Human Sacrifice: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

The [[Super-Trope]] of [[Virgin Sacrifice]], [[Appease the Volcano God]], [[Targeted Human Sacrifice]], and [[Chained to a Rock]] (which often involves the chained getting [[Fed to the Beast]]). [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|Does include]] the sacrifice of [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|other]] [[Ridiculously Human Robot|intelligent]] [[Funny Animal|races]]. Just about required for [[A Fete Worse Than Death]].

 

There is more evidence of this in [[Real Life]] than of the subtrope [[Virgin Sacrifice]], though most of it is [[Demonization|accusations by the enemies]] of the people involved.

 

* [[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni|Hinamizawa]]'s festival used to be about this.

** This is also {{spoiler|Hanyuu}}'s origin: she was a normal human once, but she was sacrificed to become a presiding deity over the shrine.

* A necessary part of demonic pacts in ''[[Bible Black]]''. In the backstory, one backfired quite badly when the demon was late to the summoning; the leader of the summoners decided to kill the rest in order to force the issue along, and when the demon ''did'' show up, the [[Not Quite Dead]] sacrifice killed the summoner and made the pact herself.

* Luu from ''[[Magico]]'' was ''shoved off a cliff'' by her fellow villagers as part of a ritual to protect the village from a demon residing in the nearby Luna Spring. Fortunately she was [[Badass]] enough to survive. Zodia reveals that the ritual is total B.S., that there is no demon, and that it's just a horrible superstition.

 

* Human tribes in ''[[Elf Quest]]'' have a habit of doing this with Elves. The very first episode starts with a torture scene.

 

 

* ''[[The Final Sacrifice]]'', of course. Apparently necessary to summon an invincible army of Canadian Aztecs or something.

* In ''[[Race with the Devil]]'', two families witness a human sacrifice during a Satanic ritual and go on the run to escape the cultists pursuing them. It's also implied {{spoiler|[[Bolivian Army Ending|to happen to them at the end]].}}

* ''[[King Kong]]'' (1933). The natives sacrifice Fay Wray to the title creature.

* In the ''[[Children of the Corn]]'' series, the children murder all the adults and sacrifice themselves to "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" when they turn 19.

* ''[[The Golden Voyage of Sinbad]]''. Savages try to sacrifice a woman to their centaur deity, but Sinbad saves her.

* ''[[Clash of the Titans]]''. The Greek city of Joppa tries to sacrifice Andromeda to the Kraken, but Perseus saves her.

* ''[[Lair of the White Worm]]''. The villainess tries to sacrifice a woman to the title monster.

* Of course featured in Mel Gibson's ''[[Apocalypto]]''.

* ''[[Cthulhu (film)|Cthulhu]]'' (2007). The Lovecraftian cult led by the protagonist's father has been doing this for some time. {{spoiler|One chilling dream sequence shows screaming children crammed into a wooden cage for the [[Fish People]], and when Things Fall Apart we see a minor character tied to a post in the sea, waiting for the high tide. Finally the protagonist is offered a chance to sacrifice his gay lover and achieve eternal life as leader of the cult. The movie ends before we discover what his decision is.}}

* ''[[Dagon]]'' (2001): Barbara in the end.

* ''[[The Wicker Man]]'' (The original version); Sergeant Howie fears that this is what Summerisle has planned for the missing girl, Rowan Morrison, whose disappearance he is investigating. {{spoiler|In fact, he is the chosen sacrifice. His sole, pyrrhic victory is pointing out that next year, when the crops fail again, only the sacrifice of Lord Summerisle will be sufficient. It goes unspoken that that won't work either.}}

* In ''The Mask of [[Fu Manchu]]'', the Chinese villain is about to sacrifice a white woman to bring Genghis Khan back to life.

* ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' (1982): The villain's cult has a human sacrifice ritual that involves naked virgins jumping into the pit of a giant snake.

 

** In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Gaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''The Guns Of Tanith'', cultists sacrifice Yael by torture.

** In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Brothers of the Snake]]'', one Iron Snake is captured, and they find him after he has nearly been tortured to death by cultists to summon a daemon.

** In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]'' books, Cain has run into Chaos cultists who commit human sacrifice.

** In [[James Swallow]]'s ''Faith & Fire'', the religious festivals is celebrated with [[Gladiator Games]].

* The Angaraks from ''[[The Belgariad]]'' took it to extremes: each temple had one sacrifice per hour (During their holy days, at least. The characters estimate that the actual rate of sacrifice is about 2,000 per year), which is completely unsustainable unless there were only a handful of temples on the whole continent. Even then, the mass graves would be impossible to maintain.

** It's mentioned that the Thulls breed like rabbits (in part, to try and get out of being a possible sacrifice - sacrificing the pregnant messes up their count) and that Torak's priests are willing to take just about ''anyone'' as a sacrifice (and it's either implied, or outright stated, that this is what tends to happen to prisoners who fall into the hands of the priests). Also, they only burn the heart as an offering - the rest of the body is typically disposed of in a [[Kill It with Fire|nearby fire pit]].

* The priests preparing to sacrifice Carthena in ''[[The Eye of Argon]]''.

* In [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]'s ''[[Earthsea Trilogy|The Tombs of Atuan]]'', the God-Emperor sends prisoners to the tombs as a sacrifice to the Nameless Ones. Arha must decree how they are to be sacrificed. (She has [[Bad Dreams]] after.)

* Shirley Jackson's "[[The Lottery]]"

* In [[Andre Norton]]'s ''The Time Traders'', the prehistoric tribe is set to cremate their chief [[Due to the Dead|with great honor]]. Too great: they intend to kill Ross Murdock on it as a sacrifice.

* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[American Gods]]'', how Odin ended up in America. {{spoiler|And Lakeside's secret}}.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' story "[[A Witch Shall Be Born]]" Salome institutes this as part of the [[Religion of Evil]].

** In the [[Backstory]] of "[[The Devil in Iron]]"

** In "[[The Vale of Lost Women]]" Livia runs into this.

** In "[[Man Eaters of Zamboula|Shadows in Zamboula]]" this is to be Conan's fate:

* [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[Kull]]/[[Bran Mak Morn]]'' story opens with a very Aztecish sacrifice.

* In [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''[[Three Hearts and Three Lions]]'', a water spirit reveals she has no soul by her idle comments about the human sacrifices that a barbarian tribe offers her annually; she says only that it's not that useful because she's not a cannibal, but they do wear nice clothing.

* A renowned anthropologist in ''Pastwatch'' by [[Orson Scott Card]] postulates that slavery - our heroes' motivation to meddle with the past in the first place - actually emerged as a relatively benign alternative to human sacrifice. (This is relevant because the Tlaxcaltecs, who never got that cultural meme, may well have taken over the world in another timeline.)

* The first part of ''[[Special Circumstances|Princess of Wands]]'' features a cult that sacrifices people to first summon then feed an [[Eldritch Abomination]] they worship.

* In [[Keith Laumer]]'s ''[[Retief]]'' short story, "The Brass God", the Hoogan Pope wants to sacrifice the entire Terran diplomatic team for consorting with demons (actually another unrecognized alien species), but when it's pointed out that this might make the Terrans reluctant to keep funding his theocracy, he decides he'll be satisfied with sacrificing Retief alone.

** Catacomb Lords procreate through sacrifice rituals. Vlad manages to interrupt such a ceremony and even [[Hope Spot|rescue the intended victims]]. Cue [[Yank the Dog's Chain|some fanatics to declare him and the rescued possessed and attack]], {{spoiler|causing the death of 4 of 6 saved}}.

* In ''[[Young Wizards]]'' a wizard can sacrifice ''himself'' by saying a certain short phrase in the [[Language of Magic]], releasing all of his supernatural energy for use by the [[Powers That Be]]. This is an ''extreme'' measure, as in a series where [[Heroic Sacrifice]] is commonplace this is only mentioned in passing.

* In [[Devon Monk]]'s ''[[Age of Steam|Dead Iron]]'', LeFel has long searched for the three humans he must sacrifice for his [[Cool Gate]].

* Practiced by some of the cults on the Street of (the) Gods, which appears in a couple of [[Simon R. Green]]'s novel series. It's widely regarded as unsavory, but it's not ''technically'' banned as long as it doesn't endanger the tourists.

 

* Several demons in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel]]'' are after human sacrifices.

** In "When She Was Bad", the blood of the four people who were nearest to the Master at the time of his death is needed to bring him back - those people being Jenny, Giles, Cordelia, and Willow.

* An episode (or two? or more?) of ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' had the Headhunters wanting to perform a human sacrifice.

* It was just a staged production number, but an episode of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' had Janice offered up as a sacrifice to some stone idol that she stalled by singing "A Little Help From My Friends" until she could be rescued.

* In ''[[Caprica]]'', this is one of the services offered in the illegal virtual nightclubs that Caprican teens frequently visit. Since it's all VR, no-one actually dies for real, but the idea of ''teenagers'' creating human sacrifice clubs ''for fun'' shows just how decadent Caprica is under all the richness.

* An episode of ''[[Supernatural]]'' ("Scarecrow") involves townspeople performing a yearly sacrifice of a man and a woman to a Norse god in order to keep the town prosperous.

* ''[[The Collector (TV series)|The Collector]]'': One of the [[Deal with the Devil|Devil's clients]] got an extension of his deal that would require one every 10 years. The Devil said he had the same arrangement with the Phoenicians.

* The show ''[[Myth Quest]]'' had an episode where the male protagonist went to the Aztec empire and almost became a sacrifice.

 

* [[Chained to a Rock|Chaining-to-a-rock]] sacrifices are fairly common with dragons and other monsters anyway, and the ur-example was probably Andromeda with the sea monster from Greek mythology. The monster was killed when Perseus showed up to rescue her and turned the beast to stone with Medusa's head.

** Also mentioned is the propensity for certain religions of the peoples they were displacing and the ones of the neighboring peoples to have this, and also for the Israelites to keep picking it up themselves, much to God's displeasure.

** One of the stated reasons why God commanded the Israelites to wipe out the Canaanites was to put a stop to this sort of thing through scorched earth policy. It only sorta worked.

* Similar to the Judeo-Christian example above is the Islamic lore, except Ishmael (or Ismail in Arabic) is the one sacrificed instead (and like the example above, gets substituted with a goat/ram). Unlike the Christians, Islam celebrates this day as Eid Al-Adha, or "Day of Feast", where cattle is usually slaughtered and its meat distributed to the poor by a responsible Islamic body on the region.

* Every single [[Aztec Mythology|Aztec]] god ([[Token Good Teammate|except Quetzalcoatl]]) demanded some form of this, often in very specific and highly inventive ways. See [[Real Life]] below.

 

** Not to forget the ''thousands'' of psykers sacrificed ''daily'' to power the Astronomican.

* The [[Mayincatec|Aztechnology]] corporation in ''[[Shadowrun]]'' sacrifices people in magical rituals to increase profit - but since it's on their turf, it's not illegal. It's also a bit of a dirty secret.

* An immense number of cards in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' involve sacrificing creatures to pay their cost. One of the best examples may be the 5 Heralds of the Alara block, who sacrifice three creatures to bring forth a great monster. Of course, ''Magic'' being what it it is, most of them probably won't be strictly human.

** Played more straight in the set ''Dark Ascension'', where some cards gain bonuses if you sacrifice humans specifically.

* ''[[Mage: The Awakening]]'' lets you regain [[Mana]] by performing a sacrifice. You get tiny amounts for animals. Killing a human? ''Much'' more. Of course, since you are slaughtering another human for no reason other than petty gain, your [[Karma Meter]] ''will'' fall to bits...

* Likewise, ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' allows a Sin-Eater to regain [[Mana|Plasm]] if they kill someone in a way resonant with their Threshold. A Torn (death by violence) might just beat someone to death, a Silent (death by deprivation) might strangle them, and a Prey (death by nature) might sic a mad dog on them. Doing so to gain Plasm usually dings their [[Karma Meter|Synergy]], though.

** ''Worlds of Cthulhu'' magazine #3, adventure ''The Golden Scorpion''. The [[PC]] ''will'' be sacrificed by the Aztec descendants they encounter. The only question is, what will they decide to do afterward...

 

** And at least in the second game, you can do it yourself by throwing followers into the giant fire in the temple to quickly gain mana.

* The [[Hollywood Voodoo|voodoo cult]] in ''[[Gabriel Knight]] 1'' does this.

* Both the Silent Hill cult and the Shepherd's Glen cult in the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' games practice human sacrifice.

* A big point in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' is dealing with this. Partly due to a not-so-evil-evil-being that's redealt with in the sequel at first then it [[It's Personal|hits really]] [[Love Interest|close to home for]] [[The Hero]].

* Played surprisingly neutrally in ''[[Tsukihime|Kagetsu Tohya]]'' with Nanako, the spirit inside the Seventh Scripture. Arihiko is initially horrified and angry to learn that she was sacrificed to be joined to a unicorn spirit (long story) and made into a holy relic. However, she replies that she was happy do it, volunteered for it and was proud to have something useful she could do with her life. Still doesn't resent it. The mother who sold her into this service though, eventually wasted away and died out of guilt, spending her time apologizing to nothing despite being pretty well off for after the transaction. Nanako, who watched all this happen, was more depressed about this than her actual sacrifice, and decided to disperse her consciousness afterwards... until she met Ciel, who she quite likes despite her constantly ''remodeling'' her.

* Similar to the above, Angra Mainyu/Avenger in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' and the sequel came into being when a village decided they needed a concrete form of all the evils in the world and decided this random guy would do a nice job of it. This is ''not'' played as positively, possibly because he was tortured throughout his entire life before going insane and then being sacrificed. Plus there was no real benefit besides cheering the villagers up for a while. Naturally, he's slightly miffed about the whole event.

* A few are required in ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' at various points. In the first game, to open one door in the Temple of Pandora, Kratos must burn a man alive (which [[Dirty Business|manages to get under his skin]]). In the second game, to reach the Fates, one must sacrifice himself after reading the incantation to do so - and since Kratos has a translator doing the reading...

* Jedoga Shadowseeker from ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' attempts to sacrifice a mook to an [[Eldritch Abomination]]. If the players can't kill the mook first, the boss [[Turns Red]] and can easily kill everyone.

** Humanoid sacrifice is also a widespread custom of the [[Legions of Hell|demons]], [[Eldritch Abomination|Old Gods]] and [[Mayincatec|loas]] followers.

* Three of the four ''[[Fatal Frame]]'' games had {{spoiler|the failure of}} one of these being the reason the area your in is haunted. In order:

** In the first game, the Rope Shrine Maiden was a girl/woman who had to be violently ripped apart by ropes in the Strangling Ritual in order to maintain the seal on the Hell Gate beneath the mansion. {{spoiler|One of these girls, Kirie, fell in love with a man who was then killed by her family, resulting in her becoming depressed and causing her Strangling Ritual to fail to seal the Gate.}}

** In the second game, the village had to perform the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual, which involved taking sets of twins down to the Hellish Abyss, and having one of the twins kill his or her sibling. {{spoiler|One set of twins, Yae and Sae, attempt to run away before their ritual. Sae is caught and sacrificed alone, which fails to appease the Abyss.}}

* ''[[Legacy of Kain]]:'' This is done by the Hash'ak'gik cult to their (or others'?) firstborn.

* A purely technical version occurs in ''Warhammer 40000 Dawn of War: Winter Assault''. The Imperial Guard's basic infantry units have Commissars, who can kill a random member of the unit in order to cause a fear-induced performance boost in the rest.

* The {{spoiler|Rite of Forfeit and Rite of Feasting}} in ''[[Solatorobo]]'' both require one; Elh is ''not'' happy about this fact.

** Not so subtle in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', {{spoiler|The Lion War}} is a massive human sacrifice to awaken Ultima the Bloody Angel. And it works, though not before Adrammelech toss his own life force into the proverbial altar.

** At-your-face in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'': This is the plan {{spoiler|fal'Cie}} have for the entire humanity. A [[Deus Ex Machina|last-minute]] [[Divine Intervention]] prevent the plan from succeeding, [[Final Fantasy XIII-2|though at an unbelievably steep price.]]

* In ''[[Dark Souls]]'' the [[Light Is Not Good|Way of the White]] captures and sacrifices undead to fuel the First Flame.

 

* ''[[Exiern]]'': [http://www.exiern.com/?p=10 The plan]

* ''[[Dork Tower]]'' [http://www.dorktower.com/2006/06/21/comics-archive-798/ Selecting]

* In ''[[Thistil Mistil Kistil]]'', [http://tmkcomic.depleti.com/comic/ch05-pg14/ at the Viking funeral] (see [[Real Life]] below).

* In ''[[American Barbarian]]'', [http://www.ambarb.com/?p=347 the lottery winners are sent to a man-eating god].

* In ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', [http://danielscreations.com/ola/comics/ep0158.html one is accidentally prevented in the labyrinth.]

 

* In the ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "The Terror Beyond", Hawkgirl mentions that her home planet, Thanagar, used to worship the [[Eldritch Abomination]] Icthultu and sacrifice people to it in exchange for knowledge. They eventually decided this was a bad idea. Dr Fate tries to perform the Thanagarian ritual sacrifice to prevent Icthultu from gaining access to our universe. Since his subject is the zombie Solomon Grundy, he would have just resurrected eventually (and in fact does during ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', though it's shown that he [[Came Back Wrong]]), but either way, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|the Justice League interrupts the sacrifice before it can be completed]].

* In the TV special ''[[Garfield]] in Paradise'', a native princess (and her cat) are nearly sacrificed to a volcano.

* Rolf: The beast circles with hunger, we must appease it with a sacrifice! ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', "The Day the Ed Stood Still"

* Ra apparently requires "[[Count Duckula|more-or-less human sacrifice]]".

 

** Which explains a great deal about [[Mayincatec]].

* With the possible exception of the Ancient Semitic cultures. The Bible mentions human sacrifice on many instances, and archaeology has confirmed the Biblical claims.

** Several idol-furnaces of Molech have been discovered, which were used for roasting babies alive. There's a reason why his name has been reused for demons in modern mythologies.

* Adolfo Constanzo and his cult committed an unknown number of human sacrifices, for what appeared to be vaguely religious reasons, and because they believed it would help their drug trafficking prosper.

* The Norse would tie a slave to the slipway of a newly launched ship to be ritually crushed. As some of their ships were intended for [[Pirates|distasteful activities]] it kind of figures.

** Modern Asatruar<ref>aka Heathens, aka Germanic Pagans, aka believers in [[Norse Mythology]]</ref> [[Averted Trope|sacrifice mead, food, or significant-to-them items to the Gods and/or Goddesses]]. For obvious reasons, [[Captain Obvious|sacrificing other people]] [[And That's Terrible|is frowned upon]].

* The Etruscans, and later the Romans practiced a form of human sacrifice until it was officially outlawed during the Republic era. That didn't prevent some people from occasionally doing it anyway. The practice did evolve into the famous [[Gladiator Games]].

* [[Older Than Dirt]], it is evident that most ancient societies practices such at least at sometimes in history. Cue some of the bog mummies and a lot of ancient grave sites.

* The old Hindu tradition of Sutee in which a widow [[Self-Immolation|burns herself alive]] to join her husband in death. The British government found this custom distasteful [[Sarcasm Mode|for some odd reason]] and suppressed it.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Rituals and Ceremonies]]

[[Category:Evil Tropes]]

[[Category:Religion Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]