Road to the Xeno Invasion 2 - From ants to aliens: The trope of the Alien Mother

No one like Mom; she is the most precious thing in our lives. She is usually the first person we see, and many essential words in various languages have “mom” as their root.
Despite our perception of aliens as terrifying, dangerous, and inhuman creatures incapable of feeling any affection, most of them also have a mother. They may even develop a caring relationship or a deep attachment with this maternal figure.

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In the Xeno TTRPG, there is a character called “Mother,” a superior entity that controls the lives of the xenos. They have a special relationship with her, one of dependence and obedience, and even if she is not technically their biological mother—because she did not give birth to them directly—they treat her as such.

But where does this concept of an "alien mother" come from? Well, like most science fiction concepts involving "monsters," it all starts on Earth in the underground, to be specific. You know ants, right? They're small insects that scurry around, taking whatever they can to feed their queen and make their colony prosper. Nothing terrifying about that, right? But what if I describe them to you this way?

A colony of creatures with hard exoskeletons, powerful jaws—some of them even capable of secreting corrosive liquids—and immense strength. Creatures that do not rest until they achieve their goal or destroy their enemies, working together to serve another equally strange creature, several times their size, which controls this numerous army with certain chemicals it secretes. Giving it the ability to make the colony act as a single being, with the sole objective of increasing its numbers and expanding its domain.

That sounds much more frightening, doesn't it? And it bears a resemblance to a certain franchise featuring aliens with black exoskeletons. I know what you're thinking, but we'll get to that soon, I promise.

As a side note, ants are not the only creatures with this type of social organization; other insects, such as termites, bees, and wasps, also have this concept of a colony ruled by a single queen. Even mammals such as naked mole rats are also “ruled” by a single female.

Returning to ants, Gordon Douglas considered the threat they posed if they were large enough to cause problems in his 1954 film Them!, where a group of ants mutate due to nuclear testing in the desert and begin attacking the city. This film is a classic of horror monster movies, which, like many other works, would serve as partial inspiration for films such as Alien (damn, I mentioned it too soon).  

We need to define the concept of “alien queen” or “alien mother,” which is really what this article is about. The queen ant, like the queen bee, can command her colony through pheromones, allowing these insects to act toward a common goal without giving individual instructions to each member of the colony. This is known as the “hive mind,” and fictional creatures usually replace these pheromones with telepathy or a similar power to give it a more science-fiction feel.
Although the presence of this ability may vary across franchises, the concept of a female of the species ruling over all the others is a widely used trope.

In popular films such as Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Ender's Game, there is a "queen" who commands all armies from a distance, and defeating her becomes the main plot point. In series such as Starship Troopers (1997), the complexity varies depending on the film, but similar concepts are also present. In many other franchises, the one who commands the alien armies is not a "biological mother," but an entity, a machine, or an AI, which, incidentally, is closer to the concept of "Mother" in the game Xeno: Invasion, but we'll leave that for another day.

And finally, what everyone has been waiting for: the Alien franchise. In the movie Aliens—Alien 2 or Alien: The Return in some Spanish-speaking countries—we are introduced to the concept of the Alien Queen, a creature much more imposing than the xenomorph itself, with its characteristic skull protuberance shaped like a “crown,” which is responsible for laying the eggs from which the facehuggers are born. This made us think that if a single xenomorph is terrible, a colony of them becomes a truly formidable threat. And, similar to ants, it can give instructions to its offspring through pheromones, although that is where the similarities end, since the ant queen depends entirely on her guards; but the Alien Queen is a threat all on her own, because, like other members of her species, she is a killing machine, with her acid blood and sword-sharp tail, not to mention her imposing size of over five meters.

That reminds me, those of you who play the official adventure for Xeno: Invasion, "Hens and Chickens," are in for a pleasant surprise if you're fans of the Alien Queen.

In summary, the mother figure is a recurring trope in alien stories and, depending on the author, can take on different nuances, some of which are clear references to other works. Hopefully, this article has helped you recognize the importance of “Mother” within the game Xeno: Invasion. And remember: eat your humans and listen to Mother.

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