People are seriously hyped for upcoming ‘Lesbian Knight Game’ 1348 Ex Voto
Aeta, the protagonist of 1348 Ex Voto. (Sedleo)
Aeta, the protagonist of 1348 Ex Voto. (Sedleo)
1348 Ex Voto, a highlight-anticipated role-playing game, just hinted that its main character is a lesbian and fans are diving right into the sapphic hype.
The upcoming action-adventure RPG, set in 14th century medieval Italy, follows protagonist Aeta (Alby Baldwin), a young knight errant, as she braves the dangers of the Italian Peninsula to find Bianca (Jennifer English), who was kidnapped after bandits raided their village.
Set to be released on 12 March this year, the ambitious first project from development studio Sedleo has already garnered hype after it was first revealed in August 2025.
That hype has skyrocketed after its story trailer, released on Thursday (22 January), seemed to suggest Aeta and Bianca are in love.
A clip in the trailer shows the pair, presumably before the bandit raid, sharing a touching moment in a nearby field. It then shows Aeta, having survived an attack from bloodthirsty raiders, clutching a medallion belonging to Bianca in a moment best described as unabashed sapphic yearning.
Fans were quick to express their absolute elation that the game was going to feature a lesbian protagonist, noting that the game’s storefront on PC marketplace Steam describes Bianca as Aeta’s “closest one.”
“I, too, would go on a gruelling death-quest if Jennifer English was on the other side of it,” a Reddit user reacting to the trailer wrote. Jennifer English is an LGBTQ+ voice actor who has also worked on hit games Baldur’s Gate and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Another fan, posting on Steam’s discussion forum, expressed their utter excitement by vowing to buy the game on “day one.”
1348 Ex Voto’s possible lesbian protagonist has right-wingers raging
Of course, there was the inevitable right-wing backlash from self-professed “history experts” who falsely claimed that LGBTQ+ people did not exist in medieval Europe, with some going as far as to accuse the game of “cultural appropriation.”
There are plenty of historical accounts of LGBTQ+ and lesbian relationships during the Middle Ages and in the centuries leading up to it. Among them is the 13th-century Trobairitz, Bieiries de Romans, who wrote a love poem, known as a Canso, to another woman.
Historical accounts of lesbian relationships date as far back as 10,000 BC, including an ancient Mesopotamian text that seems to mention same-sex activity between women.
Fans chalked up the right-wing historical revisionism to bigotry, with one saying the majority of complaints came from “butt hurt right-wing types making up stuff from seeing Brown/feminine/queer people exist in the setting.”
1348 Ex Voto has been described by many as a refreshing alternative to the upcoming game Knight’s Path after its developers were accused of homophobia.
The game, which features very similar gameplay mechanics to that of 1348 Ex Voto, released its first official trailer to X/Twitter earlier this week, as well as a set of posts introducing the game’s characters.
Its developers faced backlash after responding to a fan asking whether the game would feature LGBTQ+ representation, telling them: “We care about gaming and fun, not modern agendas.”
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