Name: Urzkuraga
First Appearance: Wonder Woman #28 (1989)
Creators: George Perez and Chris Marinan
Abilities: The ability to absorb carbon monoxide and release oxygen. Photosynthesis. The ability to choose a champion whose life is bonded to their own, who would transform into an all powerful Cheetah god. Can turn his worshippers into hyena men.
Backstory: Deep within the jungles of Africa and worshipped by a tribe which had gone on unchanged for thousands of years even into the modern day, there was a divine plant god known as Urzkurtaga.
Though incapable of influencing the world of his own will, Urzkurtaga could empower others to act in his name. A chosen wife whose soul would be bound to his. Whose life was intertwined with his own, ensuring they would survive so long as the plant which was Urzkurtagas anchor to the material plane was also intact.
A very sexist and picky god, Urzkurtaga demanded that his chosen wife and Avatar the Cheetah must be a virgin, and must have before and after, never have a relationship with any other than he. Preferring to die himself than be married to a wife who wasn’t ‘pure’ at the start of their matrimony.
Urzkurtaga was a god which feasted on blood to live. Requiring a sacrifice of blood to be offered unto him. In exchange he would create a fruit which could be worked into a potion to bring about the transformation of the Cheetah. A rite commonly used on the night of a full moon in which Urzkurtaga would guide the Cheetah to slay those whose hearts were evil, for those were the most delicious.
Protecting his followers, Urzkurtaga was a capacious deity whose will was difficult to understand for he never communicated with words. Leaving his priests grasping at straws, struggling to understand the deeper meaning.
In the Rebirth continuity it would be revealed that the Cheetah and Urzkurtaga were separate entities and worshippers. With Urzkurtaga himself having been bound ages past by the great Cheetah of the Urzari Jungle of the Okarango region of Bwunda. The Cheetahs followers working to keep Urzkurtaga sealed away in his form of a potted plant, for otherwise he would seek the doom of all.
The worshippers of Urzkurtaga known as the Bouda, would seek to free Urzkurtaga. Worshipping the Cheetah as a goddess even as they despised her and sought to bring about her death in the hopes of freeing Urzkurtaga.
They would following the will of Urzkurtaga, alter the story and narrative of the Cheetah. Attempting to manipulate those holding the mantle to think they were not Urzkurtagas jailers, but rather his wives who exist only to do his bidding. Aiding him in being freed from his prison to roam the world once more.
