The main characters reflect both the tensions and the ambiguities of the novel. Shardik is a powerful creature, but whether his power stems from God or Nature is never clear. Shardik is always viewed from afar. The author (although he knows what happens in the minds of rabbits and dogs) never takes the reader inside Shardik. Thus his actions occur without clear motivation.

Shardik's chief priest and priestess, Kelderek and the Tuginda, profess no doubts. They sense the bear's divine power and plan, and they entrust their lives to it. Kelderek is the more developed of the two; in the course of the novel he undergoes an interesting transformation. Before Shardik comes, Kelderek is a mere hunter, despised by the Ortelgans as a permanent adolescent whose nickname is Kelderek-Playwith-the-Children. As soon as Kelderek identifies the bear as the long awaited Shardik, he gains stature: He becomes first priest...