History Main / GodIsDead

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Worf reveals that the Klingon gods are dead, having been slain by Klingon warriors after they became more trouble than they were worth.

* Music/NineInchNails, "Heresy":
-->Your god is dead and no one cares
-->If there is a hell, I'll see you there

* Creator/KarlEdwardWagner's Literature/{{Kane}} is based on {{Cain|AndAbel}} from Literature/TheBible. Kane was one of the first humans, created by a mad god. In the story ''At First Just Ghostly'', Kane claims to have later killed this god.

* Both exaggerated and downplayed in ComicBook/TheMightyThor with The Gods Butcher issues. Gods aren't really the true creators of the universe, but they are cosmically powerful entities, devoted to good, evil, or their own interest. Gorr the Gods Butcher dedicates himself to tracking and [[KillEmAll torturing to death every one of them]] [[spoiler: and at the end of the first book, he has nearly achieved his goal : only an old, tired Thor is left alive. Because Gorr wants to keep him alive for the end]].

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': MAJOR SPOILERS: [[spoiler: Prince [[MeaningfulName Dios]]'s fate is revealed to be a [[RuleOfSymbolism figurative]] and [[LiteralMetaphor literal]] example. From the beginning, Dios plays the role of GreaterScopeParagon and PhysicalGod, occasionally manifesting as a Utena's [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghostly]] GuardianEntity during her duels. At the conclusion, he is confirmed to indeed be dead. ...by [[BigBad Akio]], who is himself a now-[[FallenHero fallen]], [[DePower depowered]] Dios. [[ItMakesSenseInContext Yes, it does make sense]] ([[MindScrew kinda]]), as Akio is lamenting the loss of his [[AGodAmI godhood]] and [[HeelRealization purity]]. More symbolically, this revelation leads Utena to [[BrokenPedastle reject her "Prince"]] as her idol, mirroring Neitzche's rejection of moral absolutism.]]

* The Millennium story for ''Comicbook/TheAuthority'' was about a creature who created the Earth and is explicitly described as the closest thing there is to God. This creature was the being that had physically collected the matter that the Earth is formed of and placed it into orbit around the sun, but its plan was to return someday and use the Earth as a home; the evolution of life was a completely unplanned event that stemmed from a freak asteroid collision billions of years ago. The creature, as large as the moon and of comparable power, planned to de-terraform the planet back to its original state before taking up residence, unconcerned with the extinction of humanity since we are less than microorganisms compared to it. It was killed by Jenny Sparks in a HeroicSacrifice (as the Spirit Of The 20th Century, her time was up anyway -- until she was resurrected as Jenny Quantum). The creature qualifies for this trope. Jenny does not.
* At the end of ''Comicbook/{{Preacher}}'', [[spoiler:God meets his end at the hands of the Saint of Killers]].

* In ''[[{{Comicbook/Hellboy}} Hellboy In Hell]]'', Hellboy's arrival in Hell sparks an upheaval in the demonic hierarchy, with many former slaves turning on and killing their masters. Eventually it is revealed that Satan himself is dead, [[spoiler: murdered by Hellboy during a gap in his memory, [[YouCantFightFate in apparent fulfillment of his destiny]]]].

* God (aka "The Authority") died in ''Literature/TheAmberSpyglass''. In the Literature/HisDarkMaterials [[TheVerse verse]], God was simply the first and most powerful angel. By the time Lyra and Will show up, he is senile and tortured by [[WhoWantsToLiveForever his eternal life]]. They simply let him out of his protective enclosure and he is freed, [[spoiler: but he's too fragile to live in the world from sheer age, so he disintegrates from a slight breeze]]. Oh, the vicious irony.

* Radio/TheManBornToBeKing: Plutarch's tale of the cry announcing Pan's death is incorporated into Pilate's wife's [[DreamingOfThingsToCome premonitory dream]]:

* ''TableTopGame/GrimHollow'', a third-party ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' setting, has this as a core part of its backstory: most of the pantheon died fighting [[EldritchAbomination the Aether Kindred]], and the rest were driven insane and murdered each other in a war to see who should be the TopGod, leaving a literally-godless world behind. Their slots have been filled by various Arch Seraphs, who try to hold things together in their absence, and Arch Daemons, who exploit the power vacuum for their own gain.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', all but three members of the [[SpaceElves Eldar]] pantheon were killed with the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh. The GodEmperor of Mankind is a far more complicated case - despite his power, he fiercely denied his divinity, but after being mortally wounded during the Literature/HorusHeresy books, he was placed on the Golden Throne and kept in a psychically-active vegetative state, leaving his followers to proclaim him a deity. If ten millennia of worship has elevated him to proper godhood, this trope will probably soon apply due to the recently-discovered irreparable malfunctions in the Golden Throne.[[note]]A more optimistic, and therefore heretical, theory is that if the Emperor's mortal shell ever truly dies, he will finally be free to become the all-powerful god he is worshiped as.[[/note]]

* ''Videogame/SaltAndSanctuary'': it's heavily implied that [[spoiler: the Nameless God killed every other god in the world by imprisoning them, then exploiting GodsNeedPrayerBadly by answering every prayer for them until they starved. When you find [[BonusBoss The Three]], they are but clumsy undead, shadows of their former selves. No wonder the area they're found in is named The Crypt of Dead Gods.]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Blue Eyes}}'' This story hits you right off with a double whammy. In the prologue the goddess Renosana [[https://www.smackjeeves.com/discover/detail?titleNo=160546&articleNo=4 dies to rebuild her dying world]] , shortly after several of her [[https://www.smackjeeves.com/discover/detail?titleNo=160546&articleNo=10 demigod children kill their older sister to inherit her right to rule]].

** In the setting of ''WebComic/MyBestFriendMarneao'', the job of God is taken by an angel chosen by a [[CouncilOfAngels council of judges]], with a powerful angel as its right hand. 500 years before the events of the series, God died and was replaced by another angel, [[AmbitionIsEvil who went mad with power]], creating portals to gain control of the universe with dark matter, with this substance turning anyone it touches into a zombie-like abomination. He enslaved the [[{{Hell}} Inferni]] citizens to work on these portals. This [[GodIsEvil God's]] [[TheDragon right hand]] is Baraquiel, a [[HairTriggerTemper constantly angry]] BadBoss with a severe LackOfEmpathy, and the main BigBad.
* In ''WebComic/TowerOfGod'', the 43rd floor of the Tower is different from all the others because its near-omnipotent Administrator is dead. Coming to the floor on the Hell Train, the main characters see a hostile landscape that [[ThatsNoMoon turns out to be]] the Administrator's corpse.

* {{Discussed}} in volume 5 of ''LightNovel/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades''. Ancient mages in alliance with demihumans killed the planet's god fifty thousand years ago to free intelligent life from its interference. However, this had the unintended consequence of making the world look like easy pickings for every ''other'' planet's god, forcing the creation of the Gnostic Hunters, an order of elite battlemages, to battle the resulting {{Alien Invasion}}s.

** Taken UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', [[spoiler:where you not only kill basically all the remaining Gods, you also kill all the remaining demons and the deific incarnations of the very things the gods draw their power from that also act as near immutable laws of the universe]]!

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TrippingTheRift'' shows that after Chode takes a joyride on a spacejet, hitting something and resulting in the Big Bang. Afterwards, he and Gus end up in a with world same-sex relations and a severe lack of inhibtions. Chode replays the tape detailing the trip, then rewinds and slows it down, showing that during the joyride, Chode hit and killed God. Of course, he asks for some confirmation:

* The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/TrippingTheRift'' shows that after Chode takes a joyride on a spacejet, hitting something and resulting in the Big Bang. Afterwards, he and Gus end up in a world same-sex relations and a severe lack of inhibtions. Chode replays the tape detailing the trip, then rewinds and slows it down, showing that during the joyride, Chode hit and killed God. Of course, he asks for some confirmation:

* In ''Towing Jehovah'' by James Morrow, God's corpse is found in the Atlantic Ocean. The Vatican is ordered to bury it in an Arctic iceberg, while [[HollywoodAtheist pissed-off atheists]] want to destroy it, as even a dead God is proof that they were wrong all along. In the next book of the trilogy, God gets posthumously put on trial for crimes against humanity. Well, [[spoiler:[[NotQuiteDead Not Quite Posthumous]], as it turns out. At the end of the second, though, He gets KilledOffForReal]]. The third novel is about how a visible reminder of God's death -- a giant skull in geosynchronous orbit -- affects Western civilization.
* God (aka "The Authority") died in ''The Amber Spyglass''. In the Literature/HisDarkMaterials [[TheVerse verse]], God was simply the first and most powerful angel. By the time Lyra and Will show up, he is senile and tortured by [[WhoWantsToLiveForever his eternal life]]. They simply let him out of his protective enclosure and he is freed, [[spoiler: but he's too fragile to live in the world from sheer age, so he disintegrates from a slight breeze]]. Oh, the vicious irony.

* ''VideoGame/{{Anbennar}}'' has a variant of this. Whether gods are real is ambiguous, but the believers in the Regent Court, the dominant faith in Cannor (the closest Europe-analogue), certainly believe so, and hail Castellos as the ruler of the Regent Court since its inception. Then [[spoiler:the continent of Aelantir is (re-)discovered]], and uncomfortable parallels are found over its exploration, culminating in the widespread belief that Castellos is dead. The resulting period is aptly called the Age of Unraveling.

''He's dead, Jim.'' --Dr. [=McCoy=]

[[caption-width-right:283:Everyone relax. [[AmbiguousSyntax Newspaper headlines use no articles or non-participial verbs.]] It's not ''[[{{God}} the]]'' god; just ''[[OurGodsAreDifferent a]]'' god.]]

[[caption-width-right:283:Let's hope we never find out [[AlwaysABiggerFish who or what did him in]].]]

''He's dead, Jim.'' --Dr. McCoy

[[caption-width-right:283:Let's hope we never find out who or what did him in.]]

** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIVApocalypse'': [[spoiler: In one of the game's endings, you get to finally kill YHVH, starting off by not only completely denoucing him, but then removing him from his position of godhood, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard much as YHVH did to many of the other gods in the backstory]].]]
** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiV'': One of the promo vids goes right into this.

In the beginning, God created Heaven and Earth. Whether it took six days or six billion years for Him to complete the Creation, there's nobody to give the award plaque to. Why not, you ask? Because, somewhere along the way, God kicked the bucket. [[HurricaneOfEuphemisms Answered the last prayer]]. [[Film/{{Dogma}} Played the last game of skee-ball]]. [[OverlyLongGag Named the last prophet]]. [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus He is an]] ''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Ex-God]]!!''

Thankfully, [[MST3KMantra we don't need to dwell on grim philosophical intangibles to enjoy a story]] about the ''literal'' implications of mortality of the divine. This trope can occur in either a monotheistic or a polytheistic setting; of course, the ramifications of a God dying vary in severity, depending on if there are many Gods or just one, whether gods are truly necessary for their respective domains of influence to keep functioning, and whether the position can be filled in some way or another.

* ''Videogame/SaltAndSanctuary'' : it's heavily implied that [[spoiler: the Nameless God killed every other god in the world by imprisoning them, then exploiting GodsNeedPrayerBadly by answering every prayer for them until they starved. When you find [[BonusBoss The Three]], they are but clumsy undead, shadows of their former selves. No wonder the area they're found in is named The Crypt of Dead Gods.]]

* Contrary to popular belief, Friedrich Nietzsche is not the {{Trope Namer|s}}. Long before him Literature/TheBible had passages assuring its readers that God in fact, was not dead. Nietzsche's dialog had little to do with theology anyway. Rather, it was his view that when knowledge of the universe expanded, belief in God faded, with the faith people had for religious authority shifting to ideologies that were secular which he liked no better (such as German nationalism and antisemitism, precursors to the Nazi Party). His idea of the {{Ubermensch}} was meant to replace this, although Nietzsche fell ill and [[DiedDuringProduction died]] before he could go into much detail on that.

* ''SelfDemonstrating/{{Lobo}}: A Contract on Gawd'' has him graphically murdering "Gawd" and his brother Dave (the Devil {{Expy}}).