Groups

The omegaverse has a variety of relational structures that people can live in. Litters can be very large, and are difficult for a single couple to support. Alpha/Omega couples are idealized, but pack bonds are essential for pup health, and require a beta. For these, and other, reasons, 'nuclear' families, consisting of only two parents and their biological kids, are not the only, or even the most common, model.

The idealized group in the West is the pack. There's a Head Beta, holding all the pack bonds. An Alpha leading the pack, supported by their omega mate. A second mated pair, who receives parts of each litter after they're weaned and raises them as their own, but doesn't produce any litters themselves. 2-4 unmated, or at least non-child-producing, pack members providing financial support and possibly child care. And a bunch of pups and young, newly presented kids, some of them fostered from other packs in the hopes of finding mates for the biological kids.

Actual packs vary widely from this ideal. The Head Beta may also be the Alpha's mate, or fill both Head and leader roles. Packs can have multiple couples having litters. Packs can be mostly childless. Packs can have groups of co-parenting adults that can't easily be classified as 'mated pairs'.

Types of Groups

As said before, there are many types of relational structures people can have. Here are a few of the recognized options:

A Band was traditionally a group of betas without a head, who form reciprocal bonds with each other. It now also refers to many small groups which don’t have a single head, but work together and have at least some pack bonds.

An Order is an unrelated mixed group with hierarchical head betas that forms for a specific purpose. They tend to be large. Bonds may be very weak, and emotional connection with other order member minimal. Many church congregations and charitable organizations form orders.

A Family is a familial group with a mate-bonded head couple, and possibly pups. It is polite to refer to households with a single parent, or unbonded parents, and kids, as a family, even though they technically aren’t.

A House is a group that lives together and has a single head beta. All members either have bonds with the head, and/or are mate-bonded with someone who does.

A Group is any other group that lives together.

A Pack is a group with a single head beta and at least two generations. All members either have bonds with the head, and/or are mate-bonded with someone who does. Members may not live together, but the bonds are considered familial.

A Clan is a group with multiple generations and a head beta. They may live in multiple houses, and/or have hierarchical betas under the head. All members are supposed to have bonds that eventually connect them with the head beta, but some clans may continue acting as a unit even if that network breaks. As the head beta ages, many larger clans will have a period of fictitious connection, where the group pretends that bonds exist while the betas actually operate independently.

A Troop is a group with multiple head betas, with the packs connected through mating bonds. There are no empathic connections between packs.

It is polite to refer to groups by the structure they’re closest to, even if they don’t perfectly match it. If a group matches multiple definitions, the hierarchy is generally:

Group→Family→House→Pack→Band→Troop→Clan

If you don’t know the structure of someone’s group, “pack” is the respectful assumption.