AU Ships and How to Tag Them
This last page covers guidelines and policies for tagging, specifically, Undertale/UTMV Rarepair ships, and may not be relevant to all participants.
Because Rarepairs must be defined by disambiguous metrics, a Rarepair defined by one or more Fandom-Specific Alternate Universe characterizations must be measured by the statistics of a Disambiguous Ship Tag.
AO3 Tends to Synonymize (or link together into the same metrics) any Alternate Universe Characters, Disambiguated Original Characters, and related -Ships which are tagged in the Character or Relationship Entry Fields. For this reason, tags put in those fields for AU ships and Characters are not reliable for stats, and cannot be used to measure an AU Rarepair. They are also, for the same reason, less than useful for searching or filtering for those same AU Characters and Ships.
The solution to this problem is to put all AU-Related (and Disambiguous OC-Related) tags in the Additional Tags Entry Field. Thus, it is part of the Event's guidelines and policy that any AU-related (or disambiguous OC-Related) Ship must be measured by its disambiguating Freeform Tags, as described below.
The Additional Tags Entry Field
If you've already read the page on basic AO3 Tagging, you're familiar with the other Longform AO3 Tags.
The Last kind of Longform AO3 Tag Entry Field is the Additional Tags Entry Field. This entry field is going to do a lot of work if your fic involves AUs: it is where Freeform Tags go. Freeform Tags are tags which cover any and all Tags which are not covered by the other types of tags. This includes (but isn't necessarily limited to): genre tags, kink tags, squick tags, trigger warnings, categorical tags, and AU tags.
Alternate-Universe and -Related tags will be the focus of the following guidelines.
Additional Tags: Alternate Universes
When a fic takes place in a specific kind of Alternate Universe, or involves multiple characters from the same Alternate Universe, you may find you want to add an AU Tag in the Additional Tags entry field using the Full and Proper Name of the AU in question with the pre-established AU format.
Examples:Alternate Universe - [AU Name] (Fandom)Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale)Alternate Universe - Dancetale (Undertale)
This is used to broadly search/filter the AU itself. Other, broader kinds of alternate universes (such as Victorian Era, Vampires, and 1920s) are also used with this syntax, sans (heh) the Fandom tag, but for the purposes of this Event, those Broader categories won't be factored in to determine Rarepairs. The event will only recognize Fandom-Specific AUs, which are disambiguated with a Fandom designator (as used in the Undertale/UTMV fandom) or which have a Fandom-Specific Term in the name of the AU itself (making the need for a fandom designator redundant in that particular fandom).
Tagging the AU itself is not required for a work to be a valid entry, but knowing and understanding what the "Full and Proper Name of the AU" is for the next sections to make sense.
The Event will recognized any AU tag which has been canonized and wrangled already. In the event of any disputes over naming conventions, the Event will defer first to pre-established AO3 tags, and second to any primary sources which can be found from the original creator of the respective AU(s).
Additional Tags: AU Characters
If an AU Character is involved, it is recommended to add a Character-Disambiguating Freeform Tag in the Additional Tags Entry Field. A Character-Disambiguating Freeform Tag is a Freeform Tag that specifies a distinction for a particular AU variation (or a distinct and named Original Character) in place of a true Character Tag.
AU Character Disambiguating Freeform Tags are considered by the Event to be child-tags of the Canonical Character True Character Tag. To qualify for Bonus Tickets, a Work must tag the parent Character Tag along with the Character-Disambiguating Freeform Tag.
The syntax for an AU Character-Disambiguating Freeform Tag is:
[AU Name] [Source Material Name] (Fandom)
Examples:Underswap Sans (Undertale)Underlust Papyrus (Undertale)Reapertale Toriel (Undertale)
There are unusual circumstances that break from this format, especially when the character in question is known by a Nickname. In cases like this, a Pipe (|) may be used to separate and express the two identifying names.
Examples:Xtale Sans | Cross (Undertale)_____tale Sans | Ink (Undertale)
The format may also be broken by inserting a disambiguating (fandom-specific) modifier between the AU Name and the Source Material Name:
[AU Name] [Modifier] [Source Material Name] (Fandom)
Examples:Dreamtale Nightmare Sans (Undertale)Aftertale Classic Sans (Undertale)Aftertale Geno Sans (Undertale)
You may also find further extensions with prefix modifiers, like "Child" or "Bara" or "Evil" or "Abusive" or "Alpha", but for the purposes of this Event, these broad, secular (non-fandom-specific) nuances will not affect the rarepair determination.
To put this another way, as an example: For the purposes of this Event, Bara Underfell Sans (Undertale) is not distinct enough from Underfell Sans (Undertale) to qualify as different in a Ship.
In the same vein, MAUs (such as but not limited to: Underverse) are also not considered as distinctively relevant, as the characters which comprise them do not have any disambiguating features to make them different from their non-MAU counterparts for the purposes of shipping.
To put it another way: it would not make sense to disambiguate "Underverse Underfell Sans" from "Underfell Sans", or "Leviathantale Reapertale Sans" from "Reapertale Sans", in such a way as to make the ships they are a part of unique to each other, and therefore they will be synonymous for the purposes of this Event.
Rarepairs WITHIN those continuities are still eligible (such as if Underverse Red/Lust is the focus, or Leviathantale Papyrus/Nightmare), but the continuities themselves do not inform upon that judgment. (Underverse Classic/Red isn't distinctive from Non-Underverse Classic/Red to make it relevant as a taggable rarepair).
Obscure AUs & Original Characters Policy
Personal and Less Well Known AUs are perfectly valid, so long as they feature 3 or more Canon Character derivatives. AU types which do not feature at least 3 will be considered OCs for the purposes of this Event, whether or not their correct and proper tagging would designate them as such.
Example: While Ink is to be tagged by his name using his Character-Disambiguating Freeform Tag, he is for the purposes of this Event designated as an OC.
As OCs, they will be categorized for the Purposes of this Event as being a Child-Tag of the "Original Character" tag, and by extension ships involving them will be considered Child-Tags of "[character]/Original Character" Tag.
This year, OCs will only be eligible as Named, Disambiguated parts of a ship if they already have a Canonical and Wrangled Character-Disambiguating Freeform Tag. Pioneering an OC's Character Disambiguating Freeform Tag is outside the scope of the Event's intended purpose.
For the sake of fairness, however: if 3 or more participants can: (1) agree upon the name of; and (2) submit works which feature; the same OC Character-Disambiguating Freeform Tag (which is either Brand New or Unwranged), it may be considered as an exception for the purposes of the Event. Such exceptions can be discussed with Mods or Admins in the Event Discord Server as necessary.
Additional Tags: Ships
For ships which involve AU-Characters (or OCs), there must be a Relationship-Disambiguating Freeform Tag in the Additional Tags Entry Field. A Relationship-Disambiguating Freeform Tag is a Freeform tag that specifies a distinction for a (Relation)Ship between one or more particular AU variations (or distinct and named Original Characters) in place of a true Relationship Tag.
A Relationship-Disambiguating Freeform tag is largely ordered the same as a true Relationship Tag: alphabetized by Last-Name, then First-Name. If at least one party in a ship is meant to be the standard, Source Material Character, then the Source Material character(s) will always be listed first, in alphabetical order. Any AU Character will then follow alphabetically:
- 1st by AU Modifier
- 2nd by any additional Modifiers
- 3rd by Canonical Last Name / Family Name
- 4th by Canonical First Name / Given Name
A Relationship-Disambiguating Freeform Tag has the following syntax:
(Canonical) Source Material Name(s)/[AU] Source Material Name(s) (Fandom)
Example(s):Sans/Underfell Papyrus/Underfell Sans (Undertale)Sans/Underfell Sans/Underswap Sans (Undertale)
Ships of course can also be between just AU variants and/or OCs:
Example:Dancetale Sans/Underfell Sans/Underlust Sans (Undertale)Underfell Sans/Underlust Sans (Undertale)
Names which include a Pipe (|) are to be alphabetized first by what is in front of the Pipe.
Examples:Dreamtale Nightmare Sans/XTale Sans | Cross (Undertale)Killer Sans/XTale Sans | Cross (Undertale)
Due to the character limit, larger poly ships may need to use shorthands. Use best judgment for when to omit what modifiers. Avoid using Ship-Names except as a last resort for large polycules which exceed the tag character limit.
Once you understand what your Ship Tag is (whether it is a true Relationship Tag or a Relationship-Disambiguating Freeform Tag), you can go to the Rarepair Calculator to determine if your ship is a Rarepair!