Companions Lineup for Dreadwolf

The possible reason that </spoiler>Rook</spoiler> is blurred on the character screen is that they may have a customized personal name attached to that surname. EA would be able to use their internal testing software to figure out who used that name and fire the leaker. When things are blurred in leaks, it's almost always to protect the leaker from retribution. Censoring anything else goes against the entire conceit of leaking.

Yes, that is probably among the default character conditions for the particular build seen here.

Depending on how many companions they intend offering us, it would actually be good if they had one of each sex for each race but I definitely feel we are due a female dwarf, since there has been none since Sigrun, and also a female Qunari (given the amount of concept art and the reaction of one of the Devs to the enthusiasm shown for her). I imagine they will have to give us a human male and female companion and probably an elf as well. That would make 6 companions, so if they do decide to go with a transgender companion that would make a lucky 7, or a spirit again in place of one of the others. That would allow for two from each class plus one over, mostly likely an extra rogue but it is possible that one of the elves could be a Veil Jumper, which may well be a cross-class type, probably an Arcane Archer. Then the PC would make a line up of 8, as hinted at in the 2020 video.

Let's see, that could mean:
Human warrior: Grey Warden (male - Davrin)
Human mage: Tevinter origin (female - Calpernia? or transgender - Maevaris)
Dwarf rogue: Kal-Sharok (female - Bellara) or Inquisition (female - Harding or male - Varric)
Qunari rogue: Tal-Vashoth (female - unnamed) or Qun (female - Rasaan)
Elf mage/arcane archer: Veil Jumper (female - unnamed - may have one by issue 3 of comic series)
Elf warrior: Sicarri (male)
Spirit Warrior: Nevarra (male?)

Yes, I realised whilst typing that I had left her out. That would make another rogue but would have to replace one of the others unless I extend the roster of companions to 8. May be that line up of 8 was hinting at the number of companions rather than the overall team including the PC.

The problem I was seeing develop was that there would be too few male companions, let alone worry about the number of humans. Remember at least some of them are also going to be potential romances. I remember the bad old days of Baldurs Gate 2 when there were 3 different options for female romance partners but only one male (there should have been 2 but they cut one owing to time constraints). Of course, the opposite was true in DAI but at least everybody had a degree of choice available to them no matter what their sexuality, even if personally some of them just didn't appeal to me. Looking at my initial list, and discounting the spirit, there are only 2 male characters. Unless they are both going to be bisexual, someone is going to feel left out when it comes to potential romances and if they are bisexual then there may well be complaints about that too. Of course, they could go down the route they did with DAI and Andromeda, where they increase the number of romance choices by including non party members into the mix.

Still, if you are going simply by race, if you want more female humans, you are going to have less of either sex in the other races. I thought there was a general consensus on the boards that people want a female dwarf and female qunari. So, no female elf? I thought it bad enough that in DAI the female elf was unavailable to my male elf character but to have no female elf at all? Having no male elf character would at least remove temptation from me as I tend to be a sucker for them and whilst I got burned by Solas and tried to resolve "never again", no doubt I will fall prey once again if the opportunity presents itself.

Still he was bisexual, so as long as you didn't mind your male elf being the same (or simply gay) there was an elf option for either sex. Whilst you couldn't romance her, Velanna replaced Zevran as your elf companion in DAA, which balanced it out. Now in DA2 elf romancers were really spoiled for choice, having both Fenris and Merrill (both player sexual). Then DAI had Solas and Sera, although male elves got the short straw on that one with neither being available to them for romance. So I don't mind if there is only one elf companion but, if so, if they available for romance, then I hope they are bisexual.

As for human female companions, I know we had 3 in DAO, two of whom could be romanced, out of a total roster of 8 (including dog), with Alistair/Loghain being interchangeable and only 1 elf, 1 dwarf and 1 Qunari. However, the situation had evened out more in DAA, with 2 human (both male, as Mhari was only temporary), 1 elf (female), 2 dwarf (one of each sex) and 1 spirit to choose from. DA2 also had a more even spread, if you discount your sibling, with 3 human (one male/two female), 2 elves (one of each), and 1 dwarf companion (male).

Now in DAI we had 4 human companions (2 male, 2 female); 2 elves (one male/one female), 1 dwarf, 1 Qunari and 1 spirit. So there was something of a bias towards human, although there were actually 5 non-humans in total. I suppose much depends on the number of companions we are going to have to choose from. Do you think they will have as many as 9 again?

I'm more inclined to go with 8, not all of them romances and the slack there being taken up with non party characters. We had 8 party members in DAO (I'd forgotten Shale when I previously said it was 7) and whilst we had 9 in DAI, may be their data collection showed that this simply resulted in one or two being very seldom used. A lot does depend on whether the party is going to comprise the PC and 3 others, as before, or only 2 others.

Also, whilst I think the individuals shown were only placeholders to give the team an overall flavour for how it would look, the group line up in the Behind the Scenes video did show 8 people. Since they do seem to be keeping the identity of the PC very much under wraps, that would suggest that was effectively a shot of our companions line up. PW did say that nothing was set in stone at that point, so don't set your heart on a particular character, so it is possible they could have changed the number since then. In fact, given what they did with DAO, DA2 and ME3, possibly there will be an extra companion that you only get by downloading them subsequent to the main game (probably for an extra fee).

Thinking about it overnight, if the leak about those warrior class characters is correct, they seem to be reviving some of the specialisms from DAA (although likely greatly revised), and the line up may be something like this:

Warriors:
Human male (Davrin) - Grey Warden Guardian; Human male (Mateo?) - Lord of Fortune Beserker; Spirit male? (Audric?) - Spirit Warrior/Reaper
Rogues:
Human/Elf female (Unnamed) - Crow Duelist; Dwarf female (Bellara) - Kal-Sharok Scout; Qunari female (Unnamed) - Ben'Hassrath Enforcer
Mages:
Elf male/female (Unnamed) - Veil Jumper Arcane Archer; Human female/Elf male (Unnamed) - Sicarri Blood Mage;

Bonus content: Maevaris - Battle Mage - Lightning

Whilst people have speculated the Crow lady is Teia, I think this unlikely as she is too high ranking in their Circles. I was actually wondering if it could be someone who lost out when the traitor Talon was removed from power. Viago said that the First Talon would destroy their house (family) in retribution but may be one of them escaped or perhaps was offered the chance to redeem themselves outside of Antiva.

With Kal-Sharok Scout I was thinking of something similar to Legionnaire Scout but that was linked to the Legion of the Dead, which is an Orzammar group. However, the dwarves of Kal-Sharok had to be tough to survive and it has been hinted they have their own special qualities that allowed this; hence Kal-Sharok Scout.   Harding and Varric will be contacts.

The Qunari may be Tal'Vashoth or could be Rasaan, but as with Teia I think she is too high ranking, so I have settled for a Ben'Hassrath specifically charged with hunting down Solas.

The Arcane Archer in the concept art and 2020 video looked female to me but they could change their minds on that and since they are always shown masked, it would be easy enough to do so. In fact, if they are connected with the Executors, perhaps they never remove their mask and TN said it was hard to tell from their voice if they were male or female, old or young.

I had the brainwave that by making Maevaris bonus content, they would avoid having people moan about taking up a slot who didn't want her, but would probably make a fair return from all those that do. It's the cynic in me.

It would fit with the declaration in Trespasser: "We need new people Solas doesn't know". Also, my personal preference would be for a whole new roster rather than have Varric forced on me again and he is one of the few companions who isn't quantum, hasn't been pensioned off or was in a romance with the Inquisitor. Dorian would make more sense but was a romance and I think is more likely to be a contact/advisor.

Has anyone ever said they have to have a carry over? Besides with so many years between Trespasser and DA:D we might as well be in a new game, particularly if the game play is changing once again and the way we use our companions (assuming that assertion was true). Isabella was just a NPC we met briefly in DAO and Cassandra was pretty much the same from DA2, although with rather more prominence and it would seem her relevance to the game world was established in associated media. So, I do think it more likely that they will use characters that have previously been set up in comics and short stories because they are more active in people's minds than characters that were minor NPCs in DAI. Harding is the only non companion from DAI that I think would qualify as known enough to be a returning character in the party but she may well fill the same role as she did in DAI.

Shale in DAO: I loved her but she was an optional extra (I didn't have to buy the content but that could be because I came late on the scene); Sebastian in DA2: Again, he was an optional extra (you had to purchase the DLC), with content that was actually far more relevant to the events in Kirkwall, particularly Act 3, than Shale was in DAO.   Zaeed and Kasumi in ME2: Zaeed was free in my copy, although I didn't bother downloading him, but I would have had to purchase Kasumi.    Javik in ME3: Caused a lot of complaints because he was an optional character you had to purchase, yet was highly relevant to the plot. So, there has been a precedent to include extra companions as DLC you have to purchase. Considering EA had to give up on the multi-player element of their "live service", I wouldn't be surprised if this was the trade off.

If the statement about new people in Trespasser isn't relevant because it is an optional DLC, and we rule out associated media, then there are very few characters that we see sufficiently to be remembered by casual players after an interval of 8/9 years. To be honest, I only remember Charter because she was included in Trepasser, was mentioned in the epilogue and then used in both a comic series, a short story and had her own entry in WoT2. Had I only played DAI, she would not strike me as someone familiar and that goes for many of the other minor NPCs in the game. Yes, I know Isabella was only a minor NPC in DAO but we only had a 2 year gap between the games back then. She was also more likely to be remembered because you used her to train as a duelist. Harding is the only known ally of the Inquisition that most people would remember.  I suppose you could also include Dagna (but she is in a romance with Sera if the Inquisitor wasn't), Bianca (please no and only appeared in optional side quest) or Sutherland (could be dead I seem to recall).   Calpernia was a memorable adversary but only if you played the Templar path. Still, I do think the way they resolved that episode did leave open the possibility of her returning either as a reformed companion or back in opposition.   (We may know more after the current comic series).

Briala could be executed if you opted for Gaspard as Emperor. Gatt could be a possibility, although his appearance was very brief in one optional side quest. (First run I didn't even get offered it because my status with Iron Bull wasn't high enough to trigger it). Ortrano only appeared if you romanced Josephine. Most of the others you mentioned were minor characters in optional side-quests, although Amund Skywatcher did appear in the multi-player. Sadly, whilst several of the DAIMP characters were interesting, based off the entries in WoT2, many people would be unaware of them if they only played the main game, as I did.

To be a relevant choice, they really need to have made enough impact to stick in the mind after this length of time and, to be honest, without referring back to WoT2 or the Wiki, most of them don't and I have a good memory. Otherwise, they might just as well be a new character when it comes to being a familiar face that players will identify with from the previous game.