The term “otakukin,” which is the predecessor to the term now used “fiction kin, was coined either before or in the year 2001. The first ever website, Temple of The Ota-’Kin at one point talks about otherkin who identify as creatures from fictional media and specifically mentions Tolkien elves and hobbits, and Pernese dragons. This statement most likely making reference to the draconic community and the elven community up this point.
So we’ve been digging around the alt.fan.dragons (to start off with) looking for evidence of people identifying as dragons specifically from modern media. We have found lists of dragons/members on AFD with descriptions of how they look and some people specifically say things like “male Pernese Brown Dragon,” “female Gold Pern Dragon,” and “emerald dragon.” However, given AFD was originally a fan site for dragons which ended up attracting people who actually identified as dragons, its hard to tell sometimes what is more than likely roleplay and what is more than likely an attempt to describe how one identifies and expresses there identity. So that is something we’re still going through.
As for the elven community, we really don’ have much knowledge on it at all, plus it goes back before the 90s so there is more ground to cover in history. However, we have heard mention of people who identified as hobbits in the 90s and early 2000s plus a reference about the elven community being effected by Tolkien’s work, but we haven’t found any sources that really pin anything down.
Regardless, these things suggest that though terms for people who identify as something from modern media didn’t become coined until 2001, such people may have earlier footprints into the otherkin communities.
