TAWA
Real Name: Tawa (his Pueblo name)
Occupation: God of the sun, justice and victory
Legal Status: Citizen of Shipolo
Identity: The general public is unaware of the existence of Tawa except as a figure from Native America folklore; he is well-known to his own worshippers.
Other Aliases: Shakuru (Pawnee name), Angpetu (Dakota name), Menahka (Mandan name), Sequinek (Inuit name), Pautiwal (Hopi name), Wi (Dakota name), Halboredja (Chippewa name), Akycha (Eskimo name), Sutaliidji (Cherokee name),
Place of Birth: Somewhere in the Navaho-Pueblo Territory (now part of modern Arizona)
Known Relatives: Manabozho (father), Nowutset (mother), Pawa (sister/ex-wife), Susstinnako (maternal grandmother), Utset (maternal aunt), Inktomi (maternal grandfather), Cirape (cousin), Bitsitsi, Watsusii, Kowwituma (sons), Yumni (son by Ita), Aste Hastin (son, deceased), Chibiabos, Wabasso, Coyote (uncles), Onatah (step-mother), Hino, Hotamintanio, Owayodota (half-brothers), Omamama (half-sister), Gitche Manitou (great-grandfather), Gaea (great grandmother, alias Nokomis)
Group Affiliation: The Anasazi (North American Gods)
Base of Operations: Alignak in the other-dimensional world of Shipolo ("Realm of Mist and Clouds")
First Appearance: Thor I Annual 10
History: Tawa is the son of Manabozho, Great Chief of the Anasazi, the gods of the Native Americans, and Nowutset, daughter of the spider-goddess Susstinnako. Despite her nature, Sustinnanko was prophesied to be the ancestor of mankind. Manabozho claimed her daughter Nowutset as a bride and his brother Coyote claimed her other daughter, Utset, to be his bride. Manabozho and Nowutset sired Tawa, the sun god, and Pawa, the moon-goddess. As adults, Tawa and his sister, Pawa, were instructed by the Great Spirit, Gitche Manitou in his role as the Navaho Tirawa, to sire Aste Hastin, the first man. As an adult, Aste Hastin married Aste Estan, the daughter of Evening and Morning.
In ancient times, the first mortals directly descended from the Anasazi lived in an other-dimensional world connected to Shipolo, the realm of the Anasazi. Aste Hastin had numerous children who became ancestors of the multiple tribes of Native Americans on Earth. Among his descendants was Ita, daughter of Chief Waziya, ancestor of the Dakota Indians. She had been seduced by Gaoh, the god of wind, and had sired several sons. Waziya believed he was worthy of godhood and tried using his divine grandsons to petition his right to join the Native American gods as a god himself. Planning to use this situation to embarrass the gods, Coyote, the Native American trickster, gave Ita a mystical object that made her the most beautiful of all mortal women. Tawa, in his role as Wi, the Dakota sun god, fell in love with her as a result and in doing so accidentally alienated Pawa who fled briefly from Shipolo in embarrassed disgrace. Manabozho arbitrated their separation and found Coyote to be at fault and sent him into exile with Ita and her family to the lands north of the Pueblo Territory, now known roughly as North and South Dakota.
Gaoh was allowed to adopt Yumni, god of the whirlwind, Ita's son by Tawa. Ita's own punishment was more severe because of her vanity. During the day in the sun's rays, she was allowed to keep her beauty, but at night when Pawa took the sky, she lost her beauty and turned to a hag. Despite this curse, Ita and her family were subsequently led to earth by Gaoh to populate it and become ancestors of mankind.
Tawa's cousin, Cirape, however, began to create misfortunes for the first Native Americans in his father's absence by drying up their fields and driving off their cattle to become the first buffalos. Pursuing their cows led their worshippers to scatter the buffalo over much of North America. Coyote’s son, Cirape, however, promised only to stop terrorizing mortal man if Tawa surrendered his sister, Pawa, to him as a bride. Tawa refused, and he and his cousin remain bitter rivals to this day.
As the sun god, Tawa could watch from heaven over his son’s descendants, but became displeased as they were forced to give up their lands to invaders from far to the east. He joined the Anasazi when the Vikings began exploring the boundaries of North America, bringing their Asgardian gods with them. Up against these foreign gods, Tawa feared the Vikings would rob the lands of his worshippers, but before a skirmish could occur between the rival pantheons, Manabozho was forced by the Third Host of The Celestials to stop interacting with mortals and demanding worship. The Anasazi ceased trafficking with mortals afterward, but worship of the Native Gods continued for years afterward. Today, Tawa is most recognized in the religious rites of the Pueblo, Sioux, Hopi and Pawnee Indians.
The Vikings, however, failed to accomplish any successful outposts in North America so far from their native lands, Odin, the king of the Asgardian Gods, however, summoned Manabozho in recent years to send his greatest warrior to assist Thor in the battle against Demogorge the God-Eater. Tawa responded the call to arms by commanding the purifying effects of the sun against the entity, but the attempt only frustrated Demogorge who absorbed him and the other gods sent to stop him one by one. Thor, the last immortal standing, however, decided to beat Demogorge from within by appealing to the creature's true intellect, the original sun god, Atum. The effect caused a shift in the creature's palate and Tawa, Thor, the other gods and the death-gods who had initially raised Demogorge were safely freed with no ill affects.
Tawa has since continued to travel between Shipolo and Earth, engaging in adventures
among human beings who believe him an ordinary man with extraordinary abilities.
He has had brief contact with the Asgardian thunder-god Thor and the Olympian
sun-god Apollo, but instead of considering them among his peers, he counts them
as former allies and former deities holding on to old glories. More interested
in his own personal pursuits, he is still one of the most active gods still
present on Earth today.
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 425 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Strength Level: Tawa possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift
(press) 50 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Tawa possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Anasazi gods. Like all Anasazi Gods, he is exceptionally long-lived, but he is not immortal like the Olympian Gods. He has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any known conventional means. He is immune to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If 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 Manabozho or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive him. Tawa does have some superhuman strength and his own Anasazi metabolism gives him far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Anasazi flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to Tawa’s superhuman strength and weight).
Tawa, however, is somewhat stronger than a typical Anasazi god (a typical Anasazi god can lift (press) about 25 tons). He has extraordinary senses on a near-clairvoyant level. His stamina, physical endurance and physique are in the superhuman level, but he is not quite as powerful as gods such as Hotamintano or Hino.
Tawa also has certain undefined abilities to tap into and manipulate ambient solar energies and use them in a number of mystical means. He can ride on beams of light and shoot arrows of fire which he can wield with great efficiency. He can also travel through other-dimensional worlds, such as from Earth to Shipolo. He also has superhuman senses on a clairvoyant level enabling to track almost anything even inter-dimensionally.
Abilities: Tawa is an above average athlete and expert in unarmed combat. His fighting style even incorporates styles of American wrestling and Eastern arts of the martial arts. He is also a superb archer, hunter and a very charismatic arbitrator.
Weaponry: Tawa's chosen weapon of combat is the bow and arrow. His arrows are enchanted to never lose a target and can explode on contact with inanimate objects with a concussive force of twenty-five pounds of dynamite.
Pets: Tawa's animistic life force is tied to the crow and as such he is frequently surrounded by crows when he is on earth. He can mystically command them to follow his bidding and perceive images from them beyond his normal senses.
Comments: This bio describes Tawa as he has appeared in the Marvel Universe and Rift's World continuity. He has yet to appear in the DC Universe.
Tawa's amalgamated pre-modern history comes from similar coinciding tales from the Inuit, Pueblo, Pawnee, Navaho, Algonquin, Dakota and Cherokee tribes.
Clarifications: Tawa is not to be confused with:
Last updated: 10/22/12