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Religion of Evil: Difference between revisions
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Most often a [[Fantasy]] trope, the [[Religion of Evil]] has no pretenses of being anything other than... well, evil. Quite often it'll be a [[Card
This religion has three common forms:
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[[Your Mileage May Vary|Some people]] might consider one or more -- if not ''all'' -- [[Real Life]] religions to be examples of this trope, but ''' [[No Real Life Examples Please]] [[Flame Bait|That's just asking for trouble.]] '''
{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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* An early script for ''[[Freddy vs. Jason (Film)|Freddy vs. Jason]]'' featured a deranged cult that worshipped undead serial killer Freddy Krueger. They were called the "Fredheads".
* Many early horror films employed Satanism as a religion of this type. ''[[The Black Cat (Film)|The Black Cat]]'' (1934), ''The Seventh Victim'' (1943), and ''[[Rosemarys Baby]]'' (1968), ''[[The Omen]]'' (1976) are good examples.
** ''The Seventh Victim'' is complicated; one of the heroes gives a [[Shut UP, Hannibal]] near the end where he accuses the Satanists of being [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzsche wannabes]]. Also, the Satanists are mostly nonviolent and prefer to use social pressure to make people commit suicide rather than just killing them (one of them even comments on the contradiction inherent in their refusal to commit violence versus their need to kill all who betray them). But the leader does claim that he worships evil and refers to himself as "evil".
* Both ''[[Psycho Cop (Film)|Psycho Cop]]'' and ''[[Shocker (Film)|Shocker]]'' [[Slasher Movies|slasher films]] feature villains who fanatically worship Satan.
* The Cult of Thorn from ''[[Halloween (Film)|Halloween]]: The Curse of Michael Myers''. [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Possibly]].
* The Deaders from ''[[Hellraiser Deader]]''.
* The villains in ''[[Wolfhound]]'', the druids Zhadoba and Man-Eater, are said to be priests of the local [[Religion of Evil]]. They later turn against each other in an [[Enemy Civil War]], until the protagonist [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|kills Man-Eater]] in revenge for the [[Doomed Hometown|destruction of his hometown]], leaving Zhadoba the undisputed High Priest.
* ''[[Waterworld]]'' features a [[Big Bad]] whose title is "Deacon of the Deep". His minions, known as Smokers to everyone else in Waterworld, are part of the Deacon's "Church of Eternal Growth", on a mission to conquer and consume all they survey.
* ''[[Dagon]]'' (2001): In a small town called Imboca on the coast of Galicia in Spain, {{spoiler|a drunken tramp named Ezequiel tells Paul how the denizens of the town have overthrown Christianity in favour of the fish god Dagon, who has brought them wealth from the sea in the form of fish and gold, and the only way to appease the fish god, Dagon was through Human Sacrfice, which [[Human Sacrifice|they did]] to Paul's girlfriend Barbara [[Downer Ending|in the end of the film]]. }}
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* The Faith of the Pannion Seer in Steve Erickson's ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' is a particularly nasty example, most evident in its conversion of the combat capable population into cannibal fanatic shock troops (through implied [[Mind Control]]) and the rest into their supplies.
* The Sisters of the Dark in the ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series have it as their stated goal to unleash the Keeper (read: Satan) on the world and end all life. (Except theirs; they believe that they will be granted immortality for doing so.)
* Robin Jarvis has three of these in his two ''Deptford'' trilogies; the cults of Jupiter, Hobb (and his co-gods Mabb and Bauchan), and Suruth Scarophion. All of them practice sacrifice of their fellow sapient animals, since there are no human characters, in gruesome manners. Jupiter eats his sacrifices, Hobb's unfortunately named followers, the Hobbers skin their victims alive in a process referred to as the "bloodybones", and Scarophion's cult (known as the Scale) poison their victims with his blood, which dissolves the victim into a puddle of tar. [[What Do You Mean
** Then in ''The Whitby Witches'' we get the Coven of the Black Sceptre, aka: the Brides of Crozier, a cult of crazy fangirl witches who can turn into dogs and worship the evil warlock [[Smug Snake|Nathaniel Crozier]] who treats them like scum.
* The child cult that worshipped "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" in the [[Stephen King]] short story ''Children of the Corn'' and the movie series.
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** It should be pointed out that there is a "Young Men's Reformed Cultists of the Ichor God Bel-Shamharoth Association", or "YMPA" in Ankh-Morpork...
* [[SM Stirling]] provides several examples:
** In the ''[[Island in The Sea of Time|Nantucket]]'' novels, the sadistic Dr. Alice Hong starts a cult in Bronze-Age Achaea (Greece), with herself as the avatar of the Lady of Pain, to be worshipped by [[Cold
** The Cult of Malik Nous, the Peacock Angel, in the alternate history novel ''[[The Peshawar Lancers]]''. It is the prevalent religion in the remains of tsarist Russia following a meteor shower that destroys most of the northern hemisphere and involves the worship of the Slavic dark god Tchernabog, cannibalism and [[Virgin Power|virgins who can tell the future]] (to make matters worse, their powers eventually drive them to insanity, at which point they are taken away to become [[Incest Is Relative|breeders for the next generation]]).
** The Church Universal and Triumphant (C.U.T.) in his ''[[Emberverse]]'' series.
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* The established church in [[Gene Wolfe]]'s ''[[Book of the Long Sun]]'' is basically this, since the gods being worshipped, with one or two exceptions, are [[Complete Monster|deranged sociopaths]] whose idea of a commandment is "Overthrow your government and let me know when it's done; if you sacrifice enough children you'll probably get my attention." Interestingly, though, the church itself is closer to a [[Saintly Church]]: individual clergy may be corrupt or unpleasant, but the church as a whole is a force for good, providing education and charity to the poor of the city.
* The entire plot of each ''[[Odd Thomas]]'' book is the titular character pretty much foiling one of these. The first book? Satanists. The second? A crazy woman that has studied evil religions all over the world. The third? A guy that ''claims'' he can create life. The latest has apparently radical Islamics that planned to assassinate important government officials before blowing up several American cities with nukes.
* David Weber's ''[[The War Gods|WarGod]]'' series has an entire pantheon of evil gods. The one who appears most often in the trilogy is Sharna, a [[Demonic Spiders|scorpion-God]] of demons and [[Career Killers|assassins]], although in the second and third books several more show up. Their worship is pretty classically evil, with rituals involving [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil|gang rape]], mass [[Cold
** About the best of the lot of them is Carnadosa, the Goddess of wizardry, who is more [[Chaotic Neutral]] than true evil. Her followers are generally depicted as smart and possessed of personal honor.
*** [[Fridge Logic|Strangely enough,]] although it's frequently emphasized in the text that no form of power is inherently evil and that it's only the ''methods'' that make dark wizardry evil, there seems to be no incentive for wizards to stay 'white,' since there are no 'good' institutions to counterbalance the Church of Carnadosa. The only representative of white wizardry is [[The Archmage|Wencit of Rum,]] and he seems to have no interest in taking apprentices or forming a new White Wizard academy (even though a similar institution exists for magi.) He's much too busy going around and executing wizards on the spot without any opportunity to reform. The practice of wizardry is also described as so seductive that those born with the talent cannot resist using it. And since it's illegal in every country in the world, you can't exactly join a support group for it. So essentially, [[Failure Is the Only Option|if you are born with any kind of wizard power, you have no other options besides joining the Church of Carnadosa, practicing blood magic, and eventually getting killed by Wencit of Rum.]] [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice.]]
* David Weber & John Ringo's ''[[Prince Roger]]'' series has the Fire Temples, in the volcanic land of Krath. Despite being a theocracy, none of the natives are willing to talk about their religion at all, and laws in the cities are quite prohibitive. They trade for slaves to act as "Servants of the God." {{spoiler|These "servants" are sacrifices which are roasted and then served in chunks to the people of the cities.}} There's a reason the local pirates fight to the last man to avoid capture.
** Averted with Armagh's Satanists. They're the victors of a nasty schism on an all-Catholic planet, where they simply decided not to fight being called minions of Satan by a vicious inquisition. Their doctrine holds that God is being held prisoner by the angels, and the rebel armies of Satan will liberate him on judgement day. Other than the bizarre terminology in worshiping His Wickedness, they're basically good people.
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** It's notable that the profilers state "He doesn't kill because he believes in Satan, he believes in Satan because he kills."
* ''[[Lexx]]'' is built on this the first two seasons, with this "religion" being enforced on ''at least 20,000 worlds, ''in the '''''goddamn Light Universe''''', even going to the almost absurd levels of the quote above, the only difference being that that is a parody, where this is a black comedy. Turns out {{spoiler|it's just the ploy of an insect civilization to destroy [[Unwitting Pawn|humanity]] from the inside.}} And it worked.
* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' features the Silence, whose belief that "silence will fall" when the oldest question in the universe is asked drive them to {{spoiler|kidnap Melody Pond and brainwash her into killing the Doctor}}. Their most prominent adherents are members of a species of [[The Greys|Grey]]/TheMenInBlack hybrids who [[Laser
** The Daleks in the series 1 finale. The last Emperor Dalek to survive the Time War developed a massive [[A God Am I|god complex]] and rebuilt the Daleks as religious fanatics who worshiped him. "[[Madness Mantra|DO NOT BLASPHEME! DO NOT BLASPHEME!]]
** The Disciples of Saxon in ''The End of Time'' worship The Master as a living god and ultimately bring about his resurrection.
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** The Word Bearers legion take this trope to its logical conclusion.In fact, Lorgar devoting himself to his official [[Religion of Evil]] is pretty much responsible for the 40kverse being the [[Crapsack World|Crapsack Universe]] it currently is; it was Lorgar's minions who secretly manipulated events so that the [[Horus Heresy]] was inevitable -- it was even a Word Bearer Chaplain who conducted the Chaos ritual that ultimately saw Horus corrupted and sworn to Chaos.
** The best part? The other religions aren't that much better. At least Chaos is sort of honest about what it does, and doesn't pretend to be good.
*** In fact, the Imperial Cult worshipped by the Imperium? Created by [[Word Bearers (Literature)/Characters|Lorgar]], primarch of the Word Bearers, as his first try at organized religion; when the Emperor smacked him upside the head with the fact he did ''not'' want any religions in his Imperium, even -- or especially -- if those religions deified him as a [[God
*** The most interesting legacy of Lorgar may be the Chaplains, the unique sect of [[Warrior Priest|Warrior Priests]] amongst the Space Marines. Their official purpose is to help keep Space Marines from being corrupted; however, not only were they created by the very first Legion to be corrupted (none of the other Traitor Legions have fallen Chaplains amongst their ranks because Chaplains were strictly found amongst the religiously-zealous Word Bearers), they were actually instrumental in corrupting the other Traitor Legions. Of course, nobody remembers this fact now...
** Let's not forget about the Genestealer cults. Worshippers of a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]], whose membership is made up exclusively of the victims of [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]] and their [[Half
* A small cult in the setting of the ''REIGN'' RPG believes in heaven for the good, hell for the evil and reincarnation for everyone else. They ''also'' believe that if you are killed by the archery-based martial arts style they invented, you get "promoted" in the afterlife. Thus, if you kill an evil person, they come back and get another chance, while killing anyone else gets them into heaven before they can do anything bad! They killed a ''lot'' of people.
* In ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'', until its destruction Phyrexia (think equal parts [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]], [[Body Horror]], and [[The Legions of Hell]]) always had religious traits, with [[Big Bad|Yawgmoth]] at the head. These traits have been exaggerated by the [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/137 white-mana faction] of the reborn Phyrexia, calling itself the Machine Orthodoxy. In keeping with its Phyrexian nature, it really isn't very pleasant; the flaying and horrible mutilation of enemies and converts, gratuitous use of ritualised surgery, and [[Our Angels Are Different|stripping angels of their honour]] and [[Fallen Angel|turning them into sociopathic monsters]] all get four thumbs up from the average [[Fan Nickname|Whiterexian]]. For added horror, white has Phyrexian Unlife, which depicts [[Uncanny Valley|an androgynous but most likely female porcelain mask looking at her newly-compleated hands]]. And who do you do this to when you cast it? A [[Mooks|creature]]? No. Your opponent? No. You do it to ''yourself''.
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** An indoctrinated Hanar combines this with [[Insane Troll Logic]] to come to the conclusion that since Hanar worship Protheans, and Protheans were turned into Collectors who now serve the Reapers, Hanar must worship the Reapers and aid them in their goal of total destruction.
* "Los Illuminados" from ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' have a massive army of [[Black Cloak]] monks, cannibalism, institutionalized child murder, and colossal [[Body Horror]].
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] IV: Oblivion'', there's the Mythic Dawn, a cult lead by the [[Big Bad]], who, among other things, require you to offer 'red drink' to Mehrunes Dagon (the god they worship) in order to join. There's also the Dark Brotherhood, who are a combination of a Religion of Evil, a [[Murder, Inc.]], and [[Knight Templar|Knight Templars]].
** Also, in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]] III: Morrowind'', there is the Dagoth Ur cult whose followers first start seeing things and then turn into semi-sentient monstrosities who can only do [[Big Bad|their master's]] bidding and are to be killed on sight.
** Most Daedric cults on the other hand are pretty friendly and just want to worship their kinda evil god in peace
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* ''Linley's [[Dungeon Crawl]]'' features several Religions of Evil, from Beogh, god of the orcs, Kikubaaqudgha, an evil demon-god of necromantic magic, Makhleb, god of chaos and violence, to Yredelemnul, an evil god of death. Xom, god of true chaos, is an interesting case, in that he isn't looking for followers quite so much as new playthings.
* In ''[[Metroid]] Prime 3'', the corrupted Space Pirates certainly seem to regard Dark Samus like Jesus, referring to themselves as disciples.
* The Order of the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series worship a God that has promised to bring about the salvation of humanity and paradise on Earth. Given that their plans for helping God bring this about invariably involve physical and psychological torture and murder (''especially'' of children and childhood best friends) and that all of the Order members (with the possible exception of Claudia, who can be seen as just a ''[[Well
** Something else that makes the Order look like pure evil rather than just a [[Scary Amoral Religion]] is that their God literally thrives on suffering and hatred, although Claudia reasons that a truly compassionate God must first experience the horrors of the world through a human host.
* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' has Yggdism, a cult that worships the setting's resident [[Omnicidal Maniac|omnicidal]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] as gods and preaches that brutal oppression and mass slaughter of Darcsens should be a way of life. While not all that prevalent in the original, one of the main villains from the sequel is a devout follower of Yggdism.
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* In [[Mortal Kombat]], the Brotherhood of Shadow follows the fallen Elder God Shinnok.
* The White Mantle of ''[[Guild Wars]]: Prophecies'' starts out seeming like a bunch of pretty cool guys. They're a functional theocracy, wear nice outfits, welcome you into Kryta after your [[Doomed Hometown|homeland gets burnt to a crisp]], and even induct you into their order. The only real problem is that the gods they worship are actually a race of [[Blue and Orange Morality|amoral]] illusion-weavers who are currently harvesting the souls of specific individuals to power the seal on an entrance to the realm of a very real and very evil god. And they're not doing this because it's necessary for the greater good; they just want to make sure they themselves stay alive.
** After the destruction of most of the Mursaat race by the opening of the entrance they'd kept sealed until [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|some nosy heroes showed up]], the White Mantle hired former bandits, thugs, and other detritus of society, named them Peacekeepers, and sent them out to kill anyone who didn't agree with the Mantle.
* Hinted at with the [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] in ''[[Duke Nukem]] II'': "We'd kill you, you see, but our religion prevents the interruption of suffering."
* The Civilization 4 Mod ''Fall From Heaven'' includes the Ashen Veil religion, which explicitly seeks to bring hell itself to Erebus.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Franchise)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' occasionally portrays [[Big Bad|Ganon]] as being worshiped as a god, with his more devout followers [[Zelda II the Adventure of Link (Video Game)|trying to]] [[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games (Video Game)|revive him]] or [[Deal With the Devil|selling their souls to him]] [[The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Video Game)|for power]]. Of course, the Triforce of Power, the source of his magic, ''is'' a third of the most powerful holy artifact in the series, so he does have deity-like powers.
* The Path of Dark in the old [[Might and Magic]] verse is heavily implied to be either this or a ''Philosophy'' of Evil - it has adherents that self-identify as [[Card
* In addition to various examples from the usual suspects among the ''[[Forgotten Realms (Tabletop Game)|Forgotten Realms]]'' gods, ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2 (Video Game)|Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' has people who worship the King of Shadows (the [[Pure Magic Being]] [[Big Bad]]). The second expansion adds the cult of Zehir, worshipers of the yuan-ti god of poison who have set themselves up as the rival to a ''different'' [[Religion of Evil]], those who worship Sseth, the yuan-ti's normal patron deity.
* ''Runescape'' originally had only three gods, Saradomin, Zamorak, and Guthix, who were basically good, evil, and balance. Zamorak is considered more chaotic now, and has some followers who are decent and suggest that their reputation is [[Writtenbythe Winners]]. Still, the Zamorakians are arguably 99% evil, featuring all sorts of bloody murder, their members include vampires, werewolves, demons, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|an Evil Chicken]], and many of their rituals actually use the word evil.
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[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Religion Of Evil]]
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