Summary

  • Dragon Age fans spotted mods for The Veilguard which whitewashed two of its characters.
  • Hosting site Nexus Mods quickly removed them, although similar mods remain for older games in the series.
  • Nexus has previously taken action against mods that "deliberately" go against a game's inclusivity.

Update 13:15 BST 02/01/25: Nexus Mods has issued a statement to TheGamer, which you can read below.

"Generally, with these kinds of mods, we are dealing with them on a case-by-case basis. Also worth noting that much of our moderation is reactive and based on user reports. With thousands of files being added to the site daily, we rely on the community to police some of our content. We do have an overarching moderation policy. The relevant category can be seen here."

The Dragon Age series has always had a healthy modding scene, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard is proving to be no exception. However, as we've seen with the previous games, some modders are sharing creations that whitewash certain characters.

We've seen this happen with numerous games, including previous entries in the Dragon Age series. However, after fans mobilised to report these mods for The Veilguard, Nexus Mods has opted to remove them, refusing to host the files.

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It appears that two mods have been removed, one that targeted Teia, a member of the Crows, and another that changed Mila, the daughter of the Grey Warden merchant. Both used bogus excuses for making the characters white, arguing that elves have to be white (they obviously do not) and the other that it made no sense that Mila is Black while her father isn't (ignoring the fact that we don't see Mila's mother, or she might be adopted).

Dragon Age fans were quick to spot the mods and report them on Nexus. Now, links to these mods will take you to a page that tells you they have been deleted. However, screenshots were shared on social media before they were taken down, revealing that they didn't just change the skin tone, but also severely edited the characters' features.

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Whitewash Mods Are Still Up For Older Dragon Age Games

This has been a known issue in the community for years

It's unclear if this indicates that Nexus will remove all mods that whitewash non-white characters. At the time of writing, infamous mods that make characters such as Isabela, Cassandra, and Zevran white are still available to download.

Nexus has taken action against modders before. Back in 2022, it banned a user who released a mod for Marvel's Spider-Man that removed pride flags from the game. At the time, the site affirmed that it would remove any mods that aim to "deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity". It is likely that this is why these mods for The Veilguard were removed.

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard

RPG Systems 4.0/5 67 5.8/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 80/100 Critics Rec: 71% Released October 31, 2024 ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) BioWare Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Engine Frostbite
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf. 

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