Summoning Ritual: Difference between revisions

 

The classical name for a scene in which some chthonic being is summoned up is a ''nekyia'' (''νέκυια''), which is to be distinguished from a ''catabasis'' {''κατάβασις''} or descent into the underworld.

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' (both series), Human Transmutation (i.e. resurrecting the dead) resembles a summoning ritual. [[Came Back Wrong|The results are rarely pretty]].

* ''[[Fushigi Yuugi]]''. Depending on how strong the Miko's will is, it can be successful or disastrous.

* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia|Hetalia]]'', England gets mad at America for some ill-defined reason and decides to summon a "twisted creature of monstrous size and strength ... with the power to crush America" as revenge. [[Glorious Mother Russia|What he gets is not exactly what he was hoping for]].

 

* In ''[[The Sandman]]'' volume 1, they were fishing for Death and caught Dream.

** Dream claims they got lucky by missing Death, even as he provides them with a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].

 

* At least two demon summoners in ''[[Belgariad]]'', sequels and prequels were stupid enough to draw pentagrams on ''water''.

** This is partly a means of showing off: "Yeah, I can draw letters of glowing energy on water!" It even works if the water in question is standing still. Drawing your pentagram on a ''river'', on the other hand... that's getting into [[Idiot Ball]] territory.

** A high ranking wizard once tried to perform the rite backwards and disappeared, {{spoiler|it actually reversed the spell and transported him to Death instead}}.

* In James Blisch's ''The Day After Judgment'', the summoning goes horribly wrong, even tho the initial intent was for the demons to cause some chaos. Two evil protagonists contract with the most powerful evil wizard around to set loose some nasty demons, just for kicks. Trouble is, {{spoiler|Theron Ware, the black wizard, does his job too well, and actually removes all the pre-existing restrictions on the demon's actions, literally setting loose all the hordes of hell on the mortal world, undoing the balance of heaven and hell, and directly causing the apocalypse. Which Heaven loses, as God never shows up.}} Oops.

** Harry summons a bunch of entities for information over the course of the series but, unfortunately, knowledge correlates with power. Be careful.

 

* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', the second episode Anya is in has Anya tricking Willow into trying to summon her power source from when she was a Vengeance Demon. Instead, they get the Vampire Willow from the alternate universe they were trying to get the necklace from. [[Fetish Fuel|The BDSM loving, all leather wearing, insane Vampire Willow]].

** Another episode had Giles and his group of friends screwing up summoning the demon Eghyon during Giles' teen years. The summoning was used to produce a drug-like high, but someone screwed up and Eghyon killed him, then spent the next few decades hunting down the rest of the group, jumping into various sleeping and dead human bodies.

 

* The backstory of [[Cute Witch|Yoriko]] and [[Evil Weapon|Mike]] in ''[[Arcana Heart]]''. Yoriko tried to summon a minor demon, but thanks to Lilica, her [[Our Demons Are Different|half-demon]] friend, playing a prank on her by tweaking the magic circle, Yoriko got the Demon King Michelangelo instead. Then, thanks to Yoriko screwing up the incantation and [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Kamui]] having secretly been ordered to seal Mike, the Demon King got summoned in the form of a [[Simple Staff|kitty-staff]]. Now they're stuck together until they could figure out how to get rid of their strange curse.

* Magus of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' attempted to summon the [[Eldritch Abomination]] Lavos in order to defeat it. In order to get the resources to do so, he convinced a race of Imps that he was really doing it to [[Take Over the World]]. The heroes hear this, and engage him in battle right at the point of summoning. Fortunately this didn't release Lavos, but it did scatter the combatants through space and time.

'''Step 2:''' Cast the "Gate" spell without first casting "Protection From Evil."

'''Step 3:''' RUN LIKE HELL }}

* In ''[[Quest for Glory]] IV'' the cultists who lived in Mordavia were trying to perform a ritual to summon the [[Eldritch Abomination|Dark One]] into the world, and almost succeeded before the beginning of the game.

* An odd, possibly unintentional example in ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II: Shadows of Amn'': A drow elf wizard near the very end of the game uses that game's version of the ''Gate'' spell to summon a Pit Fiend to fight for him. The fiends summoned by the spell will attack anyone who does not have the spell effect "protection from evil" cast on them. The wizard of course casts this on himself before doing the summoning, and a good way to beat him is to dispel it to set the devil on him. The odd thing is that sometimes, only sometimes, the Pit Fiend itself will use one of its spell-like abilities to dispel the effect. You'd think that if they were allowed to do that, they'd always do it and never get summoned.

** This reflects a larger AI flaw with wizards in the game. While they always cast Protection from Evil, thus making whatever demon they summon unable to attack them, it still registers as an enemy. Many an fight sees a wizard summon a demon and instead of trusting it to attack their enemies and get on with blasting them itself, the wizard instead spends all their energy fighting the demon ''they just summoned''.

* In ''[[Dragon Quest VI]]'', a king is desperate to protect his kingdom from attacking Dread Fiends, so he calls on the bigger, badder demon Nokturnus to take care of them. [[Evil Is Not a Toy|No points for guessing what happens next.]] But Nokturnus is a [[Bonus Boss]]; and if you track him down in his lair and prove yourself stronger then he is, then he'll do your bidding and take out the [[Big Bad]] for you.

 

* The spiritual barrier for a demon summoning collapsed in the third strip of ''[[Hellbound]]'' when the old guy's new apprentice distracted him. That ensured the death of the old guy (who never even got a name) and set off the events of the rest of the comic.

* In [http://talesofpylea.comicgenesis.com/d/20070603.html this strip] of ''[http://talesofpylea.comicgenesis.com/ Tales of Pylea]'', a witchkin had summoned a demon to answer a master vampire's question as relayed by some minions. One of the minions accidentally knocks over one of the candles, and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' a botched summoning on Bun-Bun's part [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20020414 gets him stuck] with a really, ''really'' annoying [[Living Shadow]]. When he tries to get Gwynn to summon the shadow off of him, she summons [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20020417 a bunch of evil, clothes-eating moths instead].

** On account of being drunk.

 

* [[Whateley Universe]] example: when Bloodworm tries to sacrifice Sara Waite for a dark boon, he gets the wrong hell, calls up the wrong demon, and ends up getting knocked into that hell dimension for a literal fate worse than death.

 

* ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' parodies this. Linus seems to have grown tired of waiting for the Great Pumpkin and him not showing up. So, he decides to preform a satanic blood ritual to summon him to the pumpkin patch. Of course he didn't count on the Great Pumpkin being a hideous, blood-thirsty demon.

 

* This is done in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' to bring forth the [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] using Konoka's power. Unlike most summoning rituals, which bring pain to the sacrifice/vessel, this ritual felt good, according to Konoka.

* Not really summoning per se, but Third Impact in ''End of Evangelion'' might count. If one can watch it without immediately being reduced into a whimpering wreck, that is (since it's '''the''' perfect [[Mind Screw]] in a few-minute package). First, the MP Evas fly up into orbit, align themselves into a Kabbalistic Tree of Life and use the resulting anti-AT field to ''lift the entire geofront into space''. In the meantime, Gendo stucks his right hand-fused-with-Adam into Rei. Next, Rei absorbs the arm and flies up to Lilith who absorbs her into it's chest. Finally, Lilith falls down from it's cross, morphs into Rei and starts growing. The MP Evas change formation to resonate their AT-fields with that of Lilith. The result is '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWmJfX2AI2Q#t=1m45s REALLY FUCKING HUGE]'''. If that's not a big enough [[Mind Screw]] yet, the ugly bastards stab Unit 01's S2 organ with the Lance of Longinus, transforming it into the real Tree of Life then ''[[Too Kinky to Torture|orgasmically stab themselves]]'' one-by-one, unleashing Lilith's power and reducing humanity into a [[Hive Mind]] before the Tree and Lilith merge.

{{quote|'''Demon''': "The words you use to summon me are mere trinkets.... The very thought of my being brings me instantly to your midst."}}

* Rituals and sacrifices are part of the Duel Monsters card game in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]''; stronger monsters can be summoned only by sacrificing weaker ones.

** Tsunade [[Genius Bonus|can summon slugs]], [[Flight, Strength, Heart|useless as it may seem]]. But it ''is'' useful when your slug companions can distribute your chakra easily to everyone else in the village and heal them quickly, ''especially'' in the middle of a tremendous attack.

** Orochimaru and Sasuke's partners, however, the Snake family, do not seem so friendly. When Orochimaru calls the giant snake, [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|the reptile says he'll have to serve up a hundred humans to pay for this summoning.]] [[Complete Monster|Not that Orochimaru minds those terms.]]

* Caro in Nanoha [[Striker S]] is a dragon summonner. She has two of them, Fried, who continually accompanies her, and the gigantic [[Godzilla|Voltaire]].

 

* The silent movie classic ''[[The Golem]]'' has the Rabbi successfully summon the demon Astaroth.

 

* In the first novel of the ''Bartimaeus Trilogy'', the apprentice summons the title djinn correctly but makes the serious mistake of [[I Know Your True Name|letting him find out his name]]. Luckily for him, like Aahz, Bartimaeus' bark is worse than his bite.

** Except it's not. Bartimaeus would kill Nathaniel in a heartbeat given the chance.

*** Although the thing is, the one time he could've let Nathaniel die, he convinces someone to save him anyway...

* Larry Niven's short story "Convergent Series" is based on the idea that people have forgotten how to properly summon demons over the years. Then a college student rediscovers how almost by accident, and scrambles to find a way to not be damned.

** Also inverted with the character of Albert, who performed the ritual ''in reverse'' hoping it would keep Death away from him. {{spoiler|It didn't work; as might reasonably be expected, it sent him to Death.}}

** * In the Adventure Game ''Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?'', the Death summoning ritual requires three small sticks (of equal length), 4 cc of mouse blood, dribbly candles, a vile stench, glitter, and a performance of ''Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)''. Death appears dressed in a cork hat, apparently having been on vacation.

** And then the demon was disappointed when they didn't bother to properly banish it once they were done asking their questions, instead merely telling it to go away.

* Harry Dresden of ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' should really know better than to do this; he rather lucked out in his second book, ''Fool Moon,'' when the demon he summoned got a bit overeager about Harry's eternal damnation.

* The summoning up of the demon Mephistopheles is one of the traditional features of the [[Faust]] legend, in all its various literary and dramatic treatments.

* In ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'' this is combined with a descent into the Underworld, as the eponymous hero must go to its entrance to summon up the spirit of the prophet Teiresias and learn from him how he can return home.

* Subverted in [[Night Watch|Day Watch]]. A series of sinister events lead most of the characters to believe that Zavulon, the head of the Moscow Day Watch is willing to resurrect a powerful deceased dark mage/dragon Fafnir. It turns out, however, that he had a different plan and simply masked its stages as preaprations for the summoning ritual.

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "[[The Phoenix on the Sword]]", Thoth-amon's [[Ring of Power]] can do this, with blood and incantations.

 

* Special mention goes to ''[[Angel]]''. A particularly unusual one would be the demon Sajhan using a ritual to release the completely human Holtz. And getting bored and looking at his watch because it wasn't happening fast enough.

* Similarly to ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' which had so many summoning rituals through its run that it would be insane to list them all.

** There are [[Unfortunate Implications]] to the way one kid in particular makes said "[[A Date with Rosie Palms|pumping gesture]]".

 

 

** Arguably subverted by the literal ''Summon Monster'' line of spells which take only one combat round (six seconds) to cast and bring in a creature to fight for you with no applicable saving throw, spell resistance, or back-talk. (Granted, the short duration and often limited power of these spells makes them useful primarily ''for'' combat.)

** Fourth Edition took away general summoning spells for all caster classes, but has a few classes with the mojo, such as the invoker (a divine class that summons agents of their god), shaman (a spirit summoner), and a new build for the wizard that allows the summoning of animate spells.

* Summoning monsters in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' is usually done just by playing them or tributing other monsters for them. However, there are some monsters called Ritual monsters that have to go through a specific ritual (i.e. playing a particular spell card) in order to get them out.

** There's also an entire Archetype based around Ritual Summoning, the Gishki/Ritua Tribe from the Duel Terminal series, to the point that in-story when {{spoiler|they revive the first [[Big Bad]] when end up joining the Verz.}}

 

* Then there's ''[[Grim Grimoire]]'', where demon summoning is just a class taught to students in the [[Wizarding School]]. You basically call low-level demons up with a rune inscribed with a pentagram.

** Special mention goes to Lilet's final plan, which is {{spoiler|Summoning the [[Big Bad]] Demon Lord ''before'' he escapes his prison, letting him kill the ''other'' villain trying to summon him, and then tricking him into a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].}}

* Warlocks in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' can summon a variety of demons to do their bidding, and can even use a summoning ritual to summon other players to their location (with help).

* The backstory of ''[[Bible Black]]'' revolves around a summoning ritual performed twelve years prior to the game. The [[Human Sacrifice]] ended up gaining its benefits when she survived long enough to kill the person running the ritual and make a pact with the demon that showed up herself.

 

{{quote|'''Garland:''' ''I should be upset, but I can't help taking this as a huge compliment. You can't summon something as powerful as hell lords without sacrificing what's most important to you in the world. This is probably the nicest thing Drizz'l has ever done for us.''

'''Drizz'l's note:''' ''1. Lead morons into basement. / 2. Kill them. / 3. Summon nothing because it was a lie.'' }}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Rituals and Ceremonies]]

[[Category:Magic and Powers]]