If your taking text descriptions out of the equation, it effectively means your down to just sound to show elements of the character, voice, style of speech, clues about the sounds of their movement which indicate things about their gate, stance equipment etc, however there are lots of details which would not be clear.
For example, it'd be easy to tell by the swing of a melee weapon whether it was a boardly light or heavy weapon, and by the sound of it being drawn whether it is a long metal blade like a sword, or a short blade like a dagger, and of course bows and crossbows come with their own sounds.
However, just because your character has a sword, it is not what design of sword it is, or how it is being used just from the sound. Oh yes, you could have a switch sound, but is that then a slim oriental type blade? A scimitar? A long straight sabre?
And how about if there is no drawing sound. You could have a heavy swing, but is that a staff, an axe, a club or a polearm?
Then there are matters like hair style and build. To an extent you can determine a character's approximate weight by the sound of their footsteps, though even then, a light person walking heavily might sound the same as a heavy person walking lightly, and that's before we get into the problems distinguishing footwear types.
You could have swishing sounds which would approximately tell you whether the person is wearing loose clothing, but unless the material of the clothes were of a specific sort, such as a rustling silk dress or a creaking set of leather armour, you wouldn't tell too much, after all, people's movement in a lighter dress, a business suit or indeed a ranger in full medeival jerkin and hoes sound fairly the same.
So, from a standpoint appearance your probably best off allowing text descriptions, though manifestly only having them in a context where they wont' hamper the gameplay, EG in an examination system.
That is of course if the gross appearance of your character matters, since in many situations, it simply might not do, after all if your playing an action game, your probably more concerned with not getting your character eaten by zombies, or shot by robots or slaughted by goblins to sit back and admire their sartorial elegance .
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)