If you read stories within my Atherverse, Sigmaverse, and Astral Mates universes, you’ll find a healthy dose of omegaverse fiction. For readers not steeped in fanfiction culture, the term itself may be alien to them. So, I decided to put together a quick and dirty guide of what omegaverse is and my take on it.
What is Omegaverse? At its heart, omegaverse is an Alternate Universe (AU) in which men without uteruses in our universe have the ability to have children, and everyone is born with a secondary sex. It relies on faulty science about the behavior of wolves and, over the years, has drifted from the realm of fanfiction to popular published works across the world, including books and comics!
Authors and artists have created new variations, such as BDSM-based worlds revolving around commands vs. mating pheromones, “sweetverse” and so on. And Lexa Luthor pioneered publishing female alpha fiction (to my limited knowledge). But overall, A/B/O fiction is easy to spot once you know the fundamentals.
According to Connor Johnson at Fanfiction Recommendations, omegaverse is “…a kink-based AU built upon an animalistic hierarchical system in which males can become pregnant (hereafter referred to as mpreg). In [omegaverse] or A/B/O fics, everyone is born with a particular disposition; “alpha,” “beta,” or “omega.” The qualities of these three classifications change according to how any one fan writes their story, but there are a few generalities shared by most takes on the ‘verse which fall in line with what you’d expect from their names: “Alphas” are dominant, and capable of impregnating “Omegas”, “Omegas,” by contrast, are submissive and can become pregnant, and “Betas,” generally, are essentially normal human beings. In some fan works, either “Betas” or “Omegas” may be omitted and substituted by the other.”
KEY TERMINOLOGY
-Verse: A quick way to figure out if something is omegaverse is to look for “keyword-verse.” Sometimes the first word denotes what the world is about, the characters you’ll follow, and/or the setting. For example, in my Atherverse universe, all the omegaverse stories take place within or are connected to the fantastical world of Atheria. Other times it’s to establish a unique universe or take on the sub-genre. Examples include Sweetverse by Kathryn Moon & Lana Kole and Sigmaverse by me in my cyberpunk dystopian settings.
Alphas (A) / Betas (β) / Omegas (Ω): The hallmarks of the genre, just as explained above. Terms you’ll see frequently are as follows: heat, rut, slick, knotting, marking, fated mates, pheromones, and nesting.
Gammas (Γ)/ Deltas (Δ) / Sigmas (Σ): Unique distinctions found in my works. Deltas have been used by other authors and are usually used to denote a person who can shift between alpha, beta, and omega states or has some other unique quality that doesn’t fit neatly into the hierarchy. In my Sigmasverse universe, A/B/O still exists, but gammas and sigmas are added to the mix. Gammas are mutated humans transformed by, you guessed it, gamma radiation exposure. And sigmas are essentially superhumans who were born with the A/B/O distinction but became something even stronger by artificial means.
Mpreg: The ability of men, usually born without functioning reproductive systems in our world, to become pregnant.
Fpreg (Fempreg): The ability of women usually born without the ability to impregnate others to do so. In my AU, alphas females have E!C or “enlarged clitoris,” though most use the G!P or “girl penises” variation of the trope. In some versions, the E!C or G!P is always present, and at other times it only appears and swells during ruts.
