No, not a separate character system, at least not with respect to avatar. You do collect different soldiers as you play, and those are available for you to use in your army.
This isn't an MMO, and while there be some overlap between people that enjoy zOMG and people that enjoy this game, it's nonetheless a very different game experience.
M6
I'm a little confused. Is this game launching an entirely separate character system, or will it be tied to our current Gaia avatars somehow? I'm all for a revamped MMORPG but the cynic in me hopes they aren't trying to sell a new, likely Cash Shop-funded avatar paradigm to us. I guess time will tell how popular this game becomes.