Avowed's Character Creator Still Shines With Beautiful and Cursed Envoys in 2026

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: for a role-playing game, the character creator is the real MVP. It’s the first test of whether a world is going to let me be myself—or, more importantly, whether it’ll let me be an absolute disaster. Obsidian clearly understood that with Avowed, and even now in 2026, more than a year after launch, I still find myself poking around the Envoy creator more than I care to admit.

When Obsidian first showed off the Envoys—Avowed’s name for player characters—I remember scrolling through the two waves of reveals like they were a fashion show... if that fashion show had a section for cursed gremlins. The studio shared a bunch of everyday, heroic-looking Envoys, and then, honestly, they turned around and hit us with the cursed ones. That contrast is exactly why I love this creator.

What I appreciate most is that Avowed didn’t just offer a sliding scale from ‘pretty’ to ‘slightly less pretty.’ The creator leaned into the game’s Godlike identity. Your character isn’t just some random adventurer; they’re marked by the unknown, and that shows up in the form of strange growths, glowing patterns, and otherworldly details. Some Envoys looked ethereal, like they belonged on a tarot card. Others looked like they had just crawled out of a swamp and were about to ask an NPC for tree bark. I mean that as a compliment.

That Godlike weirdness isn’t just cosmetic, either. According to Obsidian, NPCs can react to your appearance. If you decide to keep your features on full display, the world notices. And here’s the kicker: you can toggle the visible appearance of those Godlike features off, but NPCs will still know you’re Godlike. The game’s narrative treats it as an intrinsic part of you, not just a visual toggle. That’s a small but meaningful touch, and it’s one of the reasons Avowed’s creator has stuck with me into 2026.

Let me break down what the two waves of reveals told me:

• Non-cursed Envoys: These highlighted elegant, grounded fantasy looks—think battle-worn travelers, sharp-eyed diplomats, and quiet mystics.

• Cursed Envoys: This is where the team let loose with wild Godlike features, asymmetrical details, and color choices that made the characters look like walking omens.

• Shared strengths: Both camps showed real flexibility in facial structure, hair, and tone, so the same base could become regal or ridiculous depending on your mood.

Honestly, I’m all for the cursed options. A character creator that lets me build something truly unsettling is a gift. It means I can try a serious playthrough and then immediately turn around and make an Envoy who looks like a sentient mushroom had a midlife crisis.

That flexibility felt important before Avowed launched on February 18, 2025. There had been some delay fears floating around, but Obsidian stuck to the date and delivered. Now, with 2026 well underway, the game has settled into a comfortable post-launch rhythm. I can boot it up, lose half an hour in the creator, and still feel like I’m making choices that matter before the story even begins.

What makes this even more impressive is the one-two punch Obsidian managed. Avowed arrived in February 2025, and The Outer Worlds 2 joined the lineup later that same year. The Outer Worlds 2 didn’t have a firm date for a while, but it eventually locked in its 2025 launch window after being revealed. For a studio to ship two substantial RPGs in a single year—each with its own identity, tone, and creator—is the kind of thing that makes me stop and appreciate the craft.

Looking back, the Envoy showcase was a clever bit of pre-launch hype. It didn’t just say, ‘Look at our graphics.’ It said, ‘Look at what you can become.’ Beautiful, cursed, divine, strange—Avowed leaves that decision in your hands. And in my book, that’s exactly where it belongs.