Regarding Dessa – she is definitely a female, and information about her is written in the hero's story (you can see it on the hero's portrait).
I was also curious about what sexual characteristics led some to believe Dessa is a male. But that's not the main point. AmberSoler refers to hero information as a biography in the FIZMIG. I heard that they swapped the genders (biographies) of Jeddite and Nimbus.
