Nahuel Rivertooth – Nahuelito the lake monster
https://www.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Nahuel_Rivertooth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuel_and_the_Magic_Book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuel_Huapi_Lake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuelito
Nahuel Rivertooth owes the Avians a favor. Because of this favor he will guide your wizard through the murky depths of Pitch Black Lake instead of eating you. Eventually with his help you are able to enter the Pyramid of Mother Moon.
Originally, I thought Nahuel Rivertooth was inspired by Nahuel and the Magic Book (Spanish: Nahuel y el Libro Mágico). The animated film is a 2020 Chilean-Brazilian animated fantasy-adventure coming-of-age film produced by Carburadores, co-produced by Chilean Punkrobot Studios and Brazilian Levante Films and directed by Germán Acuña Delgadillo. This is the first animated feature that was made in Chile in collaboration with Brazil and this is the first Chilean-Brazilian 2D animated film that entered the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in Annecy, France on June 15, 2020 and in Chile on January 20, 2022. However since the film was released 8 years after Azteca I realized I need to dig deeper.
Nahuel (Spanish pronunciation: [naˈwel]) is a male given name of Mapuche origin, nawel meaning jaguar. It is used in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. It is also used in Spain by descendants of people from those countries. However none of the “famous” people on the list looked like they would be associated with an underwater ‘monster’. I kept digging.
I believe this is the reference.
Nahuel Huapi Lake (Spanish: Lago Nahuel Huapí) is an Andean lake in the lake region of northern Patagonia between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, in Argentina. The lake has a northwest-southeast elongated shape and complex geography with several branches, peninsulas and islands. The city of Bariloche is on the southern shore of the lake and the town of Villa La Angostura lies on its northwestern shores. The lake is wholly inside Nahuel Huapi National Park. It is one of the largest lakes in northern Patagonia. It is drained by Limay River and it is part of the watershed of Negro River which discharges into the South Atlantic.
The name of the lake derives from the toponym of its major island in Mapudungun (Mapuche language): “Island of Puma”, from nahuel, ‘puma’, and huapí, ‘island’. There is, however, more to the word “Nahuel”—it can also signify ‘a man who by sorcery has been transformed to a puma’.
At the beginning of the 20th century, and following an old aboriginal legend, the rumor of a giant creature living in the deep waters of the lake took up. The creature is known locally as Nahuelito. Reported sightings of it predate Nessie and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912).
The current list of all the (known) Azteca 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.
Nahuel Rivertooth image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
Movie poster for Nahuel y el Libro Mágico image is borrowed from Wikipedia, it is copyright Carburadores
Lake Nahuel Haupi image is borrowed from Wikipedia it is copyright by Sherlock4000 and is shared under the CC BY 2.0 Creative Commons license.
The Purported sighting of Nahuelito image is borrowed from Wikipedia and the copyright is unknown.
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
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