that is discovered.
All fictionkin believe that their identity is immutable: it is a part of them that cannot be deliberately changed or altered by themselves or anyone else. While one can discover one was incorrect about a kintype, one can not decide to get rid of a kintype one truly has.
