Despite the fact that Eagle Knights and Jaguar Knights are pretty central to the Maztica campaign setting and the novels, I realized that I had not drawn any.
Wingfoot is an Eagle Knight from the Azuposi of Anchorome. While they are only distantly related to the Mazticans, some of their southern cousins’ paladin traditions remain and are renewed occasionally. Wingfoot himself is the son of an Azuposi leader and voyaged to Maztica to study amongst the Eagle Knights. He has befriended several outlander heroes, but his loyalty remains to his home community.
I had had a lot of trouble deciding what to do with Wyatt Wingfoot, a supporting character for the Fantastic Four and a member of the fictional Kiwazi tribe. The Kiwazi seem to be based in the America Southwest, so the Azuposi made sense.
He is set to inherit his tribe’s leadership so the Noble background for History and Persuasion skills is a good choice.
Wingfoot, to his credit, is very much based in the 20th century and his tight t-shirts don’t lend themselves to any immediately D&D ideas (though his fictional tribe is not quite so modern).
Then I found this photo of an alternative universe Wyatt in a role as “Redwing”, Captain America’s sidekick in Earth X. Eagle Knight it was!
The Talon has twisted everything Qotal’s Eagle Knights were meant to stand for. On the Brown Sisters islands off of Maztica and Katashaka, this villain practices a form of necromancy towards evil ends.
Desmond Drew, “Black Talon” is not only a terrible Caribbean stereotype voodoo practitioner, but is also often seen as a joke. I’m really proud of how cool he can be made. I chose Necromancer, but he could also be an Oathbreaker Paladin if you wanted to cleave more closely to the Eagle Knight tradition.
I wanted to include some Caribbean Marvel heroes (see the White Ocelot), as many populations there are of mixed descent with the local Indigenous peoples. The Anchorome Campaign Guide suggests that wizards are hard to find in Anchorome due to the paucity of writing systems, but I like the idea that spells are written in tattoos such as on his chest.
I’d use Acolyte for his background for Religion and Insight skills.
Strongbow is a freebooter Eagle Knight of mixed ancestry who moves between the Faerunian settlement of Fort Flame and the Indigenous communities of the continent with ease. He is the son of one of the Eagle Knights who travelled north with the Flaming Fist from Helmsport when they founded Fort Flame. Whether in southern Maztica or northern Anchorome, Strongbow is a hero and a paladin devoted to justice.
I had previously drawn a version of Jason Strongbow (American Eagle) as an Aarakocra. But more recently, the character has been updated into a modern Navajo badass and I thought the new character design could also be adapted. In the comics, he is a member of the Navajo nation. However, the Marvel Universe does have a lack of mixed-blooded Indigenous persons, and so I thought his modern garb would make him a good example of those people who often acted as go-betweens with First Nations and non-Indigenous peoples.
You could just as easily make him fully a member of the Azuposi or Nahopoca nations.
In addition to a Paladin role, I would give him the Folk Hero background for Survival and Animal Handling.
I’m proud of the helmet, but I could have done a better job adapting his cool jacket.
These three Eagle Knight variations, to me, identify with liminal spaces in the True World. Wingfoot is Azuposi, but also takes on part of a neighbouring Maztican flavour. The Talon combines the Maztican and Katashakan spheres, and Strongbow (II) that of Maztica, Anchorome, and Fearun.
The Marvelous Anchorome Series imagines Marvel Comics Indigenous characters as D&D PCs and NPCs from the Forgotten Realms “True World” setting, including Anchorome, Maztica, and Lopango. See also my new Distinguished Anchorome series and Random Anchorome series.
Adaptations of (mostly Indigenous) Marvel Comics characters into Maztican (or other True World) D&D characters.
Adaptations of (mostly Indigenous) DC Comics characters into Maztican (or other True World) D&D characters.
All True World art, including adaptations and original art and character design.