Are Iconians really “good guys” in Galactic Civilizations?

from GalCiv4 Forums


In the lore and previous games, Iconians were always classified as “good”. Not that good as Altarains and Torians, but still benevolent. However, the more we learn about them, the less good they see.

-Even in Dark Avatar campaign, they claimed Korath are irredeemable and urged the
Drengin to genocide them. While this might have been a motivational lie, as letting Kotrath live was simply too dangerous, it is still sketchy. And now we know they were basically applying the same method they once applied to Yor/Nyx. 

 

-They enforce “population control” on their own citizens. 

 

-And now we know, where the Yor/Nyx were first given sentience, they tried to genocide them, despite calling them “children”. 



On the other hand:

-Iconians have very good reason to fear anyone influenced by Dread Lords

 

-The Korath had to be stopped

 

-They consider enforced “population control” and all the other things as necessarily evil and not evil just because they can

 

-They generally regret when they do bad things, even if they still do them

 

-They are not perceived as evil

 

-They allied with humans, Altarians and Torians.


So, what do you think? Are Iconians, despite being a bit sketchy, still “good guys”?

galactic civilizations iv
7,077 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Who judges “good”? Iconian virtue shifts with the era you focus on. Pre-Yor, they look like utopian engineers; after creating—and later trying to leash—the Yor, their halo slips. From my (Christian-flavored) lens it echoes the classic fall: a maker facing rebellion and answering with control, not humility. Yet their culture still reaches for something better—maybe redemption. Game-wise, that baked-in +2 Benevolent ideology per colony feels like grace written into the code.

Do you read their hard choices as utilitarian self-defense or straight-up tragedy? And in GalCiv, is “goodness” the ideology points we rack up, or the intent behind the lore? Would love to hear which campaign moment or mod pushed you to doubt—or defend—the Iconians.

Reply #2 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

It's generally that they are a little bit too happy to genocide groups they belive to be evil. In Galactic Civilziaitons II Dark Avatar mission "Return of the Dread Lords" they tried to make the Drengin genocide the Korath and we learned in "Tales of the Arnor" Gal Civ IV mission that they tried to genocide the Yor too. And yes, this may be just Yor speaking lies, but the fact that they wanted to do the same to the Korath speaks for something. And, while the Korath Clan civilziaitons is very evil, spearate Korath citizens living in other civilizations seems to be possibly good. 

In away, I am glad Gal Civ IV did away with the good - evil line. We can now look at civilizations and judge them as we see fit. Except for the few obviosuly evil ones. 

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