CONIRAYA
Real Name:
Koniraya Viracocha
Occupation:
God of the moon, water and rain, Tutelary deity of the Chimu Indians
Legal Status:
Citizen of El Dorado
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Coniraya except as a mythological deity.
Other Aliases:
Kon (Quecha), Chipiripa (Curran), Acacila (Aymara)
Place of Birth:
Marital Status: Married
Known Relatives:
Bochica (possible father), Chia (possible mother), Chibchacum
(uncle), Viracocha
(brother), Cocamama,
Zaramama (sisters),
Inti, Tupan,
Caruincho,
Sajama, Jurupari, Jacy (nephews),
Quilla,
Chasca, Cuycha,
Bachue,
Peruda
(nieces), Konassa (wife), daughters (names unrevealed),
Evaki (possible daughter), Oka (possible
son), Guamansuri (son by Bachue), Huayna-Capac (son-in-law,
deceased), Pachacamac (grandfather, possibly deceased), Gaea (grandmother, alias Pachamama)
Group Affiliations: The Incan Gods
Base of Operations:
El Dorado, formerly Mobile, formerly Tiahuanaco (now modern Cochamarca, Bolivia)
First Appearance: (name only) Avengers III #28
History: Coniraya is a member of a race of extra-dimensional beings who were worshipped as gods by the Ancient Incan Empire. In Ancient Peru, the Incans identified their gods as the Yananamca Intanamca and as the Huacas by the invading Europeans who arrived in South America. Eventually, the Incan gods became known as "El Doradans" based on the mistaken belief of the Spanish conquistadors who came to South America looking for a mystical city of gold known as "El Dorado." In actuality, "El Dorado" refers to a man of gold, the remains of a fallen warrior sent to the afterlife covered in gold and sent adrift on a raft upon a lake. According to the Incans, the realm of their gods was reached through mystical portals in bodies of water on Earth and through underground lakes and rivers. By sending the remains of their dead in to lakes, the Incas believed the spirits of the dead ascended into heaven.
Not much is known about Coniraya's origins. According to some accounts, he is the son of the sun-god Inti, who is later identified as the son of his brother, Viracocha, and the progenitor of the semi-divine kings of the later Incan Empire. Inti, however, is often confused with the much older Quecha sun-god Bochica whose worship predates both Viracocha and Inti. Presumably, the older deity is the parent of the later Incan gods, and Inti later took over the older god's worshippers when Bochica departed Earth..
According to later myths, Coniraya and Viracocha once lived on earth as mortal beings. Coniraya shaped the lands and earth, and Viracocha created the first mortals from clay of the earth. Just how much of these claims are accurate is unrevealed. However, when they became frustrated by mortal man forgetting to revere them as gods, Coniraya held back from creating rain and left them rivers and lakes to fertilize the earth. Eventually, he disguised as a beggar to live among humans and see how they were doing and in doing so, he fell in love with the goddess Cavillaca, otherwise known as Bachue, a daughter of Viracocha. He offered her fruit in order to gain her attention and eventually seduced her. Bachue eventually became pregnant and conceived a son, Guamansuri. She soon called the gods together demanding to know who the identity of father of her child. When no one admitted paternity, Bachue instructed her infant son to seek out and identify his father. The unnamed infant was mystically drawn to Coniraya, and upon realizing she had been seduced by her beggar uncle, Bachue snatched up her son and fled to live in self-imposed exile on the coast near Pachacamac in modern Bolivia where Guamansuri became a god-king of the Ancient Quecha and Chibca Indians.
On Earth, Coniraya searched for Bachue and received information both useful and useless from the animals which he encountered. Along the way, he blessed the condor, the cougar and the falcon for helping him, and cursed the fox and the parrot for their inability to give him useful information and for wasting his time. He eventually met the daughters of the sea-goddess, Cocamama as the sea-goddess, Urpi-huachac, and lived among them in hospitality. When they rejected his romantic advances, he overturned their fishpond into the sea and reputedly filled the seas with marine life where before there was none. Coniraya is credited with showing mortal man to fish and farm from the ocean.
Coniraya eventually took the goddess Konassa, possibly a daughter of Cocomama, as his wife and had several children. Around 1500 AD, he gave one of his mortal daughters to the Incan king Huayna-Capac in a box that when it was opened filled the night sky with light. It is possible but not confirmed this daughter was Evaki, the goddess of night of the Bacairi Indians, whose brother, Oka, was the father of the divine twins, Kame and Keri.
In the 13th Century AD, a warrior named Huallallo Caruincho seized power over the Quecha Indians and ordered an end to the worship of the Yananamca Intanamca, ordering the Quecha to make blood sacrifices of children to himself. He was overthrown by the demigod, Pariacaca, the son of unidentified gods at Mount Condorcoto. As his successor, Pariacaca chose Manco Capac, the son of Inti, and the founder of the Incan Empire. Coniraya and the other gods of the Quecha Indians became assimilated into the Incan Empire along with several other neighboring tribes. The Incas were the dominant tribe in South America until the Sixteenth Century and the invasion of the invading Spanish Conquistadors.
Despite the decline of the Incan Empire, the Incan gods do not have as nearly many worshippers today as they had in ancient times. Several modern South American tribes still honor the ancient Incan rites of their ancestors, merging them with attributes of modern Roman Catholicism, among them, the Kamekeri tribe of Costa Verde. In recent years, the arcane wizard known as Kulan Gath took captive the Kamekeri goddess, Peliali, and petitioned the former Incan gods in order to try and gain godhood. Viracocha, meanwhile, ignored his demands and Kulan Gath was eventually defeated by the Avengers before being seized by the dark entities which he himself worshipped.
The later activities of Coniraya are unrevealed. Several of
the younger Incan deities such as Inti, Quilla and Tupan have been posing as
mortal heroes in modern Brazil. Whether Coniraya has likewise posed as a mortal
on Earth is unrevealed.
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 410 lbs.
Eyes: Black
Hair: Black
Strength Level: Coniraya possesses superhuman strength, but to an unknown
extent; the typical Incan god possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift
(press) 25 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Coniraya possesses the conventional physical attributes
of the Incan gods. He is extremely long-lived, but he is not immortal like the Olympian gods.
He has aged at an extremely slow rate since reaching adulthood. He is immune to all
Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If he were somehow
wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It
would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his
bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
a god of significant power, such as Bochica, Viracocha or for a number of Incan gods of equal power working together to revive him.
Coniraya also possesses
superhuman strength and his Doradan metabolism provides him with far greater than
human endurance in all physical activities. (Doradan flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman
strength and weight of the Incan gods.)
Coniraya also possesses abilities to tap into and manipulate mystical and elemental energies such as to create rain and control the aspects of water. He can control the force and power of floods, rivers and lakes to distort and shape land. With enough volume, he can cleave mountains with rivers or move bodies of water from one location to another. He can create precipitation out of water molecules in the air, but not from areas as deserts and wastelands with very little water. To summon water in such locations would involve robbing all the water from another location. He cannot create water from out of nothingness but from where it already exists. Although the majority of his power involves freshwater, it is unrevealed if he can similarly affect saltwater from the ocean or seas of Earth.
Coniraya can also mystically alter and affect his appearance.
His mystical powers also allow him to communicate with animals. It is not sure
exactly how this power works but it seems he might actually be able to link with
the memories of animals and these thoughts are translated to him as language or
perhaps he just merely grants these things sentience and the power to to talk.
He can also inflict curses and hexes.
Comments: Although Coniraya has only been mentioned by name (Kon) in the Marvel
Universe, he has not yet made an actual appearance. He has not yet appeared in
the DC Universe.
Clarifications: Coniraya is not to be
confused with:
Last updated: 08/26/12