Appearance Customization

You can control a troop or hero’s name, culture, gender, and appearance from the Retinues editor.

Name & Culture

In the Troops tab, select a unit and open its Editor panel (right side).

  • Name: edit the displayed name directly.
  • Culture: choose any vanilla or modded culture.
    Changing culture also updates the character’s appearance to match that culture’s visual presets (hair, beard, tattoos, etc., as available).
  • Race: if Retinues runs alongside a mod that adds new playable non-human creatures, such as elves, giants, undead etc., you can also assign any modded race to the troop.

Culture choice also interacts with certain equipment unlock rules (see your MCM options and the Equipment page).

Gender

Below the 3D character preview (bottom-left corner) there is an icon toggle:

  • Default behavior: toggles Gender only (Male/Female).

Appearance Controls (troops)

If you enable Appearance Controls in the mod configuration, the bottom-left panel exposes additional dials for non-hero troops:

  • Age
  • Height
  • Weight
  • Build

These allow you to fine-tune a troop’s body shape beyond the gender toggle.

Hero Character Editor

When editing a hero (in the global editor), the old customization controls are replaced by a button to open the full character editor, identical to the one used during character creation.

For heroes you can:

  • Adjust face, body, hair, beard, and tattoos using the full set of character-creation sliders.
  • Preview changes directly in the 3D view as you tweak them.

This full character editor is only available for heroes; regular troops continue to use the simpler appearance controls.