History Main / TopGod

* In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', Sigmar has ascended even further to become God of the Heavens and is worshipped as the top god by most mortals. It's actually InNameOnly, as his relationship with the elven gods is spotty at best, his truest ally in the pantheon, the dwarven god, is absent, and he's directly hostile toward the god of death.

** Akatosh, the [[DragonsAreDivine draconic]] God of Time, is the chief [[OurGodsAreDifferent Aedric]] deity of the [[SaintlyChurch Nine Divines Pantheon]] fitting closely with the "King of Gods" version of the trope. It is said that he was the first being to manifest out of the raw energy of the early universe. To the [[OurElvesAreBetter Altmer (High Elves)]], he is instead Auri-El, the golden eagle god from whom the Altmer (and really all races of Mer) descend.

*** While the standard (read: human) pantheon lacks a "Top god" (at least publicly; Ao and his boss work in the shadows and most mortals don't know about them), the racial pantheons of [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]], [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame dwarves]], [[OurElvesAreBetter elves]], [[OurGiantsAreBigger giants]], [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent goblins]], and [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]] tend to have a designated ruler/leader among them. As the setting holds to the DivineRanks trope, the top god in the racial pantheons tends to be the only "greater god" among them, the others being intermediate or lesser deities.

* In Myth/MesopotamianMythology Marduk, Enki/Ea, Enlil/El, and Ashur were all King of Gods in different places and times.

* In Myth/ClassicalMythology, Thunder god Zeus is the king of the gods, who succeeded his father Cronus, who succeeded his father Ouranous. Zeus claimed to be stronger than all of the other Olympian gods combined, and while he was never called on to prove it there was never any evidence given to the contrary either. However, no god could get around the decisions of Ananke, [[YouCantFightFate the personification of fate]] and god of gods.
** The pre-Bronze Age collapse Myceneans (who were regarded as something akin to Ancient Greece ''by'' the Ancient Greeks) appears to have worshipped a set of gods recognisable as early forms of many of the Classical gods, including more-or-less the same names[[note]]accounting for them using Linear B script instead of an alphabet[[/note]], but one difference is that ''Poseidon'' (in a form emphasising his earthshaker aspects) looks to have been the top god, in line with a more cthonic slant to thing.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': Zeus is top god on Olympus but, prior to the New 52, is not among the gods the Amazons typically worship though they try to be as respectful as possible to him--without allowing him to have his way with them--whenever he feels the need to personally butt into their business in order to placate him since they don't want him to destroy their lives and home. In ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' he was dethroned and replaced by Athena and in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2011'' he was temporarily replaced by Apollo.

* The Adi-Buddha or primordial Buddha is often presented in some interpretation as the highest of the Buddhas in Buddhism[[note]]Technically all Buddhas are equal but let's say is kind of Primus inter pares[[/note]]. Yes, not Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, he’s only one of many millions of Great Buddhas or Tatagatas who appear on the Universe to spread the Dharma (Buddhist doctrine) once every certain amount of millennia (the last one was Vipassa and the next one would be Maitreya), and there are other many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Bodhisattvas are basically the same than Buddhas except that they choose to keep manifesting on Earth to help people attain Enlightenment). Theories about what exactly the Adi-Buddha is goes from that he’s the first being in attain Enlightenment countless eons ago or that he is actually similar to the Judeo-Christian concept of God and exists since before the Universe and has always being a Buddha (yet still not the creator of the Universe as that would be anathema with Buddhism)[[note]]The Universe or Samsara is considered a place of sorrow and never-ending cycle of suffering in Buddhism, thus having someone creating it would be equally to having someone not only evil but sadistic, similar to what Gnostics believe about the Demiurge. Also, in Buddhism what we perceived as the Universe is just an illusion created by our minds, the Universe is the collective dream of the beings inhabiting it, thus having someone creating the universe will mean that it has objective reality and thus liberation from the “illusion of Samsara” is meaningless.[[/note]]. Nevertheless the belief on the Adi-Buddha is what allows Buddhism to be legal in Malaysia as the Constitution forbids atheism and all religions are obligated to believe in God.
* Gnostics in general believed that the physical Universe was created by an entity named the Demiurge (generally associated with Yaweh), whether he’s evil or just dumb and misguided depends on the sect, but almost all agree that there is a much more superior God above him which can’t be grasp by human minds, similar to the concept of Brahman in Hinduism and Ain Soft in Jewish Kabalah, from whom the monads (human spirits that the Demiurge use to create humans) come from and want to return. Even more some Gnostic cosmologies even place other gods over the Demiurge including in some cases Sophia (daughter or the God of Light and mother of the Demiurge) and/or a dozen of superior pairs of gods/goddesses. In addition, the Demiurge itself has also minor gods under his service (the Archons) who are often worshiped as gods by some cultures thus he’s also (at least in the material plane) king of other gods. These gnostic believes also influenced such as the Manicheans, Cathars, Rosicrucians and some modern Esotericist groups (like the Theosophical Society, also influenced by Hinduism, that mentions the Unmanifest Absolute) and several modern Luciferian groups that think Lucifer is the actual supreme god over Yaweh.

* {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} is GodEmperor of [[{{Dystopia}} Apokolips]] and thus King of that world's ComicBook/NewGods. On Apokolips the state ReligionOfEvil goes so far as to cultivate worship of Darkseid as [[GodIsEvil God himself]]. Darkseid is also sometimes known as ''The God the Devil Prays To'' (although this isn't actually true, as the DC universe ComicBook/{{Lucifer}} is ''far'' more powerful than even Darkseid, and actually makes a point that he doesn't care for worship one way or the other.)

** Blind Io is generally seen as the chief of the gods, although it's unclear what, if any, power this position gives him. In ''Discworld/SmallGods'', he clearly assumes not even another god would dare to challenge him, but a god [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly fueled by a temporary surge of especially powerful belief]] is actually able to physically overpower him, perhaps partly due to the RefugeInAudacity of even trying. (It's also mentioned that hardly anyone believes in lightning gods these days.) On the other hand, when Offler the Crocodile God hurls a BoltOfDivineRetribution at Io's High Priest in ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', it gets deflected and goes off at a right angle.
** There is also, according to the philosopher Koomi of Smale in ''Discworld/SmallGods'', a Supreme Being. Little is known about him except that he isn't the same as the Creator, because you only need to look around at the universe to realize the Creator can't have been very Supreme at all. Therefore directing prayers at the Supreme Being will only attract his attention and lead to trouble.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the pagan gods are more or less on the level of most of the monsters that the humans fight, likely as a result of GodsNeedPrayerBadly. In contrast, the angels are largely untouchable, with few exceptions, and the most effective way of killing an angel thus far in the story has been to [[spoiler:persuade another angel in one way or another to do so, with Zachariah as the sole exception]]. Then consider that even in their own belief system they aren't the top of the food chain, and we have this trope. The abrahamic God, or as he prefers, "[[spoiler:Chuck]]", is one of a handful of primordial entities that precede all creation, which is inextricably tied to Him. These include TheAntiGod, TheGrimReaper, and the embodiment of PrimordialChaos. In fact, [[''even the pagan deities'' are {{cosmic plaything}}s of the Almighty, as he created them to be the boogeymen whenever he wanted to deflect "bad press".]]

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the pagan gods are more or less on the level of most of the monsters that the humans fight, likely as a result of GodsNeedPrayerBadly. In contrast, the angels are largely untouchable, with few exceptions, and the most effective way of killing an angel thus far in the story has been to [[spoiler:persuade another angel in one way or another to do so, with Zachariah as the sole exception]]. Then consider that even in their own belief system they aren't the top of the food chain, and we have this trope. The abrahamic God, or as he prefers, "[[spoiler:Chuck]]", is one of a handful of primordial entities that precede all creation, which is inextricably tied to Him. These include TheAntiGod, TheGrimReaper, and the embodiment of PrimordialChaos. In fact, ''even the pagan deities'' are {{cosmic plaything}}s of the Almighty.

* {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} is GodEmperor of [[{{Dystopia}} Apokolips]] and thus King of that world's ComicBook/NewGods. On Apokolips the state ReligionOfEvil goes so far as to cultivate worship of Darkseid as [[GodIsEvil God himself]].
** Darkseid is also sometimes known as ''The God the Devil Prays To''

** The world of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has multiple religious systems. Eorzeans worship the Twelve, Domans worship Kami which are said to exist in all things, and it is mentioned that there are those who only worship a single deity, a notion that seems odd to the speaker. However, there is one god, or rather goddess, that stands above them all. Haedelyn is the creator of the world, and very possibly the world itself. She is the goddess of light and the one who gives all the Warriors of Light their mission. Despite this, nobody actually actively worships her. It's possible the world at large are unaware of her existence, but even the Scions of the Seventh Dawn who have multiple members who have been given powers by her worship the Twelve instead.

** While Mystra doesn't serve this position, she is the most powerful of the gods. Even with her power spread among her divine servant, her mortal servant and a number of demigod children and Chosen, she was still far beyond any other god in the pantheon. Her domain? ''Magic''.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the pagan gods are more or less on the level of most of the monsters that the humans fight, likely as a result of GodsNeedPrayerBadly. In contrast, the angels are largely untouchable, with few exceptions, and the most effective way of killing an angel thus far in the story has been to [[spoiler:persuade another angel in one way or another to do so, with Zachariah as the sole exception]]. Then consider that even in their own belief system they aren't the top of the food chain, and we have this trope. The abrahamic God, or as he prefers, "[[spoiler:Chuck]]", is one of a handful of primordial entities that precede all creation, which is inextricably tied to Him. These include TheAntiGod, TheGrimReaper, and the embodiment of PrimordialChaos.

* In the ''Literature/CthulhuMythos'', Azathoth is the most powerful being in the canon, bar none. Despite lacking autonomy, Azathoth's very dreams are powerful enough to shape reality as we know it.

* The Adi-Buddha or primordial Buddha is often presented in some interpretation as the highest of the Buddhas in Buddhism[[note]]Technically all Buddhas are equal but let's say is kind of Primus inter pares[[/note]]. Yes, not Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, he’s only one of many millions of Great Buddhas or Tatagatas who appear on the Universe to spread the Dharma (Buddhist doctrine) once every certain amount of millennia (the last one was Vipassa and the next one would be Maitreya), and there are other many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Bodhisattvas are basically the same than Buddhas except that they choose to keep manifesting on Earth to help people attain Enlightenment). Theories about what exactly the Adi-Buddha is goes from that he’s the first being in attain Enlightenment countless eons ago or that he is actually similar to the Judeo-Christian concept of God and exists since before the Universe and has always being a Buddha (yet still not the creator of the Universe as that would be anathema with Buddhism)[[note]]The Universe or Samsara is considered a place of sorrow and never-ending cycle of suffering in Buddhism, thus having someone creating it would be equally to having someone not only evil but sadistic, similar to what Gnostics believe about the Demiurge. Also, in Buddhism what we perceived as the Universe is just an illusion created by our minds, the Universe is the collective dream of the being inhabiting it, thus having someone creating the universe will mean that it has objective reality and thus liberation from the “illusion of Samsara” is meaningless.[[/note]]. Nevertheless the belief on the Adi-Buddha is what allows Buddhism to be legal in Malaysia as the Constitutions forbids atheism and all religions are obligated to believe in one god.

* The Adi-Buddha or primordial Buddha is often presented in some interpretation as the highest of the Buddhas in Buddhism[[note]]Technically all Buddhas are equal but let's say is kind of Primus inter pares[[/note]]. Yes, not Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, he’s only one of many millions of Great Buddhas or Tatagatas who appear on the Universe to spread the Dharma (Buddhist doctrine) once every certain amount of millennia (the last one was Vipassa and the next one would be Maitreya), and there are other many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Bodhisattvas are basically the same than Buddhas except that they choose to keep manifesting on Earth to help people attain Enlightenment). Theories about what exactly the Adi-Buddha is goes from that he’s the first being in attain Enlightenment countless eons ago or that he is actually similar to the Judeo-Christian concept of God and exists since before the Universe and has always being a Buddha (yet still not the creator of the Universe as that would be anathema with Buddhism). Nevertheless the belief on the Adi-Buddha is want allows Buddhism to be legal in Malaysia as the Constitutions forbids atheism and all religions are obligated to believe in one god.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the pagan gods are more or less on the level of most of the monsters that the humans fight, likely as a result of GodsNeedPrayerBadly. In contrast, the angels are largely untouchable, with few exceptions, and the most effective way of killing an angel thus far in the story has been to [[spoiler:persuade another angel in one way or another to do so, with Zachariah as the sole exception]]. Then consider that even in their own belief system they aren't the top of the food chain, and we have this trope. The Abrahamic God seems to be part of a duality alongside {{Death}}, who is stated to actually be capable of killing Him (although Death is in no rush to do so, and plans to do it so far into the future that it might as well never happen as far as humanity is concerned).