Firedorn Lightbringer was a person whose memorial can be found in Pillars of Eternity.
Original inscription (found in Raedric's Hold dungeons (3)):
He once was alive, but now he's dead.
The last woman he bedded turned out a man
And crying in shame, off a cliff he ran.
New inscription (moved to Woodend Plains):
He was also a card, but most didn't know it
A poem he wrote in jest was misread
They asked for blood, so now he's just dead
Behind the scenes
The above memorial was submitted by a Kickstarter backer of Pillars of Eternity. When the original inscription was discovered,[1] it created a controversy, with some asking for it to be removed from the game due to trans- and homophobic overtones,[2] spawning defenders who asked for it to be left in the game.
Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart made a statement on April 3 acknowledging that the message had not been vetted to the same level as other content. After checking with the backer who wrote it, they submitted a new message was intended to directly replace the original.[3] In the 1.03 patch, the memorial had its location and contents changed, although the change wasn't included in the patch notes.[4]
The backer released an official response on his Guild site:
A mod was created that restores the original inscription, claiming that the change was censorship.[5]
Obsidian's response was to place a character called Firedorn whom the player can kill as part of a bounty task in The White March - Part I. Firedorn is consistently referred to in the game using male pronouns, but has a female character model.
References
- ↑ Memorials problem Obsidian Forum Community
- ↑ @icequeenrika (29 March, 2015). Hey @Obsidian you should have said no to this backer. Transmisogyny is not acceptable in 2015. #PillarsofEternity (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ Update #93: Patch 1.03 - Important Community Fixes
- ↑ The Mary Sue: Obsidian Entertainment Removes Transmisogynistic Joke From Pillars of Eternity at Gamers’ Urging
- ↑ Censorship BE GONE Original Memorial Text