Mother

> *"Mother is our link between Him and ourselves. We pray to her and she in turn prays to His ear, from her prayer chamber in City One. Mother is gifted the power to control the shape of our world, just like the rest of her lineage. Their blood is that of the angels!" - Yon*
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> *"I am the Mother of the earth. You have challenged the very ground you walk on." - Mother*
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**Mother** is the main antagonist of *Iconoclasts*. She is the currently ruling Medium of the One Concern and one of the three central deities of Tri worship. She is also a boss encountered in City One, the metropolis where she resides. She seems to be one of the few characters in the game with full knowledge of Him and his relationship to the Concern and the Planet, but she never divulges this information. She is accompanied by her two Corners whenever she appears in public. She seems to have a fascination with cats, as the monster she creates to fight Robin and company take the form of a cat, and she owns a cat named Oedipuss, who lives in the Bastion.

# Abilities

As with all Transcendents, Mother has unnatural longevity and the ability to heal rapidly by absorbing Ivory from anything, including the ground. As a Medium, Mother's body was fully fused with Ivory during his Transcendence. This grants her the ability to manipulate Ivory. Unlike Agents, she does not have any prosthesis augmenting her body.

Mother is an older, matured Medium, and her powers likely fully developed, unlike Royal whose abilities are weaker and still developing. Mother's exact abilities are not documented. No Medium is fully able to manipulate Ivory to the extent that Eyes or other components of the Planet can, but Mother demonstrates significant ability to manipulate the world around her. Mother is rarely observed, but she demonstrates her immense power for her #Boss Fight, in which she destroys her entire parade float, reassembles the broken pieces into a cat-shaped gargantuan, and not only holds it together but controls the monster she has created telepathically while riding it.

# Story

### Pre-Game

Mother began ruling long ago after Father, likely before most contemporary humans were born as she has the unnaturally long life of a Medium. Her exact age is never revealed, and few specifics are known about Mother's time as ruler before the events of the game. Some rumors can be heard from characters throughout. She rules along with the Bastion Suits, so it is difficult to tell if the actions of the One Concern leading up to the story can be attributed to Mother, the Suits, or both. We do know that both Mother and the Suits have been in league to execute the Escape Plot.

* An altar to Mother in the One Concern HQ
* Mother with her Corners at her side, as depicted on a tapestry in City One
* Mother and her Corners in person atop her parade float

### During Game

Mother is mostly an enigma still throughout most of the game. She is referred to, both by true believers and skeptics alike, each giving their own counts of her. She is not met until Robin arrives in City One along with Elro, Mina, and Mother's "son" by right of Transcendence, Royal. At this point, Royal has already destroyed the Omega Controller and accidentally summoned Him to the Planet earlier than Mother and the Bastion Suits could finish their escape plan, so Mother is angry with him. They meet in public, so Mother tries to calm Royal down rather than show her anger in order to prevent causing a scene in front of all the bystanders. Royal and Mina insist on discussing their quest immediately, and they shout things that she intended for the public not to hear. After having no success in silencing Royal and Mina, even while promising to meet in private shortly, she eventually loses her patience and attacks. *(See: #Boss Fight)*

Using her Medium power over Ivory, she turns her float into a cat-shaped monster. Robin and Mina fight her, with Robin damaging the cat-monster and Mina hitting Mother with her Seeds when she is knocked off. Eventually the seeds start to react to the Ivory in Mother's body, preventing her from healing.

Just as she is too weak to continue fighting, General Chrome and the One Concern Army walk into the scene. Chrome believes her defeat to be His will due to her deception in the Escape Plot. He then proclaims his intention to lead the One Concern into a new era free of such corruption. Just as he is explaining how this is His will and that mother's death is because of her sin, the seeds inside her explode into a tree, killing her. Chrome mistakes this as a divine sign of His will and providence for his path.

# Boss Fight

### Attack

Jump: The mother mount will lower its front legs and shake its tail, causing the red bubble to appear, indicating the impending attack. She will then try to jump on the player. The player can dodge it by passing under it.

Tail Tackle: If the player is behind the boss after the boss uses the Jump attack, which is the only time the boss is not facing him, a red bubble may appear accompanied by a movement where he raises its tail. At this time, the player must move it away as far as possible in order to avoid the tail swipe, which can surprise, because the latter does not happen in all situations. If the player is too far away, it may prevent the attack from happening and the clash will resume.

Ground Charge: When the attack sound plays and Mother and her creation jump off-screen, this should prepare the player for landing, creating blue shock waves on each side as well as balls of lightning. energy, starting from the impact zone and stopping a little further. This attack is easier to dodge if you have the necessary space to move far enough away, but if the conditions are not met then you will have to try to jump between the two projectiles, a window that you dodge quite small and quite dangerous to take.

Charge: When the boss appears to stoop, slowly backing up and making smoke with his paws, accompanied by the sound of a locomotive, this announces the attack of the charge. Similar to a bull's charge, this attack knocks the creature out of the field, before it falls back, as if it had just jumped. In order to dodge it, the player will have to grab hold of the bolt of the streetlights with the adjustable wrench and wait for the right moment to use it in order to be able to jump high enough and fast enough to dodge the attack.

After getting hit at least once, Mother will start making new attacks:

Rock: Mother, in addition to sending rocks as the battle progresses which will be targeted by Mina's shotgun, and which will drop hearts, has an attack in which she raises a huge rock from the ground, ready to send it to you. Royal, on the first iteration of the attack, will help by holding the projectile for a moment, giving the player the option of trying to dodge the hit by shooting it enough to detonate it.

Ball: Mother's last attack is the ability to reshape her creation into a ball, attempting to roll over the player. This attack is however very easy to dodge, because even if it is faster than the player and impossible to jump over, it is pushed back by the missiles of the weapons. The objective is therefore to shoot the ball in order to prevent it from progressing until it stops the attack.

### How to beat her ?

The boss initially appears invincible, weapons doing nothing to him, but when the red bubble appears and the cat mount shakes his head as he ducks, it indicates the only attack that leaves him vulnerable. It will open its mouth to let out some sort of cannon and shoot energy balls out of it, forcing the player to hold onto a lamppost or duck. If the latter pulls enough into it, it will tear the construction apart and leave mother helpless, perching on it. But she is still invincible, as she can regenerate. We must then listen to Mina's sentence and remember the encounter at the entrance to City One, which asked to use the skill of the charge shot of the switcher. When you switch places with mother, she will fall to the ground before Mina comes to attack her with seeds, preventing her from regenerating. It will therefore be enough to dodge the attacks until you find the one to destroy the mount to reach mother and bring her down, and repeat the operation 4 times in the story mode and 3 in the boss rush.

# Trivia

* Mother's soundtrack's title implies that both her pet cat and her cat-shaped weapon are named "Oedipuss".