Nexus Mods has stepped in to remove a homophobic mod for Baldur’s Gate 3 listed on its website, following loud outcry on social media. The so-called ‘Ser Aylin’ mod used an AI voice and a visual overhaul to “reimagine” prominent gay character Dame Aylin as a man, for the seeming purpose of straightwashing the game.
As users on Reddit noted, the “Ser Aylin” mod, while seemingly an innocuous genderbend on the surface, was actually part of a banned mod pack known as “No Alphabet” which aimed to remove every queer character from Baldur’s Gate 3.
The alleged aim of this mod was to ensure historical accuracy. But in a game where squid monsters, dinosaurs, and inter-dimensional entities exist, apparently that “accuracy” only extended to LGBTQIA+ representation.
Allegedly, the creator of the “No Alphabets” mod has also expressed intent to create a mod that removes people of colour from the game. It should come as no surprise, then, that NexusMods has announced this creator has been banned from posting on Nexus Mods entirely.
Read: Nexus Mods bans Starfield mod that removed pronoun options
“This appears to be a throwaway account created to upload a mod that attempts to skirt our community guidelines. The mod in question appears to reduce diversity in Baldur’s Gate 3 by taking a same-sex couple and swapping the gender of one of the partners to make them heterosexual,” NexusMods said in its assessment.
“We are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it. The same goes for people attempting to troll other users with mods deliberately to cause a rise … As a private business, we have a right to choose what content we do and do not want to host on our platform. Respect this right the same way you want respect for your rights.”
In recent months, Nexus Mods has been required to make similar moves for a number of games, as homophobic mods removing pronoun options in Starfield, and removing instances of LGTBQIA+ flags in Marvel’s Spider-Man have also recently popped up, in clear violation of the Nexus Mods community terms. These mods will never be welcome anywhere on the internet, and it’s great to see Nexus Mods continuing to take firm action.
