The Ghosts
Duke
Class: Commando
A special forces officer who is the leader of the Ghost squad.- A Father to His Men: He has his moments, particularly when he outright threatened Aydana when he though she may have harmed Banshee.
- Macross Missile Massacre: His missile attacks, especially when using the Limit Break "Wide Impact".
- Standardized Leader: Nothing about him really stands out personality-wise. This is even lampshaded in the manual which described him as "coming from a long line of West Point graduates".
- Team Dad: Even Richter called him pops.
Haze
Class: Sniper
A long established member of the ghosts, Haze tend to be the voice of reason and is the squad's second in command.- Token Minority: The only Asian in the squad.
- The Spock: He favors whatever gets the mission done fast. In one mission, he preferred not to rescue the hostages despite pleading from the escaped security guard.
Richter
Class: Gunner
Transferred from the Green Berets, Richter tend to be the Fun Personified in the squad and likes to poke fun at the new recruits.- Boisterous Bruiser: The manual states he likes to poke fun at younger Ghosts.
- More Dakka: His primary weapons which are machine guns.
- The Nicknamer: He calls his squad mates by nicknames.
- He calls Duke pops
- He calls Saffron mom
- He calls Mint freshman
Saffron
Class: Medic
A former Navy Medic who became the Ghost squad's medic.- The Medic: Her codename is already self-explanatory.
- Team Mom: Even Richter calls her mom.
Banshee
Class: Recon
A loner who became a Recon.- Anti-Hero: The fact that she has the ability "cold-blooded killer" implies that she may be one.
- Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments.
- I Work Alone: The reason she became a recon.
- Visible Invisibility: Uses a thermoptic camo suit similar to the ones used by Hunter Team in Future Soldier.
Mint
Class: Engineer
The newest recruit for the ghosts.- Mecha-Mooks: He can deploy automated turrets and combat drones in battle.
- Naïve Newcomer: Ritcher likes to poke fun at this by calling him freshman.
Ghost Lead
The leader of all Ghost squads and directs the squad's missions. He was a former Ghost.- Mission Control: Gives you your orders at the beginning of each mission.
- No Name Given: He's only ever referred to as Ghost Lead; also, despite being in charge of the Ghosts and seeming to be familiar with the events of Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike, he doesn't seem to actually be Scott Mitchell, as he refers to Scott as a separate character at one point.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: As part of being Mission Control.
Allies
Aydana Kozlova
Class: Assault
A Kazakh commando the Ghosts encounter.- Continuity Nod: She's the sister of Grigoriy Kozlov from Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike. The Ghosts suspect she might blame them for her brother's death, but this turns out not to be the case, though she might still have some ill will towards Scott Mitchell.
- Demolitions Expert: As the game's only Assault class unit, she specializes in grenades as well as rifles.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: She presents herself as a Kazakh commando, but is actually a Russian agent working for President Karkarzev. As a result she prevents the Ghosts from capturing Demidov so she can follow him to locate the remaining Dead Hand Bases. However, ultimately she and the Ghosts have the same goals in the conflict; stopping Zemya and Strashin.
- Guest-Star Party Member: She's not one of your six permanent Ghost squad members, and can't be upgraded like they can, but still fights alongside them for a significant portion of the game.
- Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of the game she stays behind to manually detonate the base's nuclear reactor and blow up Strashin's missiles before they can destroy the world, while giving the Ghosts time to escape.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Has a long red one. It appears in The Stinger hanging out of an escape hatch, possibly implying that she survived her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: Subverted.
- Stripperiffic: Although you only see her head in-game, her character art which shows her full body shows she's fighting in nothing more than a green halter-top and jeans while the Ghosts are fighting in full body armor (though this somewhat makes sense as she's an irregular resistance fighter while the Ghosts are fully equipped military). For the final set of missions she puts on a more sensible winter outfit, most likely to deal with the cold Siberian weather.
Antagonists
Vladimir Morozov
Strashin's right hand man; a ruthless mercenary who leads Zemya's attacks.- Authority Equals Asskicking: He's got about 3 times as much health as his Mooks; overall his health is on par with that of your Ghost teammates.
- The Brute: He's described as a large and ruthless man.
- Dark Is Evil: Dresses all in black.
- The Dragon: To General Strashin.
- Kick the Dog: He repeatedly tests the Dead Hand combat drones out on civilians, for no reason other than it's convenient.
- Mildly Military: He has a more informal, mercenary-like appearance, compared to the more paramilitary uniforms worn by the regular Zemya troopers.
- Wolfpack Boss: When you finally face him, he's hold up in a command room with several Mooks.
Yaroslav Demidov
A Russian scientist from "the old times" who controls the old Soviet-era Dead Hand Bases that contain decommissioned but still functional combat drone production facilities as well as nuclear missiles. He's also a member of the defunct Russian Royalty, and joined Treskayev and Strashin because he was promised that the monarchy would be restored under their rule.- Aristocrats Are Evil: Though much milder than most examples.
- Blue Blood: A descendant of the Romanovs. How he ended up in charge of the Dead Hand bases under Soviet rule is anyone's guess, though he likely concealed his heritage.
- Death Equals Redemption: After Strashin goes completely off the deep end and pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on him, Demidov uses his dying breath to warn the Ghosts and give them the intel they need to stop Strashin from blowing up the planet.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He was repulsed when Morozov decided to leave his troops to their deaths. In general, he didn't like all the violence done by Zemya but only put up with it because they promised him that they will return the monarchy to Russia.
- Mecha-Mooks: His control of the Dead Hand Bases gives him access to an army of combat drones, which is why Strashin and Treskayev ally with him in the first place.
- Non-Action Guy: He's a scientist in a suit, not a soldier, and every time you encounter him he promptly runs away from you.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: At the end of the game, Strashin shoots him and leaves him to bleed out before setting out to destroy the world. Even before that, Treskayev made it clear early on he was only using Demidov to get access to the Dead Hand Bases and their robot factories, and that Demidov would outlive his usefulness once Treskayev was actually in power.
General Strashin
A Russian General working for Yuri Treskayev, he's also the leader of Zemya and wants to take over Russia.- Ax-Crazy: With a generous helping of maniacal laughter.
- Big Bad: The main villain of Shadow Wars.
- Duel Boss: Strashin retracts a series of bridges in order to cut off the Ghosts from him, forcing Aydana to fight him one-on-one while the Ghosts battle his security drones (though you can still actually snipe him from the other platforms with the Ghosts).
- The Man Behind the Man: Morozov and Demidov are the public face of Zemya, but Strashin is the one secretly in charge while publicly acting as the commanding officer of the Russian military task force that's supposed to be dealing with the chaos being caused by Zemya.
- Mole in Charge: He's the Russian General in charge of the task force meant to put a stop to Zemya while secretly also being the leader of Zemya.
- Omnicidal Maniac: The Big Bad pulling a Taking You with Me with nuclear weapons after their initial plan falls apart is something that happens Once per Episode in the Ghost Recon series, but Strashin is the only Big Bad whose goal at the end is explicitly to destroy the world; the North Korean Generals and Mexican rebels from earlier games at least had somewhat more strategic plans for their usage of nukes.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: After being accidentally outed by Demidov as the real leader of Zemya, Strashin flees Moscow and activates an army of robot drones to try and take over the country.
- The Starscream/Evil Is Not a Toy: He turns against Treskayev and tries to take over Russia with a secret robot army.
- Taking You with Me: When on the verge of defeat, he tries to blow up the planet with the Dead Hand Doomsday Device.
- Unwitting Pawn: If Zemya is the same as the un-named separatist terrorist group from H.A.W.X. 2, then they're just pawns being played to create a crisis so Treskayev/Makhmudov can seize power. Strashin himself seems to either realize this, or is simply too insane to control, as he eventually turns into The Starscream.
- Wolfpack Boss: Strashin himself is a pretty standard infantry unit and armed only with a pistol, but he's got a bunch of security drones and heavy turrets protecting him.
Yuri Treskayev
An ultranationalist politician who hired Strashin and Morozov to destabilize Russia and her neighbors so that he can be elected over the more moderate incumbent President.- Arc Villain: Of Shadow Wars, Ghost Recon Wii, Future Soldier, and H.A.W.X. 2, assuming the Evil Chancellor in all 4 games is the same character.
- Bald of Evil: Has male pattern baldness and is the Greater-Scope Villain.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: He's completely shocked when General Strashin goes rogue and tries to take over the country with a robot army.
- Karma Houdini: Yuri loses his bid to become President, but returns to his former position in the Duma and faces no major consequences for his schemes. If he is the same person as the Big Bad of H.A.W.X. 2 and Future Soldier, then he does finally get his comeuppance in those games.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of Shadow Wars, as well as Ghost Recon Wii. Is also most likely meant to be the same person as the Big Bad of H.A.W.X. 2 and Future Soldier.
- Sudden Name Change: He seems to be meant to be the same person as Aleksandr Treskayev from H.A.W.X. 2 and Ghost Recon Wii as well as Sergey Makhmudov from Future Soldier; all 3 have the exact same character model (down to his distinct green tie) and story-wise are the same character in every detail except name. The differences are likely due to miscommunication between the 4 studios making the 4 games as well as the two year delay in the development of Future Soldier due to its
Troubled Production.
