Can you use CSS (or something like it) to generate html content?

I’m creating my first site with HTML and CSS and since I don’t yet know what items I’ll ultimately have in my nav bar, I’d the content in the nav bar to be generated by referring to an external file.

When I first starting tooling around with CSS I figured this is what CSS is designed for, but now I’m beginning to think CSS is JUST for controlling style and is incapable of generating any content besides text: is this the case, or have I missed something?

I thought of using javascript, but then I realized I’d be leaving people with javascript disabled without a way to navigate my site easily.

I’m currently looking at XML and XLST, but since I’m fairly new to web design I have no idea if using these will allow me to what I want.

If anyone could give me a little guidance here I’d appreciate it, thanks!