Tkhorm, a huge black beast and my old good friend, walks in the sunset field ~

Made in Blender.

(This is my original character of my personal story; he is not supposed to represent anything or anyone else and is not allowed to be used in any way)

⊱𝕄𝕪 𝕁𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕪/𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪 𝔸𝕤 𝔸 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕒𝕟/𝕆𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕜𝕚𝕟⊰

So, this is my journey so far as a therian/otherkin. For as long as I can remember, I felt this non-human feeling, as well as this feeling that I didn't belong where I am/was. I can't remember exactly when, but I was young when I discovered wolves exist and instantly felt this connection to them. At first, I thought it was just love and admiration, but I soon realized it was some sort of strong connection. I felt like I was one. I even acted like one sometimes, either intentionally or unintentionally. I thought I was the only one. Fast forward to this year (2023), I just began seeing something about therians on TikTok but didn't think too much of it for long. The topic came back on June 21st and I learned more about it and fully realized "Wait... That sounds like me..." and so I soon began proudly calling myself a therian. It was a little weird at first since I was new to it but it feels normal now regardless of it being nearly a whole month. There are times where I think of bringing it up to family members and other people I know rather personally. I've told close friends and they're rather supportive. I'm not too sure about my family though. People don't usually understand these things. I've met many other therians/otherkin already and made a few therian/otherkin friends. Within my first month of being an awakened therian/otherkin, so much has happened. I've met other therians, made friends from the community, and gone through questioning and discovery. I felt like I was the only one for so long, but now I don't feel alone anymore. I've discovered a few theriotypes/kintypes other than wolves already and I doubt it's the end because I'm already questioning again. If there are other therians/otherkin out there that come across my account and maybe see this, I'd love to meet more alter humans and make more friends who are just like me. I don't have many and I don't talk to many other therians/otherkin too much.

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⊱𝕄𝕪 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕠𝕥𝕪𝕡𝕖𝕤/𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕪𝕡𝕖𝕤⊰

𝚆𝚘𝚕𝚏

>As I've mentioned, my first discovered theriotype and long-time connection was to wolves. A bit more digging resulted in this one being the very first specific discovery.

𝙵𝚘𝚡

>And of course, that wasn't all. It didn't take too long for me to realize my second connection. Again, some more digging helped me figure out the specifics, as it does with every theriotype/kintype. The silver fox came second right after wolf and around that time is when I was also questioning red fox, but it became one of the last official discoveries. I believe it was actually the latest one. Not sure, memory isn't the greatest but it's sorta how I remember it.

𝙳𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚘𝚗

>This next one came after the silver fox, and I actually was questioning this one for a long time. I can't remember just how long, but it was a long time. So, those of you that know HTTYD know Toothless. Well, there's a reason why he was my favorite. I felt like there was a connection to him and I feel as through there likely still is. It's also possible it's the same with the light fury, but I'll stick with questioning that one until I'm sure what it is. But enough with the lead up, the next one is, of course, dragon, my first otherkin species. It actually helped to play some dragon-based games to find out for sure. Google isn't always helpful with showing exactly what this one looks like for me, but it did help in a way. At least I know what I am.

𝚃𝚔𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚖

>This last one is a bit different than the average for me. I also discovered this one on this very app while using a different account of mine. It's apparently called a Tkhorm. And of course, I did a little digging, using Google as one thing to help me find specifics, partially so I can show others.

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⊱𝔽𝕚𝕟𝕒𝕝 ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕠𝕥𝕪𝕡𝕖⊰

𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚑

>Last, but CERTAINLY not least, cheetah. I was questioning for a little while and I still was at the time of typing this little post of this part about me. I'm glad I'm nearly done because I'm not sure how long I've been doing this, but I think it's around an hour. I don't know exactly how long, but it doesn't matter. I went too look for a final image for this final part (ten is the limit, alas) and of course, my heart suddenly ached to be speeding across the African ground, feeling the wind beating on my face and running through my fur. I mean, what therian/otherkin wouldn't want to be free to do as they pleased as their theriotype/kintype? But also, I just remembered something. Funny story, I discovered cheetahs probably long before wolves. I remember as a little kid that I had this passion towards cheetahs before I found out wolves were a thing. I don't remember if I felt a connection to cheetahs at first, but I know I did really love them. Keep in mind that I was much younger than I am now and my memory isn't the best too. Either way though.

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⊱ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕔𝕝𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟⊰

>Well, I think that's it. I actually thoroughly enjoyed making this post. I think I might do some story times. Maybe I should start writing things like fan fiction. I have before, but I was never really impressed with my work. Even if I was, it was short lived. Either way, I think I definitely will be doing more, like updates and even stories like fanfic to be specific. I just kinda realized how much I love it. It's not guaranteed that I'd post any but who knows? It's just the beginning of this account. And to those of you who took the time and read all this, thank you for your time. You may move on. Maybe consider following if you'd like to stick around. I'd love to make friends, whether it be therian/otherkin, part of the furry fandom, or any other. Okay, that's all. Thanks for your time, have a wonderful day/night. :)

Looks nice!

Tkhorm, the Father of Fire, a huge black beast from my old story.

3D model of my original character, made in Blender.

Recently, I can see and feel his image quite clearly, so I decided to try to make a 3D model. I'll probably continue to edit some details, especially the fur, but overall, I like the way he came out!

(An important detail - he is not a Vaeraf, but a Vaeraf-like creature from a completely separate world/story)

Tkhorm is more massive than Vaeraf and feels much heavier, wild and severe, and has more pronounced feline-like features, including lynx-like ears and cheek fur. Although he is still very long-legged, slender and fantasy. Overall, his anatomy is close to that of the Vaeraf, but heavier. It was very interesting to sculpt him, trying to make him similar to a Vaeraf, but still different and recognizable.

He is one of my oldest characters, but he is not easy to connect with in person. I'm glad that in the last year I was finally able to get in touch with him and see his image more vividly and clearly. He's a special person to me.

I have been into studying animals for basically my whole life. Not a day goes by where I don't pour through books and documentaries relating to them, and I am especially in love with their anatomy. Becauseof my knowledge,to me, 3D animals always felt weird for some reason, They never seemed animal. I don't know how to explain it but they always feel off. I pour hours and hours into making up species and trying to figure out how to make them seem animal even if they don't exist. Even Disney with their million dollar budgets couldn't get this. I concluded that it's just impossible to make something cgi feel 100% animal. But you??? Just??? Did it??? I literally have chills. They look like actual creatures. I don't know what you did or how you cracked the code but I am just in awe, I feel like I've stumbled upon some kind of hidden treasure trove. Honestly and genuinely with every animal loving bone in my body your stuff is the most impressive I've seen and I applaud you for it.

Wow, I think it's an honor to hear this! :D I don't consider myself that good, heh, but thank you very much! 💙

As an animal art lover, I think I understand what you mean! I think this because people are less aware of all the details of animals, and tend to be less picky and less attentive to their features and expressions. But if you know animals well, you can notice many small details that make them seem weird or unnatural. This is true for me too - any animal I try to draw or model will most likely be really weird and look a bit like a Vaeraf, because I'm too used to them :D

But speaking of my characters and art, this (as well as many other questions and comments) made me think about my perception of animals and my characters, so I decided to share my thoughts. I hope you don't mind! ^^ The fact that my characters are perceived as animals, with all the nuances of such perception and attitude, is a rather complex topic for me to think about.

I don't know if it matters, but I believe so - I don't see my characters as animals - meaning wildlife, because for me Vaerafes are hardly more wild animals than humans, while Tkhorm is a Varlaf, a kind of fantasy spirit, a mystical creature. I understand why other people perceive them as animals and that's ok, technically we are all animals, but often this leads to a certain impersonal perception of them, seeing them as just cool creatures, "things" to pet or be afraid of, or with a focus on biology and anatomy. But I see my characters as persons, as people in fact, with their own personality, sometimes quite complex thinking, personal dilemmas and philosophy, which simply belong to another species, even if their species is non-human, fictional and fantasy. Their movements, their expressions, their appearance, even their anatomy and species - all this is part of them as persons, of who they are.

Real animals, especially complex and intelligent ones, also have all this in their own way, they aren't just biological objects.

Also, I don't work with characters because I create species, but I learn about species because my characters happen to belong to that species, so I need to learn at least a little about their nature to understand them as persons. I learn, allowing them to live their lives inside my head and tell me their story, their life. It doesn't matter if it's something realistic, fantasy, or crazy and cartoonish chaos - that sometimes happens too. (and now I suddenly realized that I actually never even really wanted my characters to be some kind of fictional species, but it just turned out to be so, because no real animal suits them, heh!)

And knowing my characters as individuals and persons, I can say that I still have a lot of work to do, really a lot, maybe even more than I have already done :D

The problem with Disney movies, if I take the 3D Lion King as an example, is that they were never animals. They were never even meant to be animals. They are slightly stylized - too little to be anthropomorphic and humanly expressive, but enough to seem "wrong" for realistic animals. And since the behavior and expressions of the real animals don't work for their story and the interactions between the characters, they seem weird and even less expressive than real animals. I believe this is not a problem of artists and budget, but of the concept as a whole, including the story that didn't intend for its characters to actually be realistic animals.

Whereas realistic animals… well, they are difficult to use them for a beautiful movie for a wide audience. Although there are such things as, for example, "Prehistoric Planet". These are dinosaurs, but they are animals too, so I think they can be considered 3D animals being animals, heh! :D Plus, they're just really beautiful and well made. I would recommend watching this to all 3D animal lovers c:

(Sorry for such a long post, but this is a really catchy and interesting topic for me ^^')

hi, i'm a huge fan of your work! i love your creature designs so much, especially the valrafs. there is something about their look that is so pleasing to me. i'm curious, youve described varlafs as being much larger than vaerafes, though i'm not sure if you have specified exactly how much larger (at least not that i can find in the 'valraf' tag on your blog. if you have already then i apologize). i would be very interested to see a side by side comparison of two species, one that could highlight the differences in size and other key features, or even a size comparison of the two alongside a human, if you're willing <3

Hello! I'm glad that you like them! 💙

I never said that Varlafs are "much larger" than Vaerafes, but I described Varlafs as "slightly more massive", meaning that they are just less skinny than Vaerafes.

As for their size… oh, it depends on which Varlaf to take as an example! :D Ane is much smaller than Tkhorm, so he appears smaller than an average Vaeraf, while Tkhorm is bigger. I'm not 100% sure about their sizes, but something like this:

Their main differences, in addition to the fact that Vaerafes are much thinner, are mostly related to the fact that Varlafs have more "wild" features and appear more beast-like, and often look more like cats. Their "default" appearance, which I used in my models, has the idea like "this is how people would perceive and describe Vaerafes if they lived in a fantasy version of our world in the form of mystical spirits". With some part of how I myself sometimes imagined and interpreted them when I was learning to understand and draw them :D

So, the "design" of Varlafs is kind of the same as Vaeraf, but made from the traits of real animals - usually felines, but these traits can vary from individual to individual. For example, Ane has herbivore-like ears and sometimes appears as a very deer-like creature, while Tkhorm may sometimes appear as a wolf-like creature. Yes, I mean "sometimes", as they can change their form and appear as different creatures - in their lore, they are sometimes described as human sorcerers or magical animals (including the ideas like they are deities or demons in the form of humans and animals or something like that...)

My Varlaf models don't fully reflect who they are as creatures and characters, it was just an experiment since I decided to make a model of these characters, also using those old concepts about Vaerafes that are no longer used in them, but which I still find dear to me personally - like a more feline-like version of them, or a horned version of them, and so on. But as creatures, they have a completely different idea. Perhaps they can be seen as a completely alternative interpretation of Vaerafes, which was formed from those ideas about them that were too changed or removed from their lore years ago.

Sorry for such a long and detailed post, but I decided to write this because I'm too worried that my Varlaf characters and models will cause too much of confusion and misunderstanding, as I'm still not sure if it was a good idea to show them ^^'

Hello, I just wanted to tell you that when I first saw your art yesterday I thought that your character looked like something out of mythology and I tried to google him up and a different user on here told me that you made him, he's an original character, I think it's amazing you made up these worlds and characters, good for you, that is truly incredible and I wouldn't mind having Tkhorm as a guardian I would feel very safe with him around, just wanted you to know that.

Thank you! ^^

This is actually interesting, because Tkhorm is supposed to be a kind of a mythological creature in his story, and I think it's great if I managed to give such a feeling to him, even if it caused such confusion, heh!

He really feels like a kind of guardian to me, being part of my very dear spirit/character that has been with me since childhood. I'm glad that you share these feelings about him ~

(And maybe it's a good idea to write in each post the information that these are my characters)