Hephaestus Coppersmith – Hephaestus – Vulcan
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Hephaestus_Coppersmith
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus
https://screenrant.com/star-trek-doctor-who-vulcan-planets-same-reason/
Hephaestus Coppersmith is a smith who resides deep within the Hall of the Watchful Eye in Mount Olympus. Hephaestus will help Wizards in their quest to reach Zeus for the first challenge of the Immortal Games.
Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes. Hephaestus’s Roman counterpart is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was either the son of Zeus and Hera or he was Hera’s parthenogenous child. He was cast off Mount Olympus by his mother Hera because of his lameness, the result of a congenital impairment; or in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances (in which case his lameness would have been the result of his fall rather than the reason for it).
As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshiped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. Hephaestus’s symbols are a smith’s hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs.
Both Star Trek and Doctor Who have planets called Vulcan, and there’s a surprising reason for the name’s popularity. There are amusing trends in science-fiction, and one of the most curious is the fact that many sci-fi film and TV writers choose to call alien planets “Vulcan.” Perhaps the most famous examples are in Star Trek and Doctor Who.
The screenrant link has an amazing article about why Science Fiction uses Vulcan as a go-to name for an alien world. But that is a bunny trail off of the subject at hand, I present it as an ancillary side piece of trivia to Hephaestus’ pop culture connections.
The current list of all the (known) Aquila references are located here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references, I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Hephaestus Coppersmith image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
Vulcan/Hephaestus statue image is borrowed from Wikipedia and is in the public domain.
Spock/Doctor Who image is borrowed from ScreenRant. I make no claim to the ownership of this image.
Mister Spock likeness is (c) Paramount Global/CBS Studios
The Tenth Doctor likeness is (c) the BBC
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
Vulcan Stev's Database 