A nod to the nine members of The Fellowship of The Ring, a player is prevented from having more than 9 companions between the fellowship and the dead pile (companions in the discard pile are not counted). This keeps a player from constantly playing companions to replace those killed and allows the Shadow Player to make measurable progress with each member of the fellowship slain, whether a key companion or throwaway like Dwarf Guard. Further, the Comprehensive Rulebook clarifies that if a card like Sent Back is used to play another copy of a card already in the dead pile, those cards with the same name do contribute towards the fellowship total of 9 companions. Thus, if 4 copies of the same companion are in the dead pile, the fellowship is restricted to at most 5 companions rather than 8.