Here's my conundrum.
I've been reading a bit of the mythology of the people who later collectively became known as the Aztecs (apparently they never called themselves that). The mythology is quite cool. As usual when reading this kind of thing, I begin to think about deriving character concepts from it -- it's like a reflex. So, I came up with the idea of a vaguely (very vaguely) Moon Knight-inspired hero who is a representative of Quetzalquotl, the feathered-serpent Azten god of the sun. I've written him up sans Disads and he is quite cool IMHO.
Now here is my issue. Using premodern cultures as sources for modern-day heroes is problematic at best (just look at Thor), because their ideas of what heroes were is not ours. This is especially true in the case of the Aztecs, given that their deities were quite blood-thirsty, what with their hunger for human sacrifices and all.
I am trying to rationalize how this Aztec deity could morph into a hero. I have a few ideas, but they all seem cheesy:
1. The Q the Aztecs worshipped wasn't the real Q (no Star Trek jokes please). He was an evil demon imposter.
2. Q had a change of heart for some reason (as when Marvel's Thor got mad when his worshippers killed a bunch of Christians -- totally out of character for the Thor of Norse myth of course. )
3. Q is still bloodthirsty, in addition to being a source of power for our hero, but the hero keeps the thirst under control, this possibly being a source of much Vampire the Masquerade-type angst.
So, does anybody have any ideas?