What are different types of therians?
07/28/25 4:36pm
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A theriotype is the term for the animal or animals that a therian identifies as. There are sub-labels within therianthropy. In fact, “therian” itself is a subcategory of otherkin or alter-human identity—meaning someone who identifies in a way different from the typical human experience.
Within therianthropy, you have even more subcategories. For example, a cladotherian is someone who identifies with an entire clade of animals—like all felines, rather than just one species like a lion or a house cat.
There are many such sub-labels. Personally, I don’t use them for myself because there are so many, and I just say I’m therian. But they’re out there, and you can find resources online that break them down.
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Within therianthropy, you have even more subcategories. For example, a cladotherian is someone who identifies with an entire clade of animals—like all felines, rather than just one species like a lion or a house cat.
There are many such sub-labels. Personally, I don’t use them for myself because there are so many, and I just say I’m therian. But they’re out there, and you can find resources online that break them down.
I think this is hard to answer because therians are a unique thing. Every single experience of theriantropy is unique and different for each person, so it's hard to make categories for every type of therian. However, there are already some existing labels for specific experiences shared within the community.
Paleotherians are therians who have an extinct theriotype. Polytherians are therians who have more than one theriotype. Omnitherians identify as all non-human animals at once, and cladeotherians identify as an entire family or genus of animals rather than a single species. Those ones mainly refer to a therian's unique experience with their theriotype, but there are other types that refer to how the identity works or just general personal experiences. To list a few, contherians are therians who don’t experience shifts, holotheres identify as entirely non-human rather than partially, a suntherian is a therian who is almost always “shifted,” they feel their human self and animal self are always blended together. There’s far more, these are just a few examples.
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Paleotherians are therians who have an extinct theriotype. Polytherians are therians who have more than one theriotype. Omnitherians identify as all non-human animals at once, and cladeotherians identify as an entire family or genus of animals rather than a single species. Those ones mainly refer to a therian's unique experience with their theriotype, but there are other types that refer to how the identity works or just general personal experiences. To list a few, contherians are therians who don’t experience shifts, holotheres identify as entirely non-human rather than partially, a suntherian is a therian who is almost always “shifted,” they feel their human self and animal self are always blended together. There’s far more, these are just a few examples.
There are quite a few. So, there are polytherians, meaning therians that have more than one theriotype. There are a lot of ways to be a therian, like sun therians, or moon therians. Those are usually therians that are partially shifted the majority of the time.
There are paleotherians, or therians who have extinct therian types. There are cladotherians, or therians who identify as entire clades of animals. There are lycanthropes, or therians who believe they can transform into werewolves, which we accept even if we don't all believe them, haha.
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There are paleotherians, or therians who have extinct therian types. There are cladotherians, or therians who identify as entire clades of animals. There are lycanthropes, or therians who believe they can transform into werewolves, which we accept even if we don't all believe them, haha.
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