Corwynn Maelstrom

No clue. I'd say that it is likely lore. Memorials are pure backer nonsense AFAIK. Souls of people seems like them giving you more of the world's bvackground if you care to have it.

Pretty easy to pick up 4 companions quickly without paying. I have not found any way to get a final companion to fill the slot, nor a way to get more without some kind of more rigorous combat. That doesn't mean it is not possible, just that I'm unaware of what path one might take.

You can actually manage to get this during the tutorial pretty easily. Not sure if any rogues start with a spear (be sure to check all the races/backgrounds) but there's a merchant in the camp who sells weapons and a spear available in the ruins you flee to, meaning you can have a pair by halfway through those ruins.

I, too, felt that there was an extreme lack of initial dialogue playing a Priest of Eothas. Nothing with the war hero farmer or in the bowels of the once-holy place. Nothing with meeting Durance. On top of that, playing a sterile character (a godlike) I was asked if I'd ever born a Hollow child... The game so far (I am going slowly choosing how I want my first playthrough to go, so I have not gone exceptionally far) is good, and there's a metric buttload of prose written (like for when you touch peoples' souls) but there's dialogue that seems absolutely missing or misplaced when you take into account who your character is. It's hard to account for EVERY permutaion, but for the most obvious (religious folks interacting on religious topics makes for a great example) they really missed the mark a bit. I don't think it makes the game bad, by any means, but the sites giving it a perfect 100 (or 10/10 or 5/5 or 4/4 or whatever) clearly didn't play through on a character who doesn't fit the mainstream, because it is glaringly obvious that there's missing dialogue. (And, honestly, it's glaringly obvious that they didn't have all the dialogue done at the same time anyway, because you cut from voiced to non-voiced a LOT) ...

I'd say probably an 88. It'll (ironically) lose some for not being a "modern" RPG.

I just like collecting things. I don't generally use most items that come with games (some I do, and as was already mentioned some of the stuff gets to be too useful because itemization is so bad in certain titles) but I like to have stuff...

All you flagrant disobedient bad people... the Thought Police are coming for you.

I prefer Steam because I have hundreds of games on it, I can pre-load, I get automatic updates, etc. I like GOG as well, and I do wish that Steam had DRM options for publishers (to be able to just turn them off) but I can live with the DRM.

FWIW I have no mail, I have a key. Preloading now. Doesn't hurt to check your account even if you don't have the mail.