InBaldur’s Gate 3, you meet an Aasimar called Dame Aylin who is clad in striking silver armour with heavenly white wings.you’re able to rescue and reunite her with her girlfriend Isobel in Act 2, making for one of the sweetest moments of the year. It’s no wonder fans fell in love with her. However, a mod was recently released that made Dame Aylin a man, turning this heartwarming queer reunion into a heterosexual one.

As reported byIGN, the mod is called “Ser Aylin” and uses AI to change her voice. Once fans caught wind of it, backlash ensued.A post on the subredditfrom SignificanceNo2411 simply titled, “Please don’t support ‘Ser Aylin’ mod” garnered 17,900 upvotes in just three days. Shortly after, Nexus Mods removed it from the site.

The history behind the mod creator and their work runs much deeper than removing a queer relationship from the game. They also “created the infamous mod that ‘fixes’ Wyll and his father by making them both white,” SignificanceNo2411 said. “There were even talks of replacing Wyll’s voice with a ‘white voice’ because how are they ever going to be able to enjoy the game when there’s still a Black man voicing one of the characters?

“Oh and this feels fu**ing random, but you know vitiligo? The disorder that was first described over 1,500 years BC? Yeah, that’s something they’re removing too for ‘realism’.”

Ser Aylin was part of a wider pack called No Alphabets, a collection of mods that remove LGBTQ+ characters from the game to “match [the] medieval status quo”, despite Baldur’s Gate 3 not being a medieval fantasy - it has submarines, steampunk robots, interdimensional ships, and monitors.

“Folks, the Realms have ALWAYS had characters (mortals and deities) who crossdressed, changed gender (and not just to sneak past guards in an adventure, by way of shapeshifting magic or illusions), were actively bisexual, and openly gay” - Ed Greenwood

Nexus said in a statement about the mod’s removal, “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”.

While discussions about the mod are still live on other sites and even the Steam community page, it’s clear that Baldur’s Gate 3 fans are against it. Backlash is still mounting as many continue to call out not only Ser Aylin but the wider collection as a whole.