The Bozjan questline was a refreshing breath of scintillating fresh air because of the beautiful plot twist, a highlight of the inequities of revolutions and class divide, and also because of the inclusion of Lilja.



When I saw Lilja at first, I thought she's simply going to be left to the wayside and be an extremely minor character. But nope, she was one of the core characters in the Bozjan storyline, serving as Garlond Ironworks' liason in Bozja and offering critical engineering insight. She helped with the assault on Castrum Lacus Litore and helped us confirm that that was indeed where Mikoto was held. In sum, she was a major character in the Bozjan story. She is part of the "Bozjan Scions".

And she also happens to be black, with a dope as hell sense of fashion.

So when are we going to see the same in the main scenario quest?

Now let's look at the scions. See if you can spot any commonality?



Not only are they all white, they also have white/blond hair. The WoL is the only exception, and canonically (according to promotional videos) he's also white. I didn't think much of this at first, but after witnessing Lilja, I realized that I had become complacent when it came to the MSQ. The majority of the protagonists in every single expansion for the MSQ has been white or white-skinned. There are a few secondary characters who are PoC, like Raubahn, but they are few and far in between and none of them are primary characters. Is it not weird that, despite having the Scion headquarters being set up in the Waking Sands, an arid desert with scorching sun rays, all primary Scions are not even tan? This boils down to the colorism that stealthily encompasses East Asian and Western culture. Without even realizing it, we design characters to be white or light skinned by default. That's why when there's no pushback, we end up with a cast that is entirely white or light skinned. But it doesn't have to be this way. Lilja shows that if we are conscious about how we design characters we can make the cast of a game inclusive and more realistic.

With the upcoming 6.0 expansion all but certain to take place in Garlemald, I have a suggestion for Square Enix. Let Gaius Baelsar become a Scion. This not only completes his redemptive arc, but it also adds, finally, a main scion that is a PoC. If you look at the picture of the Scions it just does not look like a group of diverse origins even though it should be, as it is a supranational organization. Instead, what we have now looks incredibly bland and homogeneous. This is not diversity for diversity's sake. This is diversity for better story telling, better immersion, and better inclusivity.