Fornax: From Human to Alien Lovers

Thank you for those who have already modified their nominations without me asking! However, we still have a few more noms that need clarification 🙂 If you have done any of these noms, you can go ahead and just modify them yourself because they haven't yet been approved and/or rejected, with one exception (Kai Leng/Shepard Clone) because I accidentally rejected that one without meaning to 🤦‍♀️ The following noms will need to be modified before they can be accepted:

Kai Leng/Shepard Clone — this one needs a gender assigned to the Shepard Clone (male, female, non-binary); please just DM me what you would like this to be so I can re-add it for you! As an FYI, Kai Leng/Male Shepard Clone has already been nominated, so if that is the nom you wanted, just let me know and I'll reject it for you, thanks!

Miranda Lawson/Elcor Diplomat — this one needs a gender assigned to the Elcor Diplomat (male, female, non-binary)

Thank you for those who have already modified their nominations without me asking! However, we still have a few more noms that need clarification 🙂 If you have done any of these noms, you can go ahead and just modify them yourself because they haven't yet been approved and/or rejected, with one exception (Kai Leng/Shepard Clone) because I accidentally rejected that one without meaning to 🤦‍♀️ The following noms will need to be modified before they can be accepted:

Kai Leng/Shepard Clone — this one needs a gender assigned to the Shepard Clone (male, female, non-binary); please just DM me what you would like this to be so I can re-add it for you! As an FYI, Kai Leng/Male Shepard Clone has already been nominated, so if that is the nom you wanted, just let me know and I'll reject it for you, thanks!

Miranda Lawson/Elcor Diplomat — this one needs a gender assigned to the Elcor Diplomat (male, female, non-binary)

https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/29366

Nominations are now open for the 2026 Fornax Exchange!

When nominating, please fill in “Mass Effect – All Media Types” in the fandom box

As this is a smut-oriented exchange, only / nominations will be accepted; we will not be accepting any & nominations. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask the mods via our inbox or on our discord!

Please see a how-to guide to nominating and commonly asked questions below:

HOW TO NOMINATE:

1) Go to the AO3 Tagset Page for Fornax 2026 while logged into AO3. A tagset is what most AO3 fan exchanges use to determine what relationships or other criteria are used for an exchange.

If a pairing is not nominated, it will not be able to be used for sign-ups  

If you don’t have an AO3 account, contact the mods, we’ll be happy to help you get one with an invite link!

2) Click "Nominate"

3) Fill out the Nominations Sheet

For fandom, please use “Mass Effect - All Media Types”. We only use Mass Effect - All Media Types because it gives us the highest chance of getting that sweet, sweet Mass Effect content in there regardless of potentially sticky couples (for example: crossovers between a book and a game, or between the Mass Effect Trilogy and Andromeda, or crossovers between other media and Mass Effect) and because AO3 frankly doesn’t like it when we have couples wandering through different fandoms in the tagset

4) Submit your Nominations! Just click the button on the bottom, and you should be off off and away!

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

How many things can I nominate?

**New for 2026** Twenty (20) relationships!! — so choose carefully what you’d like to see and write. This covers both Andromeda and Trilogy, all the novels, comics, etc.

Can I nominate, even if I’m not sure I’ll sign up or don’t plan on signing up?

Of course! Nominating isn’t a binding process — you’re only voting for what you’d like to see. You don’t have to sign up after nominating things — in fact, nominations are anonymous, so we can’t tell what you’ve nominated

Are there any special rules/restrictions on what I can/can’t nominate?

Everything is eligible as long as one part of the relationship is a Mass Effect character. Please remember to be specific in your nominations; for example, when nominating Shepard, please indicate whether it's male Shepard, female Shepard, or NB Shepard. Male Shepard/Kaidan Alenko, Female Shepard/Kaidan Alenko, and NB Shepard/Kaidan Alenko will count as three (3) distinct relationships

Can I nominate transgender or nonbinary Shepards/Ryders?

Yes! All Shepards and Ryders are welcome. For Nonbinary Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under NB Shepard/Ryder. For transgender Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under the preferred gender presentation and when you sign up for the exchange, please put in your sign-up that you would like that version of the character to be considered trans

(Please note that if you only want a trans version of a character, to write in a DNW [Do Not Want] in your request for the cis version of the character; otherwise, it will be interpreted that you are open to both the cis and trans version of the character(s))

Can I nominate Original Characters?

Yes — ish. We allow original characters who are defined enough to give the person who matches on the original character something to go on, but not so much so they have to do an exhaustive amount of research on a fanon character. For example:

Allowable OC nominations:

Female Asari Spectre/Female Cerberus Agent — both these roles are defined in terms of what category of pairing they want (f/f), and the two (2) roles give someone an idea of who these people are without being excessively limiting

Not-so-allowable:

Communications Officer/Male Original Character: both of these are too vague. We’re not sure whether this person wants a male, female, nonbinary, or other gender for the Communication’s Officer; Male Original Character is so nebulously defined that we’re not sure just who that might be

Female Shepard/Batarian(s) - We don’t know who these batarians are, or how many of them there are. “Five Male Batarian Pilots” tells us a lot more

Male Shepard/Legion/Lia Forsithe (My OC) - While we encourage you to add details about your Shepards or other OCs, it’s very hard to write for original characters someone else has formed. Please nominate your OC in more generic terms (ex Male Shepard/Legion/Female Original Dragonborn Fantasy Character).  You can add in names and descriptions in optional details in your sign up, but this way the writer or artist has more wiggle room for what will suit their fic or art, and you have more options of matching more people since you aren’t limited to one interpretation of a concept

A good rule of thumb is if you can sum up an OC in more than one (1) and less than five (5) non-name nouns, it’s probably a valid nomination

Can I nominate crossovers?

Yes! Crossovers between different Mass Effect properties are welcome, as are crossovers between other fandoms! Just please, if the character you’re crossing over doesn’t hail from a Mass Effect canon, add in the canon next to the character name, eg “Darth Vader (Star Wars)/Garrus Vakarian”

What if I have more than twenty (20) to nominate???

https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/29366

Nominations are now open for the 2026 Fornax Exchange!

When nominating, please fill in “Mass Effect – All Media Types” in the fandom box

As this is a smut-oriented exchange, only / nominations will be accepted; we will not be accepting any & nominations. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask the mods via our inbox or on our discord!

Please see a how-to guide to nominating and commonly asked questions below:

HOW TO NOMINATE:

1) Go to the AO3 Tagset Page for Fornax 2026 while logged into AO3. A tagset is what most AO3 fan exchanges use to determine what relationships or other criteria are used for an exchange.

If a pairing is not nominated, it will not be able to be used for sign-ups  

If you don’t have an AO3 account, contact the mods, we’ll be happy to help you get one with an invite link!

2) Click "Nominate"

3) Fill out the Nominations Sheet

For fandom, please use “Mass Effect - All Media Types”. We only use Mass Effect - All Media Types because it gives us the highest chance of getting that sweet, sweet Mass Effect content in there regardless of potentially sticky couples (for example: crossovers between a book and a game, or between the Mass Effect Trilogy and Andromeda, or crossovers between other media and Mass Effect) and because AO3 frankly doesn’t like it when we have couples wandering through different fandoms in the tagset

4) Submit your Nominations! Just click the button on the bottom, and you should be off off and away!

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

How many things can I nominate?

**New for 2026** Twenty (20) relationships!! — so choose carefully what you’d like to see and write. This covers both Andromeda and Trilogy, all the novels, comics, etc.

Can I nominate, even if I’m not sure I’ll sign up or don’t plan on signing up?

Of course! Nominating isn’t a binding process — you’re only voting for what you’d like to see. You don’t have to sign up after nominating things — in fact, nominations are anonymous, so we can’t tell what you’ve nominated

Are there any special rules/restrictions on what I can/can’t nominate?

Everything is eligible as long as one part of the relationship is a Mass Effect character. Please remember to be specific in your nominations; for example, when nominating Shepard, please indicate whether it's male Shepard, female Shepard, or NB Shepard. Male Shepard/Kaidan Alenko, Female Shepard/Kaidan Alenko, and NB Shepard/Kaidan Alenko will count as three (3) distinct relationships

Can I nominate transgender or nonbinary Shepards/Ryders?

Yes! All Shepards and Ryders are welcome. For Nonbinary Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under NB Shepard/Ryder. For transgender Shepards/Ryders, please nominate them under the preferred gender presentation and when you sign up for the exchange, please put in your sign-up that you would like that version of the character to be considered trans

(Please note that if you only want a trans version of a character, to write in a DNW [Do Not Want] in your request for the cis version of the character; otherwise, it will be interpreted that you are open to both the cis and trans version of the character(s))

Can I nominate Original Characters?

Yes — ish. We allow original characters who are defined enough to give the person who matches on the original character something to go on, but not so much so they have to do an exhaustive amount of research on a fanon character. For example:

Allowable OC nominations:

Female Asari Spectre/Female Cerberus Agent — both these roles are defined in terms of what category of pairing they want (f/f), and the two (2) roles give someone an idea of who these people are without being excessively limiting

Not-so-allowable:

Communications Officer/Male Original Character: both of these are too vague. We’re not sure whether this person wants a male, female, nonbinary, or other gender for the Communication’s Officer; Male Original Character is so nebulously defined that we’re not sure just who that might be

Female Shepard/Batarian(s) - We don’t know who these batarians are, or how many of them there are. “Five Male Batarian Pilots” tells us a lot more

Male Shepard/Legion/Lia Forsithe (My OC) - While we encourage you to add details about your Shepards or other OCs, it’s very hard to write for original characters someone else has formed. Please nominate your OC in more generic terms (ex Male Shepard/Legion/Female Original Dragonborn Fantasy Character).  You can add in names and descriptions in optional details in your sign up, but this way the writer or artist has more wiggle room for what will suit their fic or art, and you have more options of matching more people since you aren’t limited to one interpretation of a concept

A good rule of thumb is if you can sum up an OC in more than one (1) and less than five (5) non-name nouns, it’s probably a valid nomination

Can I nominate crossovers?

Yes! Crossovers between different Mass Effect properties are welcome, as are crossovers between other fandoms! Just please, if the character you’re crossing over doesn’t hail from a Mass Effect canon, add in the canon next to the character name, eg “Darth Vader (Star Wars)/Garrus Vakarian”

What if I have more than twenty (20) to nominate???