Bannerlord AI NPC Mod: Talking Lords and Battle Voice Commands

A Khuzait noble hears your offer to join his army, weighs it against his clan's grudges, and names a counter price. In the base game, that exchange is a short menu and a persuasion roll, the same as every other conversation in Calradia. A Bannerlord AI NPC mod changes that: you speak or type, the lord answers in character, remembers the war you started, and acts on what you agree. Neocortex gives your module the AI characters, Conversation Flows, quizzes and on-device voice commands to build it.

Screenshot: Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord © TaleWorlds Entertainment

Bannerlord or Warband: two routes

The two games need different approaches, and the trade-off is mostly about where the network code can live.

Bannerlord: everything inside the module. Bannerlord mods are plain .NET, so the module calls the web API with HttpClient like any desktop app. The cost is that you write and maintain the C# yourself, with help from the community libraries most mods build on.

Warband: a module plus a companion app. Warband modules are written with the Python Module System, which compiles your scripts into the text files the engine loads. Many modern modules run on WSE2 (Warband Script Enhancer 2), an engine replacement that adds operations, triggers, performance work and bug fixes. Module System scripts are not built for web requests or microphone input, so pair the module with a small companion app on the player's PC. The app talks to Neocortex and runs voice commands, then passes replies and matched commands to the module. The trade-off is a second program to ship, and how the two exchange messages depends on your setup, so check the WSE2 operation list for what your build supports.

The rest of this guide follows the Bannerlord route.

The Bannerlord module stack

A Bannerlord mod is a module: a folder under Modules with a SubModule.xml and one or more C# assemblies. Your code runs in a submodule class that hooks the game's lifecycle.

The community stack most mods build on, all actively maintained:

• Harmony (GitHub) patches game methods at runtime, for example to route a conversation through your own code.
• BLSE (GitHub), the Bannerlord Software Extender, is the continuation of BUTRLoader with an extended launcher. It is required for the Xbox PC version and optional on Steam, GOG and Epic.
• ButterLib (GitHub) adds shared developer tools such as hotkeys, logging and save helpers.
• UIExtenderEx (GitHub) lets several mods change the standard UI without clashing, which is how you add a subtitle panel or a chat box.
• MCM (Mod Configuration Menu) gives your mod an in-game settings page, a good home for the player's API key and push-to-talk binding.

TaleWorlds ships the official Modding Kit on Steam with the scene and resource editors, documented at moddocs.bannerlord.com with an API reference. The community Bannerlord modding docs cover a first C# mod and Gauntlet, the XML and ViewModel UI system you use for subtitles. For voice playback, the module plays the returned audio through a .NET audio library you bundle with it.

Scenes worth building in Calradia

Lords and tavern keepers who negotiate

Picture a tavern keeper in Pravend who knows which wanderers are drinking upstairs and haggles over the price of a rumor. Or that Khuzait noble, weighing your offer against his clan's grudges.

Your module sends the facts that matter with each message: relations, the kingdom's current wars, the gold in your purse, your last battle. The character replies with text, an emotion tag for the face and tone, and actions your code runs, such as { "name": "JOIN_ARMY", "targetId": "lord_derthert" } or SHARE_RUMOR. The persuasion system stays the referee; the conversation just stops sounding like a menu. And because up to six characters can share one conversation on Pro and Team plans, a war council in a lord's hall works too.

Orders shouted across the battlefield

Bannerlord already has a deep order system. Voice commands put it in your mouth instead of on the function keys. You design a command set with actors ("infantry", "archers", "cavalry", "everyone"), actions ("charge", "hold position", "follow", "advance", "fall back") and objects ("me", "that hill").

Say "cavalry charge" or "archers hold position" and the module receives a clean command it turns into the matching order. "Archers hold, cavalry charge" arrives as two commands. Matching happens on the player's PC, so the order lands while the charge still matters.

Peace talks on a Conversation Flow

An envoy scene works well as a Conversation Flow. The emissary steers the talk through checkpoints: greeting, terms stated, tribute agreed, then peace signed or talks collapsed. Each reply carries a flowState keyword, and your module reacts: on PEACE_SIGNED it runs the campaign's own peace action, on TALKS_COLLAPSED the war goes on and the envoy leaves angry.

The herald's quiz

A herald in a town hall can run a quiz on banners, cultures and history: "Which culture fields Fian Champions?" or "Who rules Vlandia?" The quiz engine (Team plan) handles questions, scoring and a leaderboard, and your module pays out renown or a horse to the winner.

Screenshot: Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord © TaleWorlds Entertainment

Wiring Neocortex into a module

Characters are built in a visual node editor with personality, emotion, knowledge, world and voice nodes, so you can feed a lord a text file of his family history and let him draw on it. If you are weighing options, our comparison page lays out how Neocortex differs from other AI character platforms.

Multiplayer, the EULA and fair play

Keep the mod to single-player campaigns and custom battles, free and non-commercial, and respect the TaleWorlds EULA and the rules of the site you publish on. Do not use voice or AI features in multiplayer against its rules. Each player uses their own Neocortex API key.

Your first Bannerlord AI NPC mod in six steps

1. Set up the stack. Install Harmony, ButterLib, UIExtenderEx and MCM, add BLSE if your players use it, and build a basic C# module.
2. Design the cast in the Neocortex dashboard: a lord, a tavern keeper, an envoy flow and a heraldry question set. Test them in the browser first.
3. Design a battle command set for formations and orders, with a few example phrases per action.
4. Connect from the module. Call /v3/chat off the main thread, reuse the sessionId, and map returned actions to campaign code.
5. Keep the API key in a config file or MCM setting the player fills in, never hard-coded in a shared mod.
6. Test in a single-player campaign with push-to-talk before trying always-listening.

Voice Commands is a licensed SDK: contact us for a Voice Commands license.

Want the bigger picture on speech control? Read our post on on-device voice commands for game mods, or browse the other game guides, from Skyrim to RimWorld, in our AI NPC and voice command mods index. Your first Neocortex lord is a free account away.

Tool versions and links checked October 2026. Modding tools change often; check each project's page for the latest release.

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