Iconoclast -- RPG -- Icon Backgrounds
Your parents are not dead.
You were not raised in the wilderness by trained ninjas. Your family was not killed by gang members. You do not live off the streets. You do not carry a sleeping bag with you all the time. You are not the last surviving member of anything. You do not have amnesia. You were not kidnapped and experimented on by the government, nor are you the sole survivor of a secret government project gone awry.
The truth of the matter is, you're pretty normal. Sure, there are genetic differences, but among your own kind, you're pretty much normal. In fact, there's nothing particularly different about the way society works in the year 2100. Humans have existed for thousands of years now, and the way in which humans live and interact has not changed that much. Granted, advances like electricity and the Internet enabled notable changes, but overall, people are still people. They live in family units, they have friends, they work for a living, they seek entertainment, they procreate, they live, and they die. They're perfectly ordinary, and moderately comfortable.
Whether or not they choose to stay there is another matter. And therein lies the difference between a "cyberpunk" and an Iconoclast.
The traditional cyberpunk character has a background filled with mystery. Why is he always alone? Why does he have a cybernetic arm? Why does he constantly stalk around in a black trenchcoat, waving his smartgun around at everyone who looks crosswise at him? Why does nobody know his name? Why, although he never seems to have a job, does he always have money?
An Iconoclast can have all of those characteristics, and more, but the key difference is that at heart, an Iconoclast is an icon, a person trapped in a society that encourages complacency. If you're going to be a smasher of icons, it's not because you saw too many Rutger Hauer movies. It's because you come from a background that is all-too-human, and you aspire to more. The drive to be more than you are, to make a change in the world...that's what being an Iconoclast is all about.
So if you really want your parents to have been killed by the government, that's fine. Just keep in mind that it's not who you are that matters. It's who you were, and who you want to be.
