Camp followers (like chirurgeons, smiths, scouts, etc.) were planned to be implemented.
Here followers are talked about for example:
Dev Blog #7: Worldmap reveal and strategic gameplay
But like some other planned and even partly worked on features it was cut and will not make it into version 1.0.
For some more infos check this post (and the linked threads/posts therein):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/365360/discussions/0/215439774852655090/#c215439774852796985
If the devs get the chance to continue work on the game beyond the release, I am pretty sure that camp followers are one of the features that then will be added.
