Board Thread:Wiki discussion/@comment-44632078-20191209130533/@comment-24019656-20200711054921

I have a theory that despite what Ubisoft now claims, Alexios was the only intended playable character until very late into development of the game. If you remember after first screenshots, trailers and vids many people derisively called the game "A glorified DLC for Origins" basically thinking it was not innovative enough. So during one brainstorming session someone came up with the idea of mixing it up a bit and making Cassandra (who might have been intended to be Deimos from the start) playable too and turning it into a selling point. Problem was , most of the quests were voiced over and finished by that time and it would have been a huge undertaking to tweak them all. 

It is very noticeable in many quests. Apart from those mentioned it really became obvious to me once I got to the Olympic games segment of the story. As you know historically these were male-only events. Yet not only can you participate as Cassandra but there is no difference in npc dialogue. Responces and opponents you face (all male) are exactly the same as with Alexios. But you might say "Well this is Ubisoft version of Ancient Greece, perhaps here women can participate". Problem is there is a side quest in Olympia where certain lady is about to be thrown from a cliff for merely watching the games let alone participating in them and later even laments how she cannot watch her son. So historical sexism does exist even in  this Ubisoft version of Antiquity yet no one even comments on Cassandra appearing. If it was too much effort for them to make her participate in Herean games in Olympia which were female only, few lines of dialogue from someone or merely making all her opponents in pankration female would have been something.

In order to avoid potential backclash and claims that Ubisoft did not put enough effort into female protagonist which would inevitably come if they said Alexios was planned to be the only playable character with Cassandra being added later, they chose to make Cassandra canon character and claim the story was written with her in mind as player character all along even though considering everything it is doubtful. Even DLC quests like Old flame burns brighter and entire romance with Neema make much more sense when playing as Alexios.