[Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Mysterious Mercenary Trailer]

4 minutes ago, Florete said:

Yeah, that's the info I'm familiar with. The way it's been described that Shez meets the students suggests it could be the same event as the prologue encounter from Three Houses, and I see nothing about Shez enrolling as a student.

This is what is said in the Analysis post "Update: According to the press release via DenFamiNicoGamer, Shez runs into Byleth in the imperial year 1179, a year before Three Houses begins. He/she then begins wandering Fodlan, honing their skills for a rematch. Eventually, they bump into the students chased by bandits (so it’s 99% the same event as Byleth originally meeting the students).

Update 3: Also in the press release, but I missed it the first time. As pointed out by 黒凧 BlackKite via Twitter, Shez will choose to join the Black Eagles, Blue Lions or Golden Deer as a student. So their role won’t be completely the same as Byleth. (It makes sense since Shez is probably completely unknown to Garreg Mach, whereas Byleth at least had Jeralt as a common link.)"

[Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - Mysterious Mercenary Trailer]

42 minutes ago, Florete said:

I mean, none of that actually conflicts with what I proposed. It's similar to how Age of Calamity is technically a sequel despite happening in the past because its events come about as a result of what happens later in BotW.

When was this stated?

I thought it was mentioned in the Analysis on the site that it was Byleth Shez met a year before three houses starts then they go off training, then at some point they meet the students but it doesn't specifically state when Shez meets the students. For all we know he could be just before Byleth meets them in three houses

[What Path/Genders of Avatars will you be choosing?]

If a game has the option to play female I always do. So definitely female for both the harder queation for me is which route as I like all three Lords it makes it difficult to pick.