The Omegaverse, or the Alpha/Beta/Omega (A/B/O for short) dynamics universe is a setting originating from and primarily found in Fanfiction, most commonly of the Slash Fic variety. Finding its origin in Supernatural Real-Person Fic, it quickly spread to other Fandoms and eventually to original Erotic Literature, Romance Novels, Manga and Manhwa. Although individual components of the Omegaverse like Mate or Die or Mister Seahorse are much older, the specific merging of tropes into one common setting started in The New '10s, making it one of The Newest Ones in the Book.
While some aspects are switched around, left out or added, the basic components stay the same: humans in this otherwise mostly normal setting, have an additional, just as important "dynamic" or second sex next to gender. Based on the now discredited concept of Alpha and Beta Wolves, alphas usually are dominant, aggressive and sport Exotic Equipment, while omegas are more submissive and might be able to get pregnant regardless of biological sex. Betas, who are either just regular old humans or characters who have a mix of Alpha and Omega traits (depending on the author), are often relegated to background characters, while the main focus of A/B/O stories is usually an alpha-omega couple. How the structure of society changes with the addition of the A/B/O types can also be handled quite differently from author to author. A/B/O type may be more important than gender, so alpha/omega couples are the norm, while an alpha/alpha heterosexual couple might be discriminated against. Often, there exists a Fantastic Caste System, where people of some type (most commonly omegas) are oppressed or one type is exceedingly rare and valuable. Other common components are pheromone emission and knowing their partner by scent, bonding for life and sexual heat cycles. When someone hides their type through behavioral changes or suppression medication, there might be some sort of Gender Reveal when they are found out.
Stories containing Omegaverse usually fall on the explicit side and can be either Porn Without Plot or Porn with Plot, but tamer works exploring the gender and societal dynamics (not unlike fiction from the New Weird movement) do exist and are not uncommon.
Tropes frequently found in this setting include:
- Bizarre Alien Sexes: When it's applied to Our Werebeasts Are Different and not Our Humans Are Different.
- Bizarre Human Biology: Alpha Females and Omega Males are both hermaphrodites, while Alpha Males (and in some cases, Alpha Females) have a canine-like bulbus glandis.
- Blanket Fort: Omegas are frequently stereotyped as "nesting", which are often depicted as small in-house forts made of pillows and blankets, which Omegas will often instinctively make when nervous or expecting.
- Claimed by the Supernatural: Alphas will sometimes bite an Omega that they are physically or sexually attracted to in order to 'Claim' them, leaving a bite mark that will prevent the Omega from being attracted to anyone else (and prevent other Alphas from being attracted to the Omega).
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Often invoked by authors, since Omegas are often treated as second-class citizens with limited rights in comparison to Alphas and Betas (with treatment of Omegas often ranging from "Stay in the Kitchen" to being legally perpetual minors in the custodianship of an Alpha or Beta), and some Omegaverse stories are set in pre-modern times where this trope would be in force regardless.
- Depending on the Writer: The mechanics, physiology, and reproductive anatomy of Alphas and Omegas can vary between authors.
- Everyone Is Bi: Alphas and Omegas are as likely to be within a same-sex relationship as a heterosexual one — to the point that gay or lesbian Alpha/Omega couples are much more common than heterosexual couples that are both Alphas or Omegas.
- Fantastic Caste System: Alphas are often depicted as forming an Omegaverse society's upper or warrior classes, while Omegas are usually submissive and either an oppressed underclass (that often goes into hiding) or relegated to service and hospitality industries.
- Fandom-Specific Plot: Omegaverse stories are as likely to be AU fanfics of pre-existing franchises as they are not.
- Hermaphrodite: Both Omega Males and Alpha Females are fully-functional hermaphrodites with both sets of reproductive organs.
- Homosexual Reproduction: Gay couples where one (or both) men are Omega Males, and lesbian couples where one (or both) women are Alpha Females, are as capable as procreating as a heterosexual couple.
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: Via Our Humans Are Different in cases when the setting doesn't make any distinction from human biology—such as therianthropy, in keeping with the Alpha and Beta Wolves associations—other than Bizarre Alien Sexes.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Practically ubiquitous in same-sex Alpha/Omega pairings, with the Alpha being the more masculine partner and the Omega being the more feminine one.
- Mating Season Mayhem: Omegas go into Heat whenever the ovulate, releasing a pheromone or odor that can induce Rut (a state of increased sexual arousal) in Alphas. Omegas are often incapable of controlling their heats, and Alphas are often incapable of controlling themselves when in rut.
- Mindlink Mates: Some more overtly magical Omegaverse settings may depict Alphas as able to make telepathic connections to an Omega that they've 'Claimed'.
- Mister Seahorse: Omega Males are as capable of getting pregnant as Alpha, Beta, or Omega females are. This trope is one of the most famously associated with Omegaverse, to the point of this trope being used as the definition of Omegaverse in Google Definitions, and the trope page on This Very Wiki has a brief summary of Omegaverse on the trope's fanfic examples page.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Both Alphas and Omegas are often depicted as having animalistic instincts, especially when an Alpha is in rut or an Omega is in heat.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: Some interpretations of the Omegaverse depict the setting as being entirely non-heteronormative, where same-sex couples aren't something to bat an eye at. Others will depict society as mostly heteronormative, but make a Bigotry Exception if one (or both) members of a gay couple are Omega Males, or if one (or both) members of a lesbian couple are Alpha Females.
- Not Safe for Work: Given the Omegaverse's origins and strong associations with online erotica, an Omegaverse story being NSFW is pretty much given as a default.
- Our Humans Are Different: When there isn't a supernatural excuse for why what amounts to Bizarre Alien Sexes is normalized as Bizarre Human Biology via Human Outside, Alien Inside.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different / Our Werewolves Are Different: Therianthropy in general, and lycanthropy in particular, are popular excuses for Alpha and Beta Wolves dynamic.
- Signature Scent: Alphas and Omegas have their own unique scents, the former of which can use to 'Claim' the latter.
- Smart Animal, Inconvenient Instincts: A rare non-Furry and non-sapient-animal example, since Alphas and Omegas both have some animalistic instincts (mostly pertaining to rut/heat).
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Niibanme No Alpha is a Yaoi manga centering around the romance between an alpha man and his omega coworker. It contains the concept of fated mates, and in the epilogue, the two men have a biological child.
- You Are My Soulmate is a two-part Yuri Genre manga by Jin Takemiya about a Genki Girl named Megu who, upon learning that she is an omega, resolves to find her alpha soulmate. She soon runs into her school's student council vice-president Akina and has an overwhelming reaction to her alpha pheromones... even though Akina initially rejects her due to supposedly being a beta. In a Twist Ending, after Megu and Akina fall in love and decide to be officially bonded, Megu discovers that the pheromones she has been picking up on Akina had actually come from Akina's alpha sister Yukimi, who lives with her and who has unwittingly been Megu's actual soulmate all along.
Fan Works
- King's Ransom, Queen Sacrifice is a Captive Prince Alternate Universe fic where discrimination and enslavement of Omegas is the law for everywhere except Vask (which is instead ruled by Omegas entirely). The Point of Divergence is Laurent presenting as an omega after the Battle of Marlas, making him legally ineligible to inherit Vere's throne and sentencing him to be sold to a breeding house by his uncle, who becomes king in his place. Laurent subsequently swears revenge against his uncle and spends next several years plotting, only to have his plans upended when he's sold to Kastor as part of his uncle's plots and meets Damen.
- Maybe Sprout Wings is a Supernatural Adaptational Mundanity fic set in an A/B/O universe where discrimination and slavery of omegas is common. The story centers around omega Dean being rescued from slavery by alpha Castiel, who in this setting is the White Sheep of his slaver family.
- Strange Days is a Ace Attorney Omegaverse fanfic where Edgeworth faced discrimination as an omega in the workplace. Type, in a case of Deliberate Values Dissonance, matters more than gender in segregated spaces like bathhouses.
Literature
- Addison Cain is a writer of erotica and romance mostly set in the Omegaverse. Her Alphas Claim series, among others, features dominant alpha men and submissive omega women.
- BunnyIsCute's Original Omegaverse Collection is a series of three stories hosted on Archive of Our Own, each following a pregnant Omega male going through both trauma and recovery.
- Lucky Lives Omegaverse is a series of Omegaverse stories on AO3, following some Alphas and Omegas dealing with various real-world issues.
- Mercy Hills Pack is an erotica novel series centering on a society of Magical Native American wolf shapeshifters that have alpha/omega dynamics. Alphas are pack leaders, while omegas, intentionally paralleling real-world sexism, are commonly treated as subservient baby factories and homemakers. Omega men are able to get pregnant and have some sort of innate calming, emotion-manipulation ability.
- Victorian Omegaverse is a series of stories by JD_Riley and GooseberryPicker hosted on Archive of Our Own, that is set in an Omegaverse version of Victorian Britain in the late 1800s. It notably combines tropes from both Omegaverse and from period fiction set in 19th Century Britain.
Visual Novels
- The 2024 Yuri Genre work Lip Trip ~Boss wa Watashi no Genetsuzai~ focuses on an Office Romance set in an A/B/O universe.
- Omega Vampire: Set in an A/B/O universe where the common tropes apply (discriminated against omegas, male pregnancy, alpha/omega bonding for life), this Yaoi Genre Visual Novel combines the trope with Paranormal Romance. Protagonist Keiichi is an ordinary beta high-school student whose parents were killed by vampires. He himself turns into a half-human vampire during an Emergency Transformation and his type changes to omega. Now needing to adjust to omega life (sudden heats, taking suppressing medication), he has the chance of romancing four different handsome men: the alpha vampires Heinrich and Genma, his beta friend Aoi and the Tsundere omega werewolf Hakurou. While containing non-standard omega/omega and omega/beta romances, Keiichi also has a Superpowered Evil Side where he turns into an alpha after drinking blood.
Webcomics
- Best Friends is a Korean Yuri Genre webcomic about Hayoon and Minju, two childhood friends-with-benefits whose relationship is strained by Hayoon's fears that she, an omega, is nothing but a temporary plaything for Minju, an alpha, and that Minju will move on to other conquests as soon as she marks her. Her fears are worsened even further by Minju's alpha father who is obsessed with keeping his family alpha-only and isn't shy to manipulate everyone to this end.
- Fated Mates is an Omegaverse webcomic where the existence of soulmates, or "fated mates", is rumored. The two protagonists, an Alpha Male office worker and an Omega Male coffeehouse worker, eventually find out it is real.
- Perfect Heroine Wants To Possess Me combines Omegaverse with a Yuri Genre "Reborn as Villainess" Story: the protagonist Ji Xiao gets reborn into an omegaverse novel as the alpha villainess who bullies the omega heroine Wei Qingyu. Knowing the original novel's ending, where Qingyu snaps and murders her tormentor, the reborn Ji Xiao pulls a 180 and starts doting on her instead, to everyone's confusion.
- Your Scent Is A Little Sweet is a Chinese Yuri Genre webcomic about Tang Chao, an alpha whose genetic disorder prevents her from going into a rut... at least until she accidentally sleeps with a mysterious omega named Li Zhixu, who just happens to join her modeling company the next day, causing no end of awkwardness. An additional wrinkle is the fact that their company has a policy of only hiring beta models, meaning that both Tang Chao and Li Zhixu had lied on their resumes and have to continue hiding their secondary sex to keep their jobs.
Web Videos
- ColeyDoesThings: Played for Laughs in "omegaverse vs. alpha bro
", a One Dialogue, Two Conversations scene where an Omegaverse fangirl and a self-proclaimed alpha male converse about "alphas" and "betas" in entirely different contexts. The alpha male mentions dynamics between men that the fangirl takes as Omegaverse ideas. It takes some time before they realize the fangirl is talking about a sexy genre of fanfiction.
- Lindsay Ellis did a video on the history of the Omegaverse as a genre, up to and including Addison Cain's infamous Frivolous Lawsuit in which she basically tried to claim the entire genre as her own intellectual property.
- Dominic Noble has made a video discussing Alpha Male/ Omega Male Omegaverse wattpad fiction, which also does a basic explanation of the trope.
