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Non human alters.

Got another plurality education post for you all, because idk I feel like yapping about this in particular.

Yep, alters can be non-human. Why is that and how does it work? Lemme break it down.

Why can an alter be non-human?
Several reasons actually, depending on the situation. But remember, most of the time systems originate in childhood, so the brain is running on child logic. To a kid, fairytale creatures are totally real. Animals are cool and fun or scary and weird depending on the kind. Even into adulthood, you can still split non-humans for a myriad of reasons, but the root of the brain deciding non-humans are a valid thing to split comes from childhood logic.

1) reflection of trauma.
If you tell a kid developing a system "you're a monster" enough times, and they start feeling like there's something wrong with them, something about them that's scary, something broken about them etc. they may split an alter that reflects that in the form of a monster. Or maybe they feel constantly scared, on edge, like they have to run away etc and then learn about how prey animals run and hide from a predator in school, they associate their feelings of being like that of the animal and split an alter that's an animal. (E.g. deers that run off the second they hear a slight noise may read to the child as 'that's what I have to do to escape danger', so they split a deer that will front when there's danger to run away from it)

2) needing protection, guidance or assurance.
Some animals and mythical creatures are associated with particular traits. Dragons are said to be protective and strong, dogs are loyal and love their humans etc. so if the brain recognises traits it needs to survive in said creature, it may split one. Like splitting a dragon to be a protector, or a dog to be a helper.

3) introjects.
If you split a fictive of a vampire character, that fictive is still going to be a vampire (unless they splif canon divergent or something). Non human characters will carry their non human traits over into their form as a fictive.

4) being made to feel inhuman.
Let's be real, people treat those with mental illnesses as less than human as it is. If the world treats you like you're less than human, the brain will go "well if we're not human, we must be *inset creature here*" and split that creature. E.g. a lot of autistic people report feeling like an alien or foreign being in society because of the way they are treated and the way they experience the world around them. So an autistic system may split an alien to explain that feeling.

Awareness.
Yes, the non human alters know they're fronting in a human body. They may not fully get it when they first split and aren't used to the body, but they will eventually come around to it. No one is genuinely demanding litter boxes in school bathrooms ok that's a lie made up by transphobes. Cat alters know they're in a human body and will act as such. Their behaviour may be different to a human, but they are AWARE they are in a human body and know when they have to put on the human mask. Most non human alters really don't care what the body is, even if it makes them uncomfortable, or they don't like fronting, they know they can't control what species the body is. It's human, so we just have to make do.

Phantom body parts.
Ever heard of phantom limbs? The weird brain thing amputees get where they can still feel the limb they don't have anymore? Well that can happen to trans people pre-surgery too, feeling the dick they don't have yet etc. and to non human alters while fronting, and experience similar phantom sensations based in the differences between a human and non human body. An angel can feel where its wings SHOULD be on the body. A mermaid can struggle with walking because they're not used to having legs. A vampire can find the sun blinding and need to wear sunglasses because they're used to avoiding the sun so they don't burn. And it's all in the same part of the brain that causes phantom limbs, it's registering that there SHOULD be something there and is sending signals out to where that body part should be trying to find it.

Presenting internally.
In the headspace, the non humans will present with their non human forms. You'll actually see and hear them as they are. You'll see the angel with their wings, you'll see the cat as an actual cat. Inside the headspace they can obviously do as their form would entail. Winged beings can fly, vampires can drink blood, animals can have nests or pet beds etc. so unsurprisingly a lot of non humans prefer to stay in the headspace where they have their own body and won't experience fronting dysmorphia or phantom sensations. Because while yeah, a cat ear headband can help the cat feel a little more cat like, it's not real cat ears. Nothing like the real thing they have internally. There's nothing wrong with a non human dressing up a bit to fit their appearance when fronting, given it's appropriate for the occasion. Probably not a good idea to show up to a funeral with angel wings on you know? In fact our siren regularly swims with swimmable mermaid tails in summer, because swimming with legs just feels wrong. They want to go snorkelling but legs are ew, so just slap on the monofin and it feels much nicer.

Our non humans.
We're actually mostly non human. Our list of species includes:
A siren
An angel
Three deities
A half sea nymph
A vampire
A ghost
A Druid
A catboy
A moptop (humanoid teddy thing)
A demon (spider based)
A 2D dream projection guy
A hylian (elf like thing)
And we used to have a reaper.
Only 4 of us are normal humans, plus one undead human.

This is mostly because we've been heavily into fantasy and mythology since we were kids, so all the stories and things we've consumed over the years involve non human beings. I cannot begin to count the amount of mermaid YouTube shows I watched as a tween. I'm shocked there's not MORE merfolk in here actually. Greoroman mythology too, always been into that. So no shock at all that all these creatures and some deities are here. Some of them split merely because of obsession/exposure to that species (merfolk/nymphs in particular). Some are here for a more emotional trauma reason. The ghost because he looks 'scary' but is very sweet, he was the reflection of the feeling 'why are people scared of me?' Realising that people are scared of you because you have the 'scary' illness isn't exactly a fun thing to realise as a kid. And we registered that a ghost is in kind of the same position, they're perceived as scary, but are actually victims of tragic accidents or murder and haven't actually done anything wrong, just exited as they are. Just like people with stigmatised disorders haven't done anything wrong but are still seen as scary. And some are just really obvious, oh we need to fix our sleep issues? Easy, god of sleep.

So that's the basics on non human alters and why they form, what they're like etc. even if they're non human internally, they're still fronting in a human body and deserve human rights and respect.