Times where somebody is accused of being a Category Traitor in Video Games.
- Dragon Age:
- Mages with differing politics sometimes accuse each other of this. Those who willingly join the Circle are accused of siding with the Templars and betraying their own kind, while apostates are accused of validating everyone's fears about magic (especially if Blood Magic is involved). In the sequel, Anders' opinion of Bethany drops sharply if she goes to the Circle.
- Dragon Age: Origins:
- The Dalish Elves often regard their City Elf cousins as this. There is a common belief that because the "Flat-Ears" have accepted submission and being treated like second-class citizens by the humans, they are no longer truly Elven. The degree of contempt varies significantly by clan; Clan Lavellan from Inquisition risks their lives to protect Wycome's City Elves (and has no problem with one of their own leading a largely-human organization), while the clan seen in The Masked Empire rejects any suggestion that they help Orlais's City Elves out of hand.
- City Elves and Dalish Elves both also look down even more on Elves who have attempted to integrate into human society.
- You get the opportunity to level this accusation against an Elf named Devera, who is directly involved in a covert Tevinter operation to enslave Elves in Denerim's Alienage (she is The Dragon to Caladrius, the Tevinter magister behind the slaving business). Regardless of what race the Player Character is, you can ask Devera how she could be a part of it due to her being an Elf like them. Her response is to contemptuously ask why she should feel any particular kinship to what she refers to as mere "sheep", stating that she is a citizen and soldier of the Imperium first and foremost. In general (perhaps due to problems with this trope), the game focuses primarily on Devera being a slaver, which is a bad thing no matter how you slice it.
- In Dragon Age II, during her romance arc, this is the reason why Merrill is initially unwilling to act upon her feelings for Hawke. As a member of the Dalish Elves and the former apprentice to her clan's Keeper, she more than anyone desires to see the Elves rebuild their civilisation after its near-destruction by humans (twice) and admits to feeling like she's betraying her people by falling in love with one of them. That being said, her own clan is less worried about her romancing a Human and more about her playing with Blood Magic in her attempts to learn more about elf history.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition:
- Sera is a proud category traitor; after her fellow Elves rejected her for being adopted by a Human noblewoman (who wasn't the best parent, but at least she tried while the Elves never bothered), she has firmly recategorized herself as a Human who just so happens to have weird ears, and despises Elves who attempt to keep to Elf culture. Being "too Elfy" (a category that includes pretty much anything an Elf society might do — for example, Elves usually have kids with other Elves because Elf/Human hybrids are genetically Human, so Sera in reverse is reluctant to romance an Elf Inquisitor) is a great way to earn her scorn.
- The Elder Scrolls
- The Altmer ("High Elves") believe themselves to be last "pure" remnants of the original Aldmeri race (who in turn believed themselves to be the purest descendants of the Ehlnofey and thus, the gods themselves). The Altmer consider it utter betrayal to marry or interbreed with other races. Marriage and breeding are a carefully-selected process that is meant to ensure that people are paired based on compatible status and bloodlines; marrying or breeding for love is frowned upon but not unheard of between Altmer themselves, but is cultural suicide with any other race.
- In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you can join the Stormcloaks, who want to kick all non-Nords out of Skyrim, even if you aren't a Nord, and can tell an NPC that yes, you genuinely believe Skyrim should be for Nords only and your people deserve to be kicked out and don't have the right to be there. He's understandably confused by this. (You can also remind him that more people than just Nords live in Skyrim and may support the Stormcloaks for reasons other than Nordic nationalism- like how the Imperials tried to execute you unjustly in the prologue.)
- In Far Cry Primal, the Wenja tribe are at war with the cannibalistic Udam tribe, who are trying to murder them to establish dominance over the valley of Oros. Player Character Takkar the Beast Master, however, discovers that the Udam are dying from a sickness they call "skull fire", and they believe they can only cure themselves by eating uninfected Wenja. Later on in the game, he captures an Udam commander called Dah and instead of killing him, brings him to the Wenja village alive as a captive so that he can teach them how to craft rot bane bombs that they can use against the Udam. The Wenja, however, are disgusted at Takkar for bringing someone from a race they see as their enemy (especially Sayla, who lost her family to the Udam and is implied to still hear their screams), and they take Dah down to a flooding cave to submit him to a Vigilante Execution. Sayla actually tries to hit Takkar with her club when she calls him out for bringing an Udam to their home! Takkar, however, is in no mood to have his power as the de facto Wenja chief challenged, and saves Dah's life while telling the tribe why he's letting Dah live.Wenja villager: You save Udam?!
Takkar: Who speaks?!
* All Wenja villagers fall silent*
Takkar: I bring Dah to Wenja. He gives us rot bane. Shows Wenja how to be strong! Dah dies when I say he dies. Today I say he lives.- That said, this is the only point in the game at which the Wenja accuse Takkar of being a Category Traitor. They are considerably less antagonistic when Takkar later brings back Roshani of the Izila tribe, and Ull the Udam warchief's children by the end of the game.
- In Ib "The Liar's Room" has several paintings that try and lead Ib astray, except for one that tells her the truth. The other paintings murder him while Ib is in the other room.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: This is how the Gerudo see Ganondorf, who despite by this point degradating into the Animalistic Abomination that is Calamity Ganon there is still enough knowledge among the Gerudo of when he was a human that they're ashamed to have any connection to him. Urbosa in particular relishes the opportunity to take revenge on him for dragging the Gerudo through the mud by association with his atrocities even if the other people of Hyrule either don't know about the connection or don't care. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes it to a whole new level: Ganondorf, the villain from who Calamity Ganon arose, was more than willing to use his own people to attain ultimate power, and when he gets it by murdering Queen Sonia and wrenching her Sacred Stone off her corpse, he showed no shame in using that power to slaughter them as well.
- Mass Effect:
- Shepard gets this accusation a few times. An Alliance admiral in the first game accuses you of putting the Council's agenda before humanity's, and asks "Do you still know what color your blood is?". In Mass Effect 3 Citadel DLC, the Big Bad (your own clone), expresses similar sentiments, derisively saying that Shepard has saved more alien lives than human ones. You can retort that all lives matter, or that the Big Bad has only taken lives, and as such has no place to talk.
- Cerberus and the Illusive Man get this in Mass Effect 3, due them fighting the Alliance and other Council Species while the Reapers are waging war against the galaxy. The Illusive Man strongly resents this, insisting that everything he does to better humanity, even if no one else sees it. He's indoctrinated by this point, which excuses much.
- In Persona 4, second murder victim Saki Konishi took a part-time job at Junes, the new store chain that was ruining several local business, including her parents' liquor store. Many people comment about her poor family having to deal with their daughter betraying them and remnants of Saki's Shadow imply her parents didn't take it well. However, after her death and throughout her brother's Social Link, it's revealed her parents didn't really resent her but greatly miss her.
- In Star Trek Online's post-Season 11 version of the mirror universe, a Bajoran member of the Terran Imperial Starfleet comments to the player character that her plan in joining the occupying military was to restrain its excesses to protect her people. It backfired: the Terrans view her as a possible spy on top of the existing Fantastic Racism and extreme sexism, while other Bajorans consider her a traitor.
- In World of Warcraft, this happens to the Horde. Garrosh, having alienated the rest of the Horde to the point at which the Darkspear Trolls start a rebellion against him, and the other member races join them, essentially calls his mainly Orcish side of the Horde the "True Horde". During the final confrontation, he accuses Thrall of no longer being an orc for wanting to make alliances rather than take the world for his people. Despite his rhetoric, his army is not entirely orcish, as one might expect. He works with a large cadre of goblins (dwindling due to his Bad Boss tendencies, but still quite high in numbers) who are emphatically Only in It for the Money. Despite the fact that he loathes the money-grubbing goblins and their tiresome independence, he relies heavily on their services and has made one his second-in-command solely due to their marvelous talent for weapon design.
- In Xenoblade Chronicles X, Alex accuses the player of being one, assuming the player came to attack him for his attempted murder of friendly xenos. In reality, Alex is this, seeing as how he conspired with the Ganglion, the kind of xenos that were responsible for the destruction of Earth (hence Alex's hatred).
- In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, The Council and Bradford specifically calls EXALT "traitors" rather than just enemies. This is probably one of the only times in fiction where this is completely justified, as EXALT is composed of humans who are trying to helping aliens take over the Earth.
