Removing Blank Cells From With In A Drop Down List

I have seen a few other forum posts with regards to this question however, I have found the answers provided lacking sufficient explanation for myself to understand how to apply the solutions given to my particular situation.

I am currently working on a character equipment assistant spreadsheet for an NES Rom Hack called Final Fantasy Hard Type. It is a hack, developed by Zzonkmiles, to the NES Classic, Final Fantasy, that increases the difficulty dramatically, as well as fixing a lot of bugs that were present in the original game. The goal of the spreadsheet is to help players see in advance how certain weapons and armor combinations will improve their selected characters stats, damage output, defense against attacks, resistances to spells, and additional spell buffs.

There are a total of 12 individual characters that can be played in the game, each with their own set of weapons, armor, and magic skills. If you look at columns U - AG on the 'Weapons' tab in the spreadsheet I have provided, you will see a list of the 12 characters at the top, along with the corresponding weapons that that particular character can equip throughout the game. The idea is set up the 'STATS' tab so that based on the character you pick in the drop down list in cell B11, cells G12, L12, L18, L24, and L30, will auto populate with that particular characters equipable weapons and armor.

To accomplish this task, the plan was to create multiple 'Defined Name' definitions for each characters weapons and armor, and then have the data validated drop down lists in corresponding cells in G12, L12, L18, L24, and L30 on the STATS tab, populate that characters lists using the CHOOSE function based on a character index number that would appear in cell C11. However, because the lists I would create have spaces in between values, when those lists are populated into the drop down list, the spaces are populated too and it looks ugly. Also, because of the spaces in between values, making the lists dynamic is also difficult, as using =OFFSET(A1,0,0,COUNTA(A:A)-1,) method doesn't take into account the spaces in between values and there for will not capture all the data in the list, even though it counts how many are in the list properly.

The idea is making updates to the spreadsheet easier for future versions of the game where new weapons and armor may be introduced or removed or certain characters gain the ability to use different weapons and armor. So what would be the best way to make the lists dynamic and get rid of those blanks within the drop down box?

I know it's a long explanation of what I need help with but I figured more info was better then less. THANK YOU in advance for helping me to resolve my problem!