Omegaverse. The hidden vice of many a reader of manga, manwha, manhua, and books. IYKYK, am I right?

So what exactly IS omegaverse?

Omegaverse is a particular subgenre of romance fiction that incorporates elements of the old theory of wolf-packs being centered on dominant wolves (alphas), submissive wolves (omegas) and everyone else (betas). This hierarchical approach is used in romance to generate themes of inescapable attraction by alphas and omegas through pheromones, dominance and submission through the same process, social oppression and stigma experienced by women but applied to men, and the ever-popular male pregnancy trope found in fantasy romance.

Every author’s omegaverse world is unique, and can be set in almost any era or locale, even in space or on another world. But there are commonalities across the subgenre that are standard, even if the individual elements vary. For example:

There are two basic sexes: male and female, and three subsexes: alpha, beta, omega. There are males and females of each subsex, in greater or lesser ratios, depending on the author’s particular omegaverse.

Alphas and omegas produce pheromones designed to attract the other subsex to encourage “mating” and “breeding” to produce offspring. There are some omegaverse settings where anyone, male/female, alpha/beta/omega can get pregnant, but these are less common.

Bonding between an alphas and omegas that ties the omega to a particular alpha for life. Some authors allow bond-breaking, and some tie the alpha as well as the omega, but the standard is that the bond is permanent and the alpha remains free to pursue other omegas.

Male omegas are usually rare and can get pregnant. Sometimes this is limited so only alphas can get male omegas pregnant.

Omegas suffer through periodic heat cycles, and alphas have periodic ruts. Omegas in heat can trigger alpha ruts. This facet of omegaverse settings often leads to implications and backstories of sexual violence, along with dubious consent situations.

Sex during an omega’s heat, or during overlapping heat/rut cycles pretty much guarantees pregnancy, or at least a statistically significant chance of it.

Societal oppression of omegas, along with prejudice against male omegas results in omegas having to settle for low paying jobs, if they can get jobs, or hiding their secondary gender, or living on welfare from the government.

The appeal for many readers of omegaverse is the leveling factor of the alpha/omega trope. Female alphas can “father” children and hold positions of high authority and elite status; male omegas can get pregnant and be viewed basically as brood stock-good for nothing but producing children, the way women have been viewed historically. Depending on the author, omegaverse settings can be used to address a variety of negative societal concerns, drawing parallels to real world situations through a fantastical fictional world. Some authors even flip the trope on its head and give omegas power.

All in all, the omegaverse setting can lead to richly developed stories that take on societal woes, both historic and modern, and give them a new spin through a unique form of gender equality.

So would you read omegaverse?