Motherland Fort Salem is set in an Alternate Universe (AU). In a version of contemporary America. General Alder’s conversations about how long the Salem Accords have been in place set the first season in 2019. So it is ‘now’ but different.
I have a bit of a weakness for AU fantasy books and movies / TV. They offer some of the sharpest contrasts to our contemporary world and so can ask some of the deepest questions about humanity and what it means to be human. Motherland asks some of the very deepest questions. None of us would be the same in this universe.
Scientifically there are different ideas about how Alternate Universes are created. Has a parallel universe always existed, perhaps in another phase or dimension. Does history branch and create a new AU after every decision and change? Lots of respectable science and even more maths – but nobody reads this blog for a physics lesson. I am going with the idea that ‘something changed’, creating a new AU. Before that their AU was the same as our universe. Even if that universe was a primordial swamp.
The timeline on the blackboard in Citydrop and the season 1 discussions give the idea that the worlds would have diverged in 1692 when Sarah Alder made her deal for witches to fight America’s wars.
This timeline does have some similarity with our universe, but subtly different in others.
One glaring omission here is anything that is not about war or fighting. Admittedly, this is a military training ground, but if another classroom can have chemistry on the blackboard, then why not other things? No Moon landings or California Gold Rush, or Great Depression or presidents getting assassinated. Did these things not happen or were they just not important enough to count?
Remember, the Moon landings took place using technology from the 1960s. The Motherland AU level of tech is behind our universe, but it is well beyond what would have been needed for a moon landing. Did it happen? What does that say about this universe if things like that didn’t happen?
But we must judge on the evidence before us. Comparing the dates of events with their real counterparts, some things are fiction, like a second Mexican war and the rise of the Spree. Some things are missing, like the second World War. Interestingly at the time, the ‘First World War’ was called the Great War, as it was believed it was so big that it would be the war to end all wars. The idea of it being a world war was too big to use. Interesting that the Motherland universe uses that name.
But what does it say about the War of Independence and the First Mexican wars that they were forty years earlier? Was that a sign of hostility or just a desire for independence of any influence with other countries. If so, why no wars with the French?
If there was a civil war, what were they fighting about? Was it still a war about the ‘right to own’ slaves? Or something very different indeed?
And what about the creation of the Cession? We know that is older than the United States itself, but when was it created and why? Does it predate the Salem events? There is so much history to learn, but history is not everything.
Until the start of season 3 I was working on the idea that the divergence of our two universes was recent, but the opening scene of Homo Cantus changed all that.
136,455 years ago six women came together and their song changed the world. It takes the helicopter scene from Revolution Pt 2 to tell us what happened, that the Mother merged with the six women and changed their voices and the way they hear. These descendants came to be known as witches and were feared for their gifts. This established the Matrilines that are such a feature of contemporary Motherland.
This was the origin of what happened in Salem. Sarah Alder had those gifts and was able to use them once she was able to speak to the people of Salem. They feared her voice and had kept her gagged, but when she was ungagged, she could sing the songs that would change history. But the universe had to change first, to make the songs possible.
But what about civilians? The Matrilines and the army show that they are a matriarchy, but wider civilian society doesn’t seem to show the same traits. Think of Shane and Bonnie of Not Our Daughters in early season 2. He is clearly the one who controls their relationship, in an unhealthy way. His hatred for witches infects his family. Would things have been different in a matriarchal society, where Bonnie had grown up enjoying the privileges of power and resect instead of him?
So many questions, so few answers. Unless Eliot Laurence writes the Motherland books, the only way we will find out for sure is if there are more seasons. So, #SaveMotherlandFortSalem
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