Alterlichen is a term used to describe a Polykin whose sense of self is "dynamic and context-dependent." However, a distinction between the identities would not be beneficial as they are all interconnected.

The term was coined by hintze-of-bird on tumblr. Click here for the original coining post.

I gravitate towards this term because of the fluidity of my Polykin experience. I, as a being, cannot be contained in a single identity. I am a daemon and also a dragon, interconnected yet separate in certain contexts. I am both of those and a nature spirit who exists in a coyote form, deeply connected to the species, and also to its own broader "species". A hybrid shapeshifter. Yet identifying only as a Daemon shapeshifter does not do me justice. It separates me from my other kintypes, labelling them as simply forms I take rather than forms intrinsic to my being. As a fluid being, I can transform myself into a species I don't identify with, such as this human body I am currently in, but that does not make this species an intrinsic part of my identity. It is a part of my past, present, and future, but not of my self as a whole, simply of my history.

I appreciate the lichen half of the term Alterlichen as it conjures the image of a branching creature. Each branch is an identity of its own and yet still interconnected to the creature as a whole. This is how I understand myself. A daemon whose identity is a complex web of branches.

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