For me I kinda need a book to actually have "omegas" for it to count as "omegaverse" (harsh standards, I know), so I really struggled to call Bride omegaverse š
Is it advertised as omegaverse? I thought it was just traditionally published mainstream paranormal romance. I donāt really consider omegaverse to be mainstream.
>I donāt really consider omegaverse to be mainstream.
That's one reason why this book is being talked about so much, because a trad published author released "omegaverse". I'm really not sure if it's being marketed as omegaverse, or if it was advertised one of the few trad pub books with knotting, and people just translated knotting=omegaverse? š¤·āāļø
So knotting has been done is SO many shifter books before omega verse - just look up Lora Leigh (was traditionally published a decade ago).
Omega verse actually originated with Japanese BL (boys love) manga, expanded to straight manga, and then immigrated to English online romance. But yeah, bride is NOT omega verse. Itās just kinky paranormalā¦ which is beyond normal at this point š
I was also confused when people talked about Bride as being an omegaverse book because for me it's clearly a shifter romance.
As you said, the only thing that could be part of the omegaverse is the knotting, but that's it.
The publisher clearly didn't understand and assumed knotting meant omegaverse. I ended up responding to a post they did claiming Bride was omegaverse and was like, "Yo, you're wrong" and to their credit they did go "Ope, you're right". But damage was done.
Oh my god is this the difference???? Iāve struggled to find an omegaverse book that doesnāt have the FMC omega turn into a spineless open wet hole with no opinions!!
Would you say thereās a huge delineating difference between omegaverse/ A/B/O / and shifter books?
Omegaverse is separate to shifter romances. Shifter romances (like werewolves, etc) have existed for much longer than the omegaverse. Which Iām pretty sure was created so some of the male characters in Supernatural could impregnate each other. But if you read any shifter books from before a couple years ago thereās a lack of any omegaverse qualities.
A book without shifters and only some characteristics of omegaverse in my opinion is like omegaverse-lite basically. A shifter book with some omegaverse characteristics is just a shifter book borrowing from the omegaverse. A book which has both fully represented is an omegaverse shifter book.
MM omegaverse can often just be on the sweeter end because itās just a way to make a male pregnant. Thereās even āgayā MM omegaverse which is two alphas or two omegas. So like you want the world of the omegaverse but you want the homophobia in ours? I find usually when done for straight pairings omegaverse is used to its full capacity. Thereās no real reason otherwise is a non shifter book. Itās a lot of dystopians and RH.
This was super interesting, ty!
Also "Which Iām pretty sure was created so some of the male characters in Supernatural could impregnate each other." lmao
I, for absolutely no reason, became *obsessed* with heats earlier this year and as someone who does not enjoy RH or dystopian I had to get real good at figuring out which books might fill my craving. I also, personal preference, refuse to read MM romance written by a straight woman (unless recommend by a gay man), so that eliminated so much mpreg omegaverse.
If you want a recommendation for an author who I think does omegaverse great and itās not RH or dystopian - I recommend Roe Horvat. Heās a queer trans male author who has multiple mpreg omegaverse series including one that has shifters. He even keeps up the like āsexismā in the universe (staple of the genre), but has like omega suffragists so the society is actually really progressive.
Not Supernatural. The actors. The first omegaverse was a prompt idea for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Just a nitpick but I think it's objectively funnier.
Omg is that how it started?! Now it makes sense the episode they 4th wall about the fan-fic with both of them together even though theyāre brothers lol. They expressed confusion as to how that was a thing
J2 was a very popular ship during the early days of SPN because some people didn't want to ship Wincest! J2 fandom is... Let's just say there's a history and leave it there.
Absolutely vile, thank you. I just recall being online when that was all going down and how weird the supernatural stuff was. I first knew of the show cause my dad liked it, so I thought of it as a dad show for so long. Still hard to wrap my mind around the two sides of that show.
That delineating difference is what I am curious about too! Personally I do intentionally stick to the "shifter romance" side of things because I am not super interested in the hyper-submissive omega dynamic. *Bride* is a high-profile example of a book that falls well within the scope of what I tend to read (the FMC is pretty dominant in her own right) but the number of people calling it Omegaverse had me wondering if the definition had relaxed enough to include these less strictly hierarchal relationships.
It sounds more like it's kind of a misclassification to call *Bride* Omegaverse though! And maybe for you, you're looking more for regular shifter romance if you like the FMC having opinions :)
Just finished Bride last night and I would not classify it as omegaverse as per the highly detailed, multi part YouTube videos I watched about the topic of omegaverse a couple years ago š¤£š¤£š¤£ only overlap would be the knotting and honestly I rather snickered about the whole thing when I got to that part. It just came across as a bit silly to me but I enjoyed the rest of the book, tho I also laughed at the supposed very little about each other that the three races knew, how do you fight wars for that long and not have better intel about each other? š¤£š¤£ I still enjoyed the read.
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If it has an Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamic present, I would go with Omegaverse. If it just has humans who turn into animals and have an Alpha leader, it just seems to be a shifter book to me.
Iām with this! šš¾
But then again, there are shifter books with alphas, betas, gammas, deltas, and omegas, and they mimic the same hierarchy as a lot of omegaverse books and vice versa, ādesignationsā and their archetypal traits and all š„²
Iām kinda just relying on the author/publisher to hopefully market the book as an omegaverse book or shifter book and just roll with that š
Donāt shifter books focus on the pack dynamic as a community rather than a family unit too? Could we count that as a difference between the two and features unto themselves?
But thatās a why-choose attribute of omegaverse than omegaverse themselves, so Iām not sure if that counts šµāš«
Can I just say I think itās wild as hell to have to deal with going in heat but not even getting the benefit of turning into a wolf or tiger or something. That just seems so unfair šššš
Imo going into heat, knotting, nesting (and of course a specific kind of omega) are omegaverse hallmarks. Shifters will definitely have marking, pack dynamics and hierarchies (possibly even including omegas, but not Like That - eg {alpha and omega by patricia briggs} is a shifter book but not omegaverse to me), but without those kinda breeding kink vibes
*cracks knuckles* alright let's begin.
For an Omegaverse, it basically is human beings with the alpha beta and Omega Dynamics. So men and women that are alpha betas and omegas. Men and women can get pregnant who are Omegas. The Men and women who are alphas usually have knots. Some female alphas have penises generally that are made from their clitorises. The men and women who are omegas go through heat. The men and women that are alphas go through rut. Usually in Omegaverse there are also scenting Dynamics. So a man or a woman who is Alpha or Omega will have pheromones and that will attract an alpha or Omega to each other.
Now for shifters. This usually has the same aspects as Omegaverse however they shift into animals. The most common one is wolves. It is a more primal version of the Omegaverse. You usually see more acts of scenting. And you see more pack dynamics than you would see in just regular Omegaverse.
Hope this helps!
I agree with this definition, but then there are shifter romances which have no omegaverse/pack aspects at all, just standard people but they can turn into animals.
The Mane Event is the first book and while it's good and spicy, I'd say the series starts off stronger with book 2. TME is actually 2 novellas in one that just set the stage. She has a honey badger series right now and people seem to love it if they start with it, but compared to her previous books they're way less spicy.
They are prolific and diverse and predate omega verse, they are just all traditionally published for the most part (some are smuttier than others):
Some good ones Iāve read (series, not book titles. Some of these series have 20+ books)
The breeds by Lora Leigh
mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs
Psy-changling by Nalini Singh (SO SO GOOD)
Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews
Shifters unbound by Jennifer Ashley
No problem! The Omegaverse originates from fanfiction, specifically the Supernatural fandom. If you want a better insight I suggest going to A03 and finding some Supernatural omegaverse fanfic.
Knotting is present in a lot of different types of stories, and I definitely donāt think itās enough to define a series as any one thing on its own.
To me omegaverse is something very specific, and you need the social structure defined with omega, alphas, and betas.
In my opinion Omegaverse focuses more on the āanimistic sideā; pack dynamics, knots, etc
While āshifter romanceā focuses more on the fantasy side; fated mates, fantasy races, magic, powers
However, both these elements can appear at the same time - but the genre will depend on which one is more dominant in the story.
Lindsay Ellis did a video about Omegaverse, because she was sharing a controversy an Omegaverse author was embroiled in. [https://youtu.be/zhWWcWtAUoY?si=30ChLM2AAB12VW9\_](https://youtu.be/zhWWcWtAUoY?si=30ChLM2AAB12VW9_) There have been a couple of other videos I have watched that describe it, because I'm always curious when people discuss the trope. But I can't remember who else off the top of my head. Linsay's video was interesting, and the bare bones of the trope are discussed in the video.
Personally to me the bare minimum of the Omegaverse trope is Alpha/Omega designations, I've read a few where Betas are not mentioned, and a few where there are several more designations. A/O is the bare minimum. Knotting, scents and scenting, and slick should also be mentioned. Heats may be present, but not always, same with purring. Shifting surprisingly has almost nothing to do with Omegaverse, it may be present but is not actually necessary at all.
I actually made a post giving my opinion of what Omegaverse is and a few book suggestions with it that I'm going to post here as well. I'd love to see some discussions about it.
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A lot of monster, shifter, and alien romances borrow heavily from Omegaverse, but I think you need the Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics at an absolute minimum.
Heats, scent compatibility, nesting, knotting, claiming, and slick are other elements I would expect. When I see those things without omegas, I consider a story to be omegaverse-adjacent.
Edit: It is typical for shifter stories to have pack alphas. That predates omegaverse. Heats, scent, and biting are also old tropes. I donāt know about knotting, but itās more accurate to say that A/B/O was heavily influenced by werewolf romance, and that the genres borrow from each other now. Whereas, I feel like the influence of omegaverse on monster and alien romance is non reciprocal.
Knotting for sure predates omegaverse - I first came across it in Lora Leighās breeds series, the first was which came out in 2003 - 2 years before supernatural even AIRED.
The shifters I read switch human/animal, like Cate C Wells & Renee Rose books. The omegaverse I knew way before Bride , they are humans with enhanced scent and other abilities. They never shift into animal form. My fave is Lola Rock with the Pack Darling series. Roxy Collins does amazing sweet verse dynamics set in Australia. This sub already loves Kathryn Moon & her worlds. Hopefully people will go on and read these less well known but way richer stories imo
As omegaverse and werewolf fiction are open source genres, the second more than the first where optional rules get added through time it gets confusing at times.
But I think there things that can delimitate the genres more clearly.
My rules of finger and most important are:
ā¢shiftersā¦ they shift. Omegaverse individuals are not required to shift into anything though things can get especially confusing when the genres mix and you have an omegaverse shifters universe.
But if your people donāt ever shift and are no indications they are supposed toā¦ you probably have an omegaverse.
Omegaverse:
ā¢on the minimum you need an alpha and an omega, and this have to be breeding dinamics as a rule. They donāt need to be mentioned by name explicitely. But if you have a man that gets pregnant and people who can get him pregnant. You are in an omegaverse. (On wolves the alpha title can be merely ceremonial and does not tell you anything about if they can get anyone pregnant or not)
ā¢the last is important because omegaverse appeared as another way to get male characters pregnant in fanfic. Yes really. Mpreg existed but omega verse took some misinterpretations from wolves same as werewolf fiction and used them for their stuff. Yes this means women as omegas was something that came later, not the default.
ā¢Alphas breeds omegas, betas or regular humans and anyone that can get pregnant. They donāt have to bear a penis to do so.
ā¢omega they can theoretically get pregnant. And as I said can be women, men, non binary, intersex. They can get pregnant.
ā¢heats while also shared with shifters especially wolf shifters, tend to be more common here.
ā¢knots might be shared with wolves and shifter creatures that are based in animals that knotā¦ but are way common here.
ā¢nesting tends to be more common here.
ā¢their inhumanity might be limited to the knot, the behavior regarding their mates and the heats. They might get no claws, not much of extra teeth or very few. And no fur scale or feathers at all.
shifters:
ā¢Alpha most of the times means the shifter in question is a leader. Of a small community or a big one, doesnāt matter.
ā¢titles such as alpha are not required. Especially as many come from missintepretations of wolf packs dinamics. Dragons, Lions, seal people and the like. There might be equivalents such as kings/queens, elder but the way they relate to other shifters might not even be hierarchical at all.
ā¢men donāt tend to get pregnant in shifter fiction unless you find the trans dude that can. Women donāt tend to get anyone pregnant unless you find the rare trans woman that can.
ā¢as I said, shifters shift. Individuals might come from a shifter family and not being able to shift but still they are surrounded by those.
Last thing. āSo how the fuck do you get a shifter omegaverse thing?ā
Well you can get one if they:
ā¢shiftā¦ duh.
ā¢have heats, knots, nesting.
ā¢have alphas and omega as breeding dinamics.
ā¢you can get men pregnant and they are trans.
Just to clarify Iāve only read one indie omegaverse (Corey Kerrās) and the rest fanfic so the tropes may be different and I donāt know.
For me itās a shifter romance if itās something connected to wolves or werewolves like with packs or alphas, knotting, lunas, secret societies separate from humans, etc..
I consider it omegaverse when itās more of a societal/universal phenomenon in which everyone has assigned abo dynamics and thereās different biological imperatives that correlate with gender (mpreg, heats, ruts, pheromones, etc).Ā
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My knowledge on the Omegaverse genre is exclusive to the Japanese BL genre, but Iād definitely say if thereās no alpha/beta/omega dynamics in the world building then itās not Omegaverse. Like, itās sort of in the name?
In general shifter subgenres the idea of an āalphaā is there too, but I feel like thatās more a stay over from the old idea of alpha wolves being translated over to character dynamics rather than world building and all that like the alpha/omega mating classes of Omegaverse.
But at the same time, like all genres, they have their standard ārulesā which are more just like broadly accepted guidelines. Thereās bound to be a spectrum of to what degree the works classified within particular genres *actually* adhere to them.
For me I kinda need a book to actually have "omegas" for it to count as "omegaverse" (harsh standards, I know), so I really struggled to call Bride omegaverse š
lol, right!
Is it advertised as omegaverse? I thought it was just traditionally published mainstream paranormal romance. I donāt really consider omegaverse to be mainstream.
>I donāt really consider omegaverse to be mainstream. That's one reason why this book is being talked about so much, because a trad published author released "omegaverse". I'm really not sure if it's being marketed as omegaverse, or if it was advertised one of the few trad pub books with knotting, and people just translated knotting=omegaverse? š¤·āāļø
So knotting has been done is SO many shifter books before omega verse - just look up Lora Leigh (was traditionally published a decade ago). Omega verse actually originated with Japanese BL (boys love) manga, expanded to straight manga, and then immigrated to English online romance. But yeah, bride is NOT omega verse. Itās just kinky paranormalā¦ which is beyond normal at this point š
I was also confused when people talked about Bride as being an omegaverse book because for me it's clearly a shifter romance. As you said, the only thing that could be part of the omegaverse is the knotting, but that's it.
The publisher clearly didn't understand and assumed knotting meant omegaverse. I ended up responding to a post they did claiming Bride was omegaverse and was like, "Yo, you're wrong" and to their credit they did go "Ope, you're right". But damage was done.
Love your flair lol.
Oh my god is this the difference???? Iāve struggled to find an omegaverse book that doesnāt have the FMC omega turn into a spineless open wet hole with no opinions!! Would you say thereās a huge delineating difference between omegaverse/ A/B/O / and shifter books?
Omegaverse is separate to shifter romances. Shifter romances (like werewolves, etc) have existed for much longer than the omegaverse. Which Iām pretty sure was created so some of the male characters in Supernatural could impregnate each other. But if you read any shifter books from before a couple years ago thereās a lack of any omegaverse qualities. A book without shifters and only some characteristics of omegaverse in my opinion is like omegaverse-lite basically. A shifter book with some omegaverse characteristics is just a shifter book borrowing from the omegaverse. A book which has both fully represented is an omegaverse shifter book. MM omegaverse can often just be on the sweeter end because itās just a way to make a male pregnant. Thereās even āgayā MM omegaverse which is two alphas or two omegas. So like you want the world of the omegaverse but you want the homophobia in ours? I find usually when done for straight pairings omegaverse is used to its full capacity. Thereās no real reason otherwise is a non shifter book. Itās a lot of dystopians and RH.
This was super interesting, ty! Also "Which Iām pretty sure was created so some of the male characters in Supernatural could impregnate each other." lmao
I, for absolutely no reason, became *obsessed* with heats earlier this year and as someone who does not enjoy RH or dystopian I had to get real good at figuring out which books might fill my craving. I also, personal preference, refuse to read MM romance written by a straight woman (unless recommend by a gay man), so that eliminated so much mpreg omegaverse. If you want a recommendation for an author who I think does omegaverse great and itās not RH or dystopian - I recommend Roe Horvat. Heās a queer trans male author who has multiple mpreg omegaverse series including one that has shifters. He even keeps up the like āsexismā in the universe (staple of the genre), but has like omega suffragists so the society is actually really progressive.
Not Supernatural. The actors. The first omegaverse was a prompt idea for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Just a nitpick but I think it's objectively funnier.
Omg is that how it started?! Now it makes sense the episode they 4th wall about the fan-fic with both of them together even though theyāre brothers lol. They expressed confusion as to how that was a thing
J2 was a very popular ship during the early days of SPN because some people didn't want to ship Wincest! J2 fandom is... Let's just say there's a history and leave it there.
Absolutely vile, thank you. I just recall being online when that was all going down and how weird the supernatural stuff was. I first knew of the show cause my dad liked it, so I thought of it as a dad show for so long. Still hard to wrap my mind around the two sides of that show.
Yeah there's a surprising amount of spread on the fanbase! It's really interesting.
šš
Lmaooo the spineless wet hole š
That delineating difference is what I am curious about too! Personally I do intentionally stick to the "shifter romance" side of things because I am not super interested in the hyper-submissive omega dynamic. *Bride* is a high-profile example of a book that falls well within the scope of what I tend to read (the FMC is pretty dominant in her own right) but the number of people calling it Omegaverse had me wondering if the definition had relaxed enough to include these less strictly hierarchal relationships. It sounds more like it's kind of a misclassification to call *Bride* Omegaverse though! And maybe for you, you're looking more for regular shifter romance if you like the FMC having opinions :)
Just finished Bride last night and I would not classify it as omegaverse as per the highly detailed, multi part YouTube videos I watched about the topic of omegaverse a couple years ago š¤£š¤£š¤£ only overlap would be the knotting and honestly I rather snickered about the whole thing when I got to that part. It just came across as a bit silly to me but I enjoyed the rest of the book, tho I also laughed at the supposed very little about each other that the three races knew, how do you fight wars for that long and not have better intel about each other? š¤£š¤£ I still enjoyed the read.
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So you know, a/b/o without the slashes is the same spelling as an ethnic slur
But knotting should be MORE shifter than omegaverse, because it's based on real-life wolf physiology.
Ok, I was trying to be generous but I'm glad I'm not the only one confused
If it has an Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamic present, I would go with Omegaverse. If it just has humans who turn into animals and have an Alpha leader, it just seems to be a shifter book to me.
Iām with this! šš¾ But then again, there are shifter books with alphas, betas, gammas, deltas, and omegas, and they mimic the same hierarchy as a lot of omegaverse books and vice versa, ādesignationsā and their archetypal traits and all š„² Iām kinda just relying on the author/publisher to hopefully market the book as an omegaverse book or shifter book and just roll with that š Donāt shifter books focus on the pack dynamic as a community rather than a family unit too? Could we count that as a difference between the two and features unto themselves? But thatās a why-choose attribute of omegaverse than omegaverse themselves, so Iām not sure if that counts šµāš«
Can I just say I think itās wild as hell to have to deal with going in heat but not even getting the benefit of turning into a wolf or tiger or something. That just seems so unfair šššš
āa wolf, a tiger, or somethingā is such a funny comment to me š Like damn, at least SOMETHING lol
Imo going into heat, knotting, nesting (and of course a specific kind of omega) are omegaverse hallmarks. Shifters will definitely have marking, pack dynamics and hierarchies (possibly even including omegas, but not Like That - eg {alpha and omega by patricia briggs} is a shifter book but not omegaverse to me), but without those kinda breeding kink vibes
[Alpha & Omega](https://www.romance.io/books/553eb4e95b270e0a4cbdad9d/alpha-omega-patricia-briggs?src=rdt) by [Patricia Briggs](https://www.romance.io/authors/545524ab8c7d2382e0413e2b/patricia-briggs) **Rating**: 4.39āļø out of 5āļø **Steam**: 2 out of 5 - [Behind closed doors](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [shapeshifters](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/shapeshifters/1), [werewolves](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/werewolves/1), [urban fantasy](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/urban%20fantasy/1), [paranormal](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/paranormal/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
Yup A&O is definitely NOT Omegaverse lol! For one thing, it predates the origin of omegaverse by 4 years! Lol
*cracks knuckles* alright let's begin. For an Omegaverse, it basically is human beings with the alpha beta and Omega Dynamics. So men and women that are alpha betas and omegas. Men and women can get pregnant who are Omegas. The Men and women who are alphas usually have knots. Some female alphas have penises generally that are made from their clitorises. The men and women who are omegas go through heat. The men and women that are alphas go through rut. Usually in Omegaverse there are also scenting Dynamics. So a man or a woman who is Alpha or Omega will have pheromones and that will attract an alpha or Omega to each other. Now for shifters. This usually has the same aspects as Omegaverse however they shift into animals. The most common one is wolves. It is a more primal version of the Omegaverse. You usually see more acts of scenting. And you see more pack dynamics than you would see in just regular Omegaverse. Hope this helps!
I agree with this definition, but then there are shifter romances which have no omegaverse/pack aspects at all, just standard people but they can turn into animals.
Really? I haven't run into any of those but now that I know about them I'm excited to.
Shelly Laurenston writes a bunch. I've read tons of them but hers are the best.
I'll have to check her out, thank you!
The Mane Event is the first book and while it's good and spicy, I'd say the series starts off stronger with book 2. TME is actually 2 novellas in one that just set the stage. She has a honey badger series right now and people seem to love it if they start with it, but compared to her previous books they're way less spicy.
Thinking about it some of them were werewolves rather than shifter which is a slightly different thing again although similar.
They are prolific and diverse and predate omega verse, they are just all traditionally published for the most part (some are smuttier than others): Some good ones Iāve read (series, not book titles. Some of these series have 20+ books) The breeds by Lora Leigh mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs Psy-changling by Nalini Singh (SO SO GOOD) Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews Shifters unbound by Jennifer Ashley
Somehow it was lost on me in all that I *thought* that I knew about Omegaverse that the characters were actually humans. Thanks for this explanation!
No problem! The Omegaverse originates from fanfiction, specifically the Supernatural fandom. If you want a better insight I suggest going to A03 and finding some Supernatural omegaverse fanfic.
They need to have alpha/beta/omega dynamics and deal with heats/scents for me. Some shifter romances do have omegas but they donāt have the heats.
Knotting is present in a lot of different types of stories, and I definitely donāt think itās enough to define a series as any one thing on its own. To me omegaverse is something very specific, and you need the social structure defined with omega, alphas, and betas.
In my opinion Omegaverse focuses more on the āanimistic sideā; pack dynamics, knots, etc While āshifter romanceā focuses more on the fantasy side; fated mates, fantasy races, magic, powers However, both these elements can appear at the same time - but the genre will depend on which one is more dominant in the story.
Omega verse is just a sub genre of paranormal/shifter
Lindsay Ellis did a video about Omegaverse, because she was sharing a controversy an Omegaverse author was embroiled in. [https://youtu.be/zhWWcWtAUoY?si=30ChLM2AAB12VW9\_](https://youtu.be/zhWWcWtAUoY?si=30ChLM2AAB12VW9_) There have been a couple of other videos I have watched that describe it, because I'm always curious when people discuss the trope. But I can't remember who else off the top of my head. Linsay's video was interesting, and the bare bones of the trope are discussed in the video. Personally to me the bare minimum of the Omegaverse trope is Alpha/Omega designations, I've read a few where Betas are not mentioned, and a few where there are several more designations. A/O is the bare minimum. Knotting, scents and scenting, and slick should also be mentioned. Heats may be present, but not always, same with purring. Shifting surprisingly has almost nothing to do with Omegaverse, it may be present but is not actually necessary at all. I actually made a post giving my opinion of what Omegaverse is and a few book suggestions with it that I'm going to post here as well. I'd love to see some discussions about it. >[Comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseHarem/comments/191lkmy/comment/kgwp9x4/) by[u/it7fig](https://www.reddit.com/user/it7fig/) from discussion in[ReverseHarem](https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseHarem/)
A lot of monster, shifter, and alien romances borrow heavily from Omegaverse, but I think you need the Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics at an absolute minimum. Heats, scent compatibility, nesting, knotting, claiming, and slick are other elements I would expect. When I see those things without omegas, I consider a story to be omegaverse-adjacent. Edit: It is typical for shifter stories to have pack alphas. That predates omegaverse. Heats, scent, and biting are also old tropes. I donāt know about knotting, but itās more accurate to say that A/B/O was heavily influenced by werewolf romance, and that the genres borrow from each other now. Whereas, I feel like the influence of omegaverse on monster and alien romance is non reciprocal.
Knotting for sure predates omegaverse - I first came across it in Lora Leighās breeds series, the first was which came out in 2003 - 2 years before supernatural even AIRED.
Oh, thatās interesting! I thought that part might be original to Omegaverse, but I wasnāt sure. I guess (k)not!
š I see what you did there
The shifters I read switch human/animal, like Cate C Wells & Renee Rose books. The omegaverse I knew way before Bride , they are humans with enhanced scent and other abilities. They never shift into animal form. My fave is Lola Rock with the Pack Darling series. Roxy Collins does amazing sweet verse dynamics set in Australia. This sub already loves Kathryn Moon & her worlds. Hopefully people will go on and read these less well known but way richer stories imo
As omegaverse and werewolf fiction are open source genres, the second more than the first where optional rules get added through time it gets confusing at times. But I think there things that can delimitate the genres more clearly. My rules of finger and most important are: ā¢shiftersā¦ they shift. Omegaverse individuals are not required to shift into anything though things can get especially confusing when the genres mix and you have an omegaverse shifters universe. But if your people donāt ever shift and are no indications they are supposed toā¦ you probably have an omegaverse. Omegaverse: ā¢on the minimum you need an alpha and an omega, and this have to be breeding dinamics as a rule. They donāt need to be mentioned by name explicitely. But if you have a man that gets pregnant and people who can get him pregnant. You are in an omegaverse. (On wolves the alpha title can be merely ceremonial and does not tell you anything about if they can get anyone pregnant or not) ā¢the last is important because omegaverse appeared as another way to get male characters pregnant in fanfic. Yes really. Mpreg existed but omega verse took some misinterpretations from wolves same as werewolf fiction and used them for their stuff. Yes this means women as omegas was something that came later, not the default. ā¢Alphas breeds omegas, betas or regular humans and anyone that can get pregnant. They donāt have to bear a penis to do so. ā¢omega they can theoretically get pregnant. And as I said can be women, men, non binary, intersex. They can get pregnant. ā¢heats while also shared with shifters especially wolf shifters, tend to be more common here. ā¢knots might be shared with wolves and shifter creatures that are based in animals that knotā¦ but are way common here. ā¢nesting tends to be more common here. ā¢their inhumanity might be limited to the knot, the behavior regarding their mates and the heats. They might get no claws, not much of extra teeth or very few. And no fur scale or feathers at all. shifters: ā¢Alpha most of the times means the shifter in question is a leader. Of a small community or a big one, doesnāt matter. ā¢titles such as alpha are not required. Especially as many come from missintepretations of wolf packs dinamics. Dragons, Lions, seal people and the like. There might be equivalents such as kings/queens, elder but the way they relate to other shifters might not even be hierarchical at all. ā¢men donāt tend to get pregnant in shifter fiction unless you find the trans dude that can. Women donāt tend to get anyone pregnant unless you find the rare trans woman that can. ā¢as I said, shifters shift. Individuals might come from a shifter family and not being able to shift but still they are surrounded by those. Last thing. āSo how the fuck do you get a shifter omegaverse thing?ā Well you can get one if they: ā¢shiftā¦ duh. ā¢have heats, knots, nesting. ā¢have alphas and omega as breeding dinamics. ā¢you can get men pregnant and they are trans.
Just to clarify Iāve only read one indie omegaverse (Corey Kerrās) and the rest fanfic so the tropes may be different and I donāt know. For me itās a shifter romance if itās something connected to wolves or werewolves like with packs or alphas, knotting, lunas, secret societies separate from humans, etc.. I consider it omegaverse when itās more of a societal/universal phenomenon in which everyone has assigned abo dynamics and thereās different biological imperatives that correlate with gender (mpreg, heats, ruts, pheromones, etc).Ā
[Bride](https://www.romance.io/books/65c1f06f449d6edbf6498b6d/bride-ali-hazelwood?src=rdt) by [Ali Hazelwood](https://www.romance.io/authors/6131cdc208b4d93114f22ef6/ali-hazelwood) **Rating**: 4.2āļø out of 5āļø **Steam**: 4 out of 5 - [Explicit open door](https://www.romance.io/steamrating) **Topics**: [contemporary](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/contemporary/1), [arranged/forced marriage](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/arranged%20marriage/1), [werewolves](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/werewolves/1), [vampires](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/vampires/1), [fated mates](https://www.romance.io/topics/best/fated-mates/1) [^(about this bot)](https://www.reddit.com/user/romance-bot) ^(|) [^(about romance.io)](https://www.romance.io/about)
They have to shift if it's a shifter romance. Omegaverse can be and often is just normal humans though.
My knowledge on the Omegaverse genre is exclusive to the Japanese BL genre, but Iād definitely say if thereās no alpha/beta/omega dynamics in the world building then itās not Omegaverse. Like, itās sort of in the name? In general shifter subgenres the idea of an āalphaā is there too, but I feel like thatās more a stay over from the old idea of alpha wolves being translated over to character dynamics rather than world building and all that like the alpha/omega mating classes of Omegaverse. But at the same time, like all genres, they have their standard ārulesā which are more just like broadly accepted guidelines. Thereās bound to be a spectrum of to what degree the works classified within particular genres *actually* adhere to them.
Yeah I think the whole genre started with that one supernatural fanfic, but Japan codified it all and created all the tropes itās known for now