The towns of Tihr, Wercheg, Ichamur and Halmar will have a female ruler instead of a male one. But only 2 nations will have ladies instead of lords at the start and that's the Kingdom of Nords and the Khergit Khanate. Only the female version of those lords they are called lady (or countess if they belong to swadia or rhodok and in the vaegirs they are called boyarina) are replacement of original lords. Just keep travelling and visit every tavern. But it can take a while to find the existing heroes. Same with female troops, they are added instead of replacement. The new ones Huynh, Ayira, Kione, Liana and Isabella are added next to the existing ones such as Ymira, Katrin, Matheld, Borcha, Jeremus, Lezalit, Rolf, etc.
Anyway, for those who wonder the same the female heroes are additional.
