Iconoclasts is a game that has made multiple appearances on this blog up until this point. It’s a cheap, not frustratingly difficult, pretty short, very entertaining indie game. It’s one of the best platformers of all time, and a true indie gem. I recommend everyone try it out, because it’s downright fantastic. There’s even a difficult mode that makes it literally impossible to die, so gamers of practically any skill can see this great game through to the end.

With all that being said, there’s one area wherein Iconoclasts is quite infamous, particularly amongst those who have actually played it. This game’s story is high-concept, very complex, extremely intensive, and never once stops to hold your hand. It expects you to keep up with it beat-by-beat, to infer critical background details, and to apply foreword thinking to fit the pieces of this puzzling story into place.

In fact, there are basically two camps of people who have played this game to completion and watched the credits roll. The first camp stares at the blank screen and wonders “uh…what in the world was this whole game about?”, and then they move on with their lives. The second camp thinks “hm…there must be something deeper to all of this.”, and then proceed to dedicate entirely too much time to finally cracking this game’s story wide open.

Luck for you, I fell into the latter camp, so this article will be dedicating to deep-diving into the lore of Iconoclasts, and explaining every last detail in chronological order. If you played this game and thought it was just about a plucky mechanic girl and her silly antics, guess again!

The Creation of the One Concern

Sometime, a long time ago, humans destroyed the Earth. It is never explicitly explained how it happened, but ancient records describe the Earth as having been ripped apart into pieces. A mining catastrophe taken up to eleven? Crazy earthquake disaster? Nuclear/technology incited incident? It isn’t clear. Regardless, two groups of several thousand humans each piled onto twin star cruisers and escaped into the distant reaches of space as the Earth was annihilated.

Meanwhile, a giant birdman is having trouble keeping up with his spaceship fuel issues.

I kid you not.

This birdman, who I’ll refer to as “The Pilot” (just like I did on last week’s final bosses list), is some sort of alien species, and he flies a sufficiently alien-looking spaceship shaped like a giant worm. This ship runs on an all-powerful fuel source known as Ivory, which is a rare commodity out in space. Whether to stockpile his stash of Ivory, or protect it from other members of his species, the Pilot puts an elaborate plan into action. A plan which ends up unintentionally setting up the events of the entire game.

The Pilot is a talented mechanic and inventor, and utilizing his advanced alien technology, he gets to work creating a massive mechanical structure to hold all of his ivory. And it is truly massive, ending up as an almost planet-sized metal orb. The orb is constructed with special bricks that can change their shape and molecular structure at a moment’s notice, and the orb is also split into shifting pieces like a constantly changing puzzle. Buried deep inside the orb, and coursing through its very fibers, is where the Pilot stores his Ivory.

Essentially, it’s a huge gas can, but one that can also disguise itself as an inconspicuous planet.

Trusting that his new system will keep his fuel safe, the Pilot tops-up his worm-shaped spaceship with Ivory and blasts off into deep space.

No sooner has he left, though, do the twin human cruisers arrive. Desperate for a new place to call home, the surviving humans spot the normal-looking planet, test its atmosphere, and find it breathable (presumably the Pilot created some sort of artificial atmosphere so that he too could breathe). The touch down on the planet, with one of the cruisers landing in the middle of a large land mass, and another cruiser landing near the ocean.

Those near the ocean would end up calling themselves “The Isi”, and forming their own culture and community. Those on the mainland would soon become the “One Concern”.

After an undisclosed amount of time, a man from the mainland ended up stumbling upon Ivory, and absorbed some into his body. Fighting through the intense pain, he emerged from the “transcendence” process with the gift of powers of creation. Similar to how the Pilot uses Ivory’s extraordinary abilities as fuel, this man learned to create life, heal wounds, and fight for his people with Ivory. He became a superhero, basically, but in the eyes of those around him, he was more like a god.

Whether he wanted it or not, the people lifted him onto a metaphorical pedestal, and gave him the moniker of “Father”. Under his guidance, the One Concern was formed. The One Concern was one part religious organization and one part peace-keeping force. For a period of several decades, humanity lived in peace.

Then, one day, the Pilot returned.

It’s unclear whether or not he even took notice of the human beings running around on his planet. Regardless, all the Pilot did was burrow his spaceship into the center of the planet, refueled on Ivory, and then departed once more. However, this time his majestic, gigantic worm-shaped spaceship was witnessed by all of the mainland human beings, and they were in awe. From their perspective, this worm creature (quickly dubbed “The Starworm”) must have been the creator of this world and of Ivory.

One woman, in particular, was utterly entranced. She was enraptured by the sight of the Starworm, and that amazement would quickly morph into obsession.

Descending into the depths of the planet, she bathed in a deep pool of Ivory, and emerged in a reborn body of unimaginable power and ability, twice as strong as Father had ever been. With a façade of grace and kindness, she rose the ranks of the One Concern and earned the moniker of “Mother”. It wasn’t long until an aging Father abdicated his position as leader to Mother, and she began to establish herself as the sole figure of authority amongst humanity.

Statues erected in Father’s honor were destroyed or buried, posters a towering busts of marble built for Mother, and all citizens were required to praise Mother daily or risk incurring her ire. A sparkling city of prosperity known as “City One” was constructed under Mother’s guidance, and only those most loyal to her could receive the honor of living within its bright and shining walls.

As entranced as she was by the Starworm, Mother began to double-down on the use of Ivory. Teams of workers erected machines to dig for Ivory, that was then repurposed to power all sorts of technology. Angelic machines, called “Transcenders” were built, that could fuse Ivory with willing participants to imbue them with their own heavenly powers. The fact that less than five percent of candidates actually received the powers, and that the failures were reduced to gunk by the Ivory exposure, was hidden from the masses.

Mother, now with an entire nation of loyal subjects, and a contingent of Ivory-powered Agents at her side, was poised to rule over the world uninterrupted. She even discovered the controllers, little robotic drones left by the Pilot to keep his fuel-station safe. Using her Ivory powers, she repurposed the controllers into serving her will, whereby she could now rearrange the structure of the planet to her liking.

This had an adverse effect, however, and one that did not go unnoticed by Mother or her ilk. All of the draining of Ivory that humankind was doing was beginning to deplete the finite stockpile of Ivory in the planet’s core. As the Ivory levels drained lower and lower, the planet began to experience more frequent quakes as it destabilized.

The Isi were not totally without blame either, as though their peaceful existence by the sea was mostly Ivory-free, they too had discovered how to drill for Ivory on the sea floor. This also contributed to sucking more Ivory from the world, and speed-up the eventual collapse of the planet itself.

Knowing time was running out, Mother put a contingency plan into action. She built a residential tower deep in the woods, and took newborn children from their parents to raise them in the tower. There, those children were raised into naïve and blindly loyal followers who would know nothing of life but what Mother instructed them. Mother also ordered a rocket to be built, so that when the planet was eventually ready to collapse, she and her devout followers could escape to a new home for humanity, where she would still rule, beloved and unopposed.

The Inciting Incident

Right before the game begins, a chemist named Elro is working yet another shift at the One Concern. He’s not exactly thrilled about his lot in life, nor does he hold much respect for the One Concern, but it IS a well-paying job that helps him support his wife and daughter. So, he keeps trucking along with his best friend Teegan by his side, helping the One Concern to develop more Ivory-utilizing technology.

However, disaster strikes, and Elro’s father, Polro, is killed. Polro always hated the One Concern, and he used his skills as a mechanic to try to figuratively and literally take apart the One Concern’s dictatorship. His crimes were found out, and he was punished by execution. With his passing, all he left behind were his two children.

Still mourning the loss of his father, Elro uses his chemist proficiency to craft several vials of a unique liquid compound capable of breaking apart the bonds of Ivory. In theory, said liquid could be used to kill the otherwise immortal Ivory-powered deities of the One Concern, like Mother and her Agents.

Before Elro is able to convince Teegan of his plan to take out the Agents, he is visited by none other than the Agents themselves…or more specifically, Agents Grey, Black, and White. Grey considers themselves a good friend of Elro, and so they were popping in to give Elro condolences over the death of his father. Even though Polro was technically an enemy of the One Concern, Grey is a pretty decent person, and cares more about the mental well-being of Elro than his genetic relation to a criminal.

Unfortunately for Grey, Elro is in a terrible state of mind after Polro’s death. Though Elro has managed to delude himself into thinking that he is handling his grief well, it is the exact opposite that is true. When Grey tries to show sympathy to Elro, Elro snaps, yelling at Grey to stop spouting fake remarks. Elro lashes out, jabbing Grey with a syringe full of the Ivory-destroying liquid.

Seconds later, and Grey doubles over in agony, their body twisting and distorting. A heartbeat after that, and they explode, their remains splattering all over Agent Black, who was desperately trying to hold onto Grey. Black is left empty and covered in blood, and Elro bolts, managing to escape from the One Concern HQ.

Robin’s Journey

Our true story of the present day begins with Robin, a plucky mechanic girl, and the younger sister of Elro. She’s woken up early in the morning by a crashing sounding off in the distance. Ever curious and ever eager to help, Robin rushes off through the grassland, eventually stumbling upon a rogue corrupted controller. She destroys it with her trusty stun gun, and then heads back to her house, only to bump into Black and White.

A few days have passed since Grey’s death, and it is revealed that Black has been relentlessly chasing Elro all this time, desiring nothing more than to crush him into dust (it’s heavily implied Grey had been courting Black, and that Black had been close to returning their feelings). Black has no dirt on Robin, however, and so she merely threatens Robin with punishment if she steps out of line, and then she and White leave.

Robin next heads to Settlement 17, one of the few remaining peaceful towns. It is there that she bumps into Elro’s wife and daughter, and soon after Elro himself. Elro hides what he’s done from his family, and begs Robin to look after his wife and daughter while he “leaves on a long trip”. Before he can leave, though, everyone is intercepted by Black, who cuts off their escape.

Elro is locked inside of his house alongside his wife and daughter, and the terrified family brace themselves as a wave of controllers come to destroy them. This act of destruction is known as “Penance”, and is the One Concern’s primary method of dishing out discipline to their subjects.

Robin is tossed in a jail cell, where she is introduced to the secondary main character, and her future best friend, Mina. Mina is an Isi, and she was caught trying to sabotage One Concern machinery. The two hit it off with their shared dislike of the One Concern and desire to escape prison, and so with Robin’s wrench and Mina’s shotgun, the two bust their way out and make a break for the Isi ocean city.

A lot of the story beats from this point are fairly self-explanatory, as this middle stretch of the game plays it’s story in a very straightforward manner. Robin and Mina meet Royal, the son of Mother who acts haughty and prideful, but is rather dimwitted and cowardly. They escape from soldiers and Agents alike, and have a run-in with General Chrome, an Ivory-powered man in charge of the rank-and-file army. They also save the Isi from a One Concern invasion.

At the end of the Isi invasion, Robin and Mina do battle with Agent White. Agents are capable of drawing Ivory from any surface they touch (as trace amounts of Ivory are inherent in all things), and they can use this never-ending source to heal themselves. However, Mina has a stash of plant seeds she borrowed from the other Isi, and by jamming the seeds inside of the wounds Robin makes in White’s skin before they heal, she is able to expose the seeds to the raw Ivory blood of an agent.

Predictably, the results are not pretty. A tree explodes from within White, killing him instantly. Yet another agent has been taken down.

Unfortunately, as retaliation, Black takes Mina’s girlfriend, Samba, hostage, and escapes with her, forcing Robin and Mina to continue the pursuit back to the mainland. It is on the mainland where they run into Elro, discovering that he is still alive. His haggard, injured, and disconcertingly unstable, but still alive. His wife and daughter were not as lucky as him, though.

Elro knows that all of the loss around him is his own fault. If he hadn’t gone back to visit his family one last time, then they wouldn’t have died. If he hadn’t rashly attacked Grey, then Black wouldn’t be hunting him and his sister to the ends of the planet. He knows it was selfish…and so he doubles down on the selfishness. Projecting his own guilt and insecurity onto Robin, Elro becomes convinced that Robin is incapable of handling herself, and he tries to convince her to give up on rescuing Samba and come home. When Robin refuses, Elro insists on tagging along.

The ragtag trio run-and-gun their way across the land, eventually stumbling upon Mother’s tower (the one where she is raising loyal children). Scaling the tower, Elro sneaks into the room where Black is holding Samba, and locks Robin and Mina out to keep them from getting hurt. He wants to end things with Black, but underestimates just how much she wants to see him suffer.

Without hesitation, Black shoots Elro in the gut, and uses her super strength to rip his arm off. While she is doing this, Robin and Mina crack the door and rush in to stop the fighting. Then, General Chrome shows up out of nowhere to diffuse the tension, only for a surprise explosion to blast Robin from the tower window down into the lake below. Mina and Samba escape in the confusion. It’s craziness, and Black screams out in anger that everyone needs to just stop gloating and letting the protagonists get away every time. Elro is arrested.

Also of note is General Chrome. Up to this point he’s been a blindly loyal follower of Mother’s orders, but when he discovers the Ivory-draining tower and the chosen elite residing within, his inherent nature as a general conflicts with his beliefs. He begins to question if Mother truly has the interest of the common man at heart.

Regardless, Robin ventures alone for a short while before reuniting with Royal. Royal has screwed up several times by now, but he swears that he’s forsaken the One Concern and is willing to help Robin. The two scale a mountain towards the One Concern HQ, where they plan to free Elro from jail.

Along the way, they stumble upon a deep pit filled with controllers, alongside the monolithic and frightening Omega Controller. A chaotic fight ensues, and Robin and Royal manage to destroy the Omega Controller. As they do, it explodes into a huge fireball, and seemingly sends some sort of flare signal up into space. This flare confuses Robin and Royal, though they don’t think much of it.

Robin reunites with Mina, who decided to come back to help Robin finish her quest, as she feels that she owes the plucky blonde too much for saving Samba. The two friends then blast their way through One Concern HQ, before eventually stumbling upon a rally being held in the assembly hall by none other than Chrome.

A One Concern higher-up gives Chrome the stand, expecting him to boost the morale of the army gathered before him. Shocking everyone present, Chrome reveals that he has come to believe that Mother has lost her way, and that she is a danger to humanity (which isn’t technically incorrect). He starts to incite a riot, and Black (sick of everything in her life going wrong), pummels Chrome to a pulp to keep him from kickstarting a war. Sadly, Chrome’s devout army followers are with their general to the bitter end, and then turn their guns on Black.

A civil war has broken out in the One Concern.

Reaching the tram that will lead to City One and Elro, Robin and the gang find their only escape blocked by Black. Black has single-handedly killed all of Chrome’s soldiers in the HQ (though she couldn’t prevent soldiers in other areas from rioting). She knocks out Mina and beats Royal within an inch of his life, but her rampage is just barely halted by Robin. Robin then drags both her friends to safety, and the trio continue on to City One.

Elro is rescued (and he’s in extremely rough shape), and the party of four make it to the city center and confront Mother. Her gentle façade crumbles quickly, and it isn’t long before Mother is shouting about her superiority and the meaningless of everyone beneath her. She engages the party, but with all four protagonists fighting as one, even Mother is defeated. Mina jabs seeds into her wounds, and Mother begins to contort with pain.

Right before her ultimate defeat, Chrome arrives, and proclaims himself the new leader of the One Concern. Mother explodes into a gushing tree of her remains, and Chrome heads to the Bastion, the highest point of City One. It is there where he plans to meet with the Starworm, and bargain for the safety of the human race (of course, with the caveat of he himself being the shepherd of mankind into a new era).

It is at this point where the heroes discover the consequence of the flare sent by the destroyed Omega Controller. That flare sent a signal to the Starworm (or, in actuality, to the Pilot), and he is now on his way back to the planet. Still believing the Starworm to be a cosmic deity, the people of the planet are trembling in fear of his wrath. Ivory shortage is also at an all-time low, and the frequency of the quakes is intensifying. The end of the world is drawing near.

At the top of the Bastion, Robin is too late to stop Chrome from assassinating Father (surprisingly still alive in his feeble old age). Elro takes advantage of Chrome’s ego, and jabs the man with another syringe of the Ivory-destroying liquid he created. Believing himself invincible, Chrome taunts Elro, only to panic seconds later as his body deteriorates. He explodes into goop soon after.

The party then wallow in guilt and confusion for a while, before Royal has a last-ditch idea to keep the Starworm from destroying the world. He plans to use Mother’s rocket to head up to the moon, and intercept the Starworm’s flight path. Elro adamantly objects, but as Robin and Mina are set on seeing Royal’s plan through (if the world is ending, why not go out with a bang), he still tags along.

With assistance from Teegan (who is hanging around helping as many people get to shelter as possible), the group of four fight to the rocket. The rocket launch requires two different switches to be pressed at the same time, necessitating a splitting-up of the group. Mina takes one path, Elro takes another, and Robin and Royal go together to the rocket itself. Mina and Elro reach their respective switches, but Robin and Royal are waylaid by a final obstacle:

Agent Black.

Standing defiantly in their way, Black clings to the only remaining constant in her life, her orders, and puts up one heck of a final showdown. Equal parts heartbreaking and heartpounding, Robin and Royal take Black apart piece by piece, shoving seeds into her. Even still, Black’s rage and passion are almost overwhelming, and she mutates with the Ivory into several monstrous forms before finally going down for good.

The rocket is ready to launch…except Elro won’t push the joint launch button with Mina. At the very final moment, the very end of the world, he still doesn’t believe Robin capable of keeping herself safe without him, and she he refuses to push the button. Mina screams at him, shooting at him in her anger, which only knocks him out. She then breaks down into tears over what she’s just done, and it is only the last second appearance of Teegan that saves the day. Teegan has been Elro’s best (and only friend) for his whole life, and she knew the moment he walked off alone that he wouldn’t be able to send his little sister to space, so she came to push the button for him.

Robin and Royal blast off into space, enter the moon base, and manage to distract and confront the Starworm. Royal tries to reason with it, but as it is only a spaceship and not a living being, the Starworm does not respond back. Frustrated, Royal blasts a hole in the Starworm’s head (actually the cockpit), and the Pilot responds by shooting Royal with a debilitating beam that reduces him to a sobbing, remorseful mess. Plagued by his own fears, Royal collapses, and the Starworm descends to the planet.

The beam attack also blasted open a hole in the moon base, and the base begins to deteriorate and fall apart. Robin hefts Royal onto her shoulders to carry him with her to the escape pod bay, only to find that Royal must be left behind in order access the pod’s. With no other option remaining to her, Robin leaves her friend, unable to even say goodbye to him in his comatose state, and returns to the planet in the escape pod. Royal dies in the destruction of the moon base.

Back on the planet, humanity is bracing for the end of everything. Mina, waiting outside Robin’s house, comforts Robin when she exits the escape pod. Mina notices that Robin is alone, and for the first time in the entire game Robin breaks down into sobbing tears over Royal’s death. Mina hugs her tightly, and soothingly tells Robin that she’s done everything she could. The only thing to do now is to go home and be with Elro for the end.

But Robin refuses to lie down and die, and her courage inspires Mina as well.

The Starworm has burrowed deep underground, creating a tunnel to the core of the planet. With determination in their hearts, Robin and Mina descend into the pit, eventually reaching the central core. The Pilot tries to use the same mind-deteriorating beam he used on Royal, but Robin’s inner strength is enough to power through her internal fears. Robin and Mina draw their weapons, and blast the Starworm to bits.

Eventually, his shape is so damaged that the Pilot is forced to emerge, and this is the in-game moment where the truth of the Starworm is revealed to the player. It’s an extremely shocking twist for first-time players to see this supposed space creature revealed as a ship piloted by a giant birdman mechanic (and there’s a joke in there about he’s a giant bird mechanic and you play as a girl named Robin who is a mechanic). The Pilot even as a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from his dashboard!

The Pilot angrily caws about the lack of Ivory, gesturing wildly to a monitor displaying that the artificial planet’s Ivory levels are dangerously low. Presumably, the Pilot is furious that some human parasites have ruined his “planet-shaped gas can plan”. Still, Robin and Mina could care less who the Pilot is and what is plans are. They jump right into fighting him.

After a long struggle, the Pilot falls to a malfunction from his own glitching ship. Seeing the gaping wound in the spaceship’s head, Mina gets one last idea (and this is the same wound Royal blasted open right before his death, so he really did help save the world at the end of the day). Together, Robin and Mina jab seeds into the Starworm, and trigger a humongous chain reaction explosion that detonates the spaceship and spreads Ivory all across the land.

Because the spaceship was underground when it exploded, all of the Ivory contained within is spread through the whole underground, reinvigorating the crumbling crust and soil of the planet. Trees and plants bloom all across the surface, and the quakes subside as the planet is stabilized. All of the spent Ivory has been returned, and the world can flourish once more. Without those who abused Ivory in control (Mother, One Concern, the Agents), a peaceful equilibrium can be found.

The day is saved.

The weary heroes return home. Mina falls into Sambas arms, and Robin climbs into bed for a well-deserved rest. Looking out the window to see how the world has changed, Elro knows that his sister is the one responsible for saving everyone. Right before she falls asleep, Elro begrudgingly gets her attention. With a sigh, he utters a single sentence:

“Alright, Robin. I won’t tell you what to do anymore.”

Robin looks at him, blinks once, and then promptly falls asleep.

And that’s the story of Iconoclasts! One crazy, unforgettable journey of fighting against oppression, learning to put aside differences and unite, and never giving up hope. Trust me, there’s plenty more that I skipped over, and so many interesting characters that I barely scratched the surface of (Mina, Black, Elro, and even Chrome could all warrant their own article).

For those who have played this game before, hopefully this cleared things up! And, admittedly, some of what I’ve written above is still just inference or speculation. There’s quite a bit of room for interpretation in the lore of Iconoclasts, which is why it’s so rewarding for people who put the effort into unraveling its mysteries!

But hey, that’s just my opinion!