Wandering Through Infinity

Nominations are open, and they'll stay open through 11:00am UTC on 8 November - you can see a countdown timer at this link. You're allowed to nominate up to 10 fandoms, with up to 10 relationships per fandom. This year we have imported a subset of the tagsets from Holly Poly 2023 and 2024 via our pre-nominations phase to try and reduce the workload for us mods - please make sure to check the tagset before you nominate a ship to see if it is already included in the tagset. We recommend expanding all tagset categories before searching the page for any ships since some fandoms may not be in the section you expect due to us using slightly different fandom tags in some cases.

The tag set is located here: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/25541

You can also view this year's tagset on AO3 Automagic app at the link below to more easily search for ships included in it already, but it needs a re-scrape requested periodically to ensure it's up to date: https://autoao3app.firebaseapp.com/#/holly_poly_2025/tagset

In order to nominate a relationship, simply click the Nominate button located in the top right-hand corner of the tag set. If you do not have an account on the AO3, please let us know, and we should be able to get you an invite. On a similar note, if you have any questions, or if you're nominating something that you think might be confusing, please either post a comment to this post or send an e-mail to holly.poly.exchange@gmail.com if you'd rather keep it private.

For relationships that do not already have canonical tags, please nominate them in alphabetical order by last name (and, if they don't have a last name or multiple characters share a last name, then by first name). For example: Anders/Fenris/Bethany Hawke/Carver Hawke/Isabela/Merrill/Varric Tethras/Aveline Vallen, or Astrid Beck/Eadwulf Grieve/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast, or Sirius Black/Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks.

Please don't panic if we add some type of disambiguation to relationships that you nominate. Especially for ones where the same characters fall under different fandoms (various comic fandoms, movie/TV show vs. book fandoms, etc.), as doing so helps keeps tags from wandering to fandoms where they don't belong.

This is an exchange for romantic and/or sexual relationships, not friendships, so make certain to nominate relationships that use a "/" rather than a "&". If you want to request that a relationship be asexual/queerplatonic/etc., then that's something to include in your optional details when signing up.

Please make sure to read through the extra information below as some fandom disambiguations have changed from previous years. In general, when nominating a fandom or ship consider whether there are multiple sources/versions of either the canon or any of the characters and how to nominate in a way that makes it clearest which version you want. Please also keep an eye on the community during both the nominations period and the nominations clean-up period in case we post any clarifying questions about your nominations.


EDIT: updated on 28/10 to add in more info for Critical Role nominations

---

( Information about how to nominate relationships for many of the larger or more complicated fandoms under the cut. )

---

Please note that while [Specific Character]/[Specific Group of Characters] is acceptable as a nomination, [Specific Character]/Everyone is too broad.

For example: Lex Luthor/Lionel Luthor's Board Members is acceptable because "Lionel Luthor's Board Members" involves a finite group of people. The same goes for Voldemort/Death Eaters, Shipwrecked Sailor/Mermaids, and Peter Pan/Lost Boys. While Carol Danvers/Anyone and Everyone or Jack Harkness/Everyone He's Ever Met are understandable, they're too broad because it could essentially involve an infinite number of people.

If you have any questions about a relationship you want to nominate that might potentially be too broad, leave a comment or send an e-mail.

---

RPF characters must be 18+ at the time of nomination. Significant others/children/etc. of public figures are not permitted unless they are public figures in their own right. For smaller RPF fandoms, providing information/links to help us verify the characters are eligible would be appreciated and will speed up RPF noms.

---

If you have any questions about what fandom to use when making nominations, or any other questions in general - or if you find any errors in the tagset - please feel free to leave a comment on this post. You can also send an e-mail to holly.poly.exchange@gmail.com.



Collection: https://ao3.org/collections/holly_poly_2025
Tag Set: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/25541
Tumblr: https://holly-poly.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holly_poly_ex
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/holly-poly.bsky.social
Google Groups - Holly Poly Updates: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-updates
Google Groups - Holly Poly Pinchhits: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-pinchhits

UPDATE: Pre-noms are now closed, nominations will open soon

Every year new fandoms and relationships get nominated to Holly Poly. We're happy to see the event grow and reach new audiences, however, we also need to keep the tagset a reasonable size to avoid issues at a future time, which is why we will not be importing all of the 2024 tagset for the 2025 exchange. For this reason, we also ask that you consider if the fandom/relationships you're transferring are some that you are serious about requesting or offering for this year's exchange.

Remember that we will also have our regular nominations period, where you will be able to nominate up to 10 fandoms with 10 relationships each. If you only have a handful of fandoms/relationships to nominate and are confident about nominating through AO3, you can wait for our regular nominations period if you want to.

Since the format of nominations is not changing, we'll be transferring fandoms/relationship tags from last year's tagset to this year's tagset upon request. This year, we are also allowing importing of fandoms/relationship tags from the 2023 tagset as well, but we require you mention if the tags are from that tagset since they need additional checking by us in case any fandoms/disambiguation has changed since 2023.

There are limits on what you can transfer:

• Each person can only request 10 fandoms be transferred. If you need more fandoms than that for some reason, please use the regular nominations process to nominate everything else. (If posting anon, please sign with a consistent name/pseud/emoji!)
• For fandoms with 19 or fewer relationship tags, we will transfer all relationship tags. Use the instructions under "Full Fandoms" .
• For fandoms with 20+ relationship tags, you can only ask for 20 relationships to be transferred. Use the instructions under "Specific Tags From Fandoms" below.

Note that the transferring process will only work for tags that were in the last two year's tagsets and will only transfer those tags exactly as they appear in our spreadsheets for that year's tagset data.

Fandom Name Changes

If there have been changes to your fandoms that could change the fandom tag, now is a good time to let us know about them. This is especially true if a fandom nominated separately last year is in danger of combining into a larger fandom this year.

For example:
One Piece (Anime & Manga) and One Piece (Live Action TV 2023)
Pride and Prejudice (TV 1995) and Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock (TV)

Tagsets
Spreadsheets of fandoms and relationships in batch load format: 
2023 Tagset
2024 Tagset

Please check your nominations have been transferred correctly after we confirm (allow for 48 hours before asking about your nominations). If you see any issues in the 2024 tagset (such as not seeing your transferred fandoms or relationships cut short), let us know immediately.

For Full Fandoms (19 or fewer relationship tags)

Please reply to this post with your list with each fandom on a new line. Fandoms must be exactly as they appear in the tagset spreadsheet.

For Specific Tags From Fandoms (20+ relationship tags)

Please reply to this post with your fandom and the tags you want transferred in batch load format (Fandom,Relationship), with each relationship on a new line. All tags must be exactly as they appear in the tagset spreadsheet.

Check the first comment for an example on how the transfer must look like.

If you have any questions about the process, please leave a comment on the announcement post (link). Only use this post to transfer nominations from the two last year's tagsets.

Holly Poly is, as the name implies, an exchange for polyamorous relationships. OT3s, OT4s, OT6s, orgies, open relationships, sedoretus, whatever strikes your fancy, as long as it involves three or more entities.

Participants are able to offer and request fanart, fanfiction, fanvids, podfic, fanmixes, gifsets, or aesthetics/moodboards.

Schedule

All times are 11:00am UTC, save for golive which will depend on when final pinch hits are posted.

20-26 October: Pre-nominations (Period to transfer nominations from the last two year’s tagsets into this tagset)
26 October-08 November: Nominations -  countdown timer link
08-14 November: Nominations clean up
14-26 November: Signups
30 November: Assignments out by this date
18 January: Default deadline
25 January: Fanworks are due
01 February: The archive goes live (as soon as everyone has a gift)
08 February: Creators revealed

You can read the updated rules over here.

We understand that life gets in the way sometimes. If you realize you will not be able to finish your assignment, please default as soon as possible.

For extensions, 48 hours is the maximum that will be granted. You're free to still finish your assignment if you need more than 48 hours; however, if you ask for a longer extension or you don't post your fanwork by the extension deadline, then the request will be sent out as a pinch hit. There will be no exceptions to this rule.

Please note that if you defaulted two years in a row, defaulted after the default deadline and didn't write a treat afterwards, didn't submit your work by the due date without any warning, submitted an unfinished work, or deleted your already-completed assignment, you're banned from participating in this year's Holly Poly.

The FAQs for this year's exchange have been posted. Please read over it carefully as some things have changed from past years. Please let us know if anything is unclear. And, as always, leave a comment below if you have any questions.

Collection: https://ao3.org/collections/holly_poly_2025
Tag Set: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/25541
Tumblr: https://holly-poly.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holly_poly_ex
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/holly-poly.bsky.social
Google Groups - Holly Poly Updates: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-updates
Google Groups - Holly Poly Pinchhits: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-pinchhits