Asmodeus

Asmodeus as depicted in the Dictionnaire Infernal.

Give me a thrust,

And show me some lust.

From the groin to the bust,

In desire we trust,

In the House of Asmodeus!

— "House of Asmodeus", Helluva Boss episode "OZZIE'S"

Asmodeus: The Prince of Demons, King of Jinn and the Demonic Personification of Lust.

Having made his debut in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, Asmodeus — also called "Ashmedai", "Asmodai", "Asmodevs", "Ashema Deva" or "Amias" depending on the translation — is a prominent figure in Abrahamic folklore.

Alongside Lucifer, Satan and Beelzebub, Asmodeus is seen in demonology as a representation of one of the Seven Deadly Sins. In this case, he embodies the sin of Lust, making him the diametric opposite of Archangel Gabriel, the Angel of Chastity. Because of this, the form he takes is highly sexual in nature, appearing as either a person that appeals to one's carnal desires, or as a mishmash of things symbolically related to sex, like roosters or bulls. He is sometimes presented with an entourage of Succubi and Incubi, that is if he isn't one himself, and works to spread wickedness and damnation through the sins of the flesh.

In other circumstances, he is portrayed as just another Big Red Devil, either acting under Satan or as a stand-in for His Infernal Majesty in the context of the story.

Sub-Trope of Demon Lords and Archdevils. Related to Baphomet and the Seven Deadly Sins. Contrast Archangel Raphael, his Arch-Enemy in the source material. Not to be confused with (though not mutually exclusive to) Rock Me, Asmodeus!.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• My Balls: Asmodai is one of many demons sent to free the Demon Queen Emmaniel. She takes the form of a human-esque woman with ram-like features and is always accompanied by Beelzebub.
• O-Parts Hunter: Asmodeus appears in the final arc as one of the two demons that reside in Zect Crescent, along with Belphegor. It's the 5th demon of the Reverse Kabbalah and the demon of Cruelty. It looks like a monstrous three-headed being and has powers over darkness.
• Seven Mortal Sins: Asmodeus is the Lord of Lust and one of the rulers of Hell. Like the rest of the lords, she is portrayed as a hyper-sexualized female version of her namesake and befitting her title, she is obsessed with sex. She is the first Lord that Lucifer defeats, using her own sexual attraction to her against her.
• Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun has the Asmodeus family, including Alice and his mother Amaryllis, both of whom are strongly associated with lustful characteristics and are Hot as Hell. Alice himself is a downplayed example, being a Chick Magnet who displays a heavily implied case of Single-Target Sexuality towards the male MC Iruma, while Amaryllis goes all in as the societal representative for the entire family, being a Shameless Fanservice Girl who flirts with just about everybody, particularly the school-age Iruma, and outright possesses the Red Baron title "Lord of Seduction".

Comic Books

• Shazam!: Asmodeus is a recurring enemy of Shazam, having been the child of the demon Naamah and the Phantom Stranger.
• Irredeemable has the master supervillain Modeus, who was the Plutonian's Arch-Enemy before the latter's fall from grace. Fittingly for someone who uses as a villain handle a diminutive of the name of the demon overseeing the Sin of Lust, he's actually in love with the Plutonian, in a twisted, yandere way.
• Marvel Universe: Asmodeus is one of many devils that exist, which are either Fallen Angels or extradimensional manifestations of pure evil. Asmodeus allegedly sired many children with Lilith and has since worked as either a minion or ally to Mephisto.

Films — Animation

• Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost has the thirteenth and final ghost from the Chest of Demons be revealed Asmodeus, formerly Asomad van Ghoul, ancestor of Vincent van Ghoul.

Films — Live-Action

• Equinox has a Park Ranger named Asmodeus; turns out he's the real deal, a summoned demon lord, and the actual Big Bad. What a surprise!
• Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin: Asmodeus is the Big Bad, the demon who is bound to the Beliers as part of their Family Curse. The only way to prevent him from wreaking havoc is by sealing him into a woman, who then must pass him to her daughter, and so on and so forth. Because Margot is part of this cursed lineage, the Beliers trick her into returning to their village so she can continue the tradition. However, her boyfriend Chris bails her out before the ritual is completed, allowing Asmodeus to roam free unrestrained and reenact the curse on the entire village. He then possesses Samuel Belier, who sets about to doom the entire world, as it's implied that he cannot be restrained in the body of a man.
• The Pope's Exorcist: Asmodeus is the demon behind the events, and here was the one behind The Spanish Inquisition.

Literature

• The Lunacy Of Duke Venomania: Duke Sateriasis Venomania makes a deal with the Demon of Lust in exchange for the power to make any woman fall in love with him and a beautiful face. The demon itself get no name in the story, but the song's original title can be translated as "Dancing with Asmodeus".
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Asmodeus is the name of one of the Sin Series Ultimate Skills, specifically [Asmodeus, Lord of Lust], which is currently owned by Luminous Valentine. It is the evolved form of the Unique Skill [Lust], which provided the user with various abilities related to life-death manipulation such as Touch of Death, Life Drain, Healing Hands, the ability to impart "love energy" that restores youth and extends lifespans, and limited Back from the Dead both for others and yourself, and ramps all these powers up to the realm of a Reality Warper. Notably, the current user evolved Lust into Asmodeus upon witnessing the apparent "death" of a beloved (very heavily implied romantically) female subordinate with herself unable to do anything to save her. The subordinate was actually alright...after a fashion.
• A Batalha do Apocalipse: Asmodeus, the Forgotten Prince, is one of the Dukes of Hell and commands Jahannam, the First Circle. He's known for being a lover of good food and arts. In this version, he has no reference to his personification of lust.
• Children of the Lamp: While Asmodeus never officially appears, he is mentioned as having existed as either a Fallen Angel or demon who was jealous of King Solomon's power, having stolen his ring (which was the alleged source of his divine wisdom) and impersonated him, only to be chased out by Solomon's many wives. He was also supposedly searching for Solomon's Grimoire, a book that Solomon wrote that had the power to control angels, djinn, and humans.
• Incarnations of Immortality: Asmodeus first appears in the sixth book as a former Incarnation of Evil who now works for Lucifer, the current officeholder, managing the day-to-day operations of Hell. He becomes a minor antagonist when Satan takes the office away from Lucifer since he initially remains loyal to the old regime.
• The Otherworld: Asmoedus goes by the alias of Asmondai here. Asmondai is a powerful demon lord and one of the rulers of hell. He is also the father to protagonist Adam Vasic. His main power is control over fire which is passed down to his offspring.
• Redwall: A large adder snake named Asmodeus is the secondary antagonist of the first book. He's a widely feared predator, and it's implied that he may have Serial Killer tendencies.
• The Shadowhunter Chronicles: Asmodeus is a fallen angel and one of the nine Princes of Hell. He rules the demonic dimension Edom alongside Lilith. He is also Magnus Bane's father.
• When the Angels Left the Old Country: Little Ashmedai, like all his hundreds of brothers, is named after their father Ashmedai the demon lord.

Live-Action TV

• Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Asmodeus is one of the three Plague Kings that make up the ruling class of Hell alongside Beelzebub and Purson.
• Charmed (1998): Asmodeus is one of the demonic Triad. The Triad are a trio of upper-level demons who rule the underworld under orders from the Source of All Evil.
• Good Omens (2019): In one scene, after the demon Crowley mentions he had changed his name (he was previously "Crawly" as the Serpent in the Garden of Eden), his angelic counterpart, Aziraphale asks him, "So what is it now? Mephistopheles? Asmodeus?" The reference to Asmodeus is appropriate since the scene takes place in first century C.E. Judea.
• Supernatural: Asmodeus was originally a Prince of Hell created by Lucifer alongside siblings Azazel, Dagon, and Ramiel. After Crowley's death, Asmodeus took over as king of Hell before he's killed in "Bring 'em Back Alive" by the archangel Gabriel.

Myth and Religion

• Book of Tobit — a book included in Catholic and Orthodox canons of The Bible (but not Jewish or Protestant canons) — is the Trope Namer and Trope Maker. Asmodeus kills the spouses of Sarah on their wedding nights, and he is defeated by the book's heroes Tobias and the Archangel Raphael.
• The Talmud: A figure named Ashmedai is present, although he is much less malevolent here.
• The Judeo-Christian Asmodeus is inspired by the Zoroastrian figure of Aeshma, the daeva (demon) of fury and wrath, and a messenger of Angra Mainyu.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons: Asmodeus is portrayed as the ruler of the Nine Hells, portrayed as a Fallen Angel, an old god or some sort of Ancient Evil entity Depending on the Writer.
• In Nomine: Asmodeus, the Demon Prince of the Game, is the overseer of Hell's secret police, and charges his followers with hunting down and destroying any demons whose actions would interfere with Hell's plans or who could defect to the side of the angels. Physically, he resembles a tall man with red skin, pointed ears, and horns.
• Pathfinder: Asmodeus is the ruler of Hell, and the only devil to be a true god. Instead of Lust, he is associated with Pride, as well as slavery, tyranny, and contracts.
• Rifts and the Palladium megaverse as a whole has Modeus, the stronger partner of a Big Bad Duumvirate with his fellow demon lord Mictla, as ultimate ruler of the demon hordes of the hell dimension of Hades.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: "Darklord Asmodeus" is an eight-level DARK-Attribute, Fairy-type monster from the "Darklord" Archetype.

Video Games

• Counter Side has the Demon Lord Asmodeus whose one of the strongest contenders for the Qliphoth Game. She also goes by the name of Rosaria le Friede.
• Diablo: Azmodan is one of the seven demon lords that rule over hell. He is known as the Lord of Sin, embodying all of the Seven Deadly Sins at once, and is The Hedonist who believes that living creatures can only know themselves by indulging in sin to its most disgusting excesses. He's also known as the General of Hell's Armies and is believed to be one of the most capable strategists and batlefield commanders in Creation, honing his skills through millenia of conflict with the angels... though when the player faces him and his armies in Diablo III, he doesn't live up to that reputation.
• Enigmatis: Asmodai serves as the Greater-Scope Villain. He once led his Reapers to ravage the world, but is now a Sealed Evil in a Can kept sealed by the Archangel Raphael.
• Helltaker: Modeus, whose name references Asmodeus, is a lustful yet naive demon encountered by the eponymous Helltaker.
• Persona 5: The first Palace Ruler, Suguru Kamoshida, is a Creepy Gym Coach that sexually assaults his students and is all but stated to have raped Shiho because his primary lust object, Ann, wouldn't respond to his Sexual Extortion. Fittingly, his Shadow is named Asmodeus.
• Shin Megami Tensei IV: Asmodeus plays a major role as the Arc Villain of an important story mission, where Flynn, Walter, Isabeau, and Jonathan must rescue 3 individuals for Gabby, the assistant of Abbott Hugo. Gabby turns out to be the Archangel Gabriel, and the individuals Asmodeus was holding prisoner were Raphael, Michael, and Uriel.
• Shadow Hearts: Covenant: Asmodeus is the demon with whom Rasputin, an actual warlock with dark powers on this setting, made a soul pact. After barely surviving Yuri's attack that destroyed his airship, Rasputin decided to fulfill the soul pact with the demon, allowing him to possess the mad monk completely, crushing his soul in the process, and becoming Asmodeus-Rasputin. Rasputin, who originally wanted to merge Europe with the Russian Empire to avoid another large scale conflict like the first World War, now is just happy to sit on his throne and watch mankind slaughter each other endlessly for his own amusement, thus making this a case where "lust" is interpreted as "bloodlust".

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: Asmodeus is the ruler of the Lust Ring of Hell, a place portrayed as one massive Red Light District. He is described as the embodiment of Lust and expresses a strong distaste for genuine romantic love (in public; in private, he's got one of the single most loving relationships in the show with a lowly imp entertainer). He also states that he's against Love Potions, believing that Lust shouldn't be forced and that it should be earned and enjoyed by all parties involved; beyond that he encourages people to indulge in whatever sick kinks they can come up with. As one of the demons representing the Seven Deadly Sins he's just below Lucifer himself and his family on Hell's hierarchy in both status and power.

Webcomics

• Darken uses the Dungeons & Dragons cosmology, including Asmodeus as the godlike Lord of the Nine Hells, ruling over the lesser Archdevils by threat of force. He appears in person in the final chapter to pass judgement on a conflict between two Archdevils that the main characters have been drawn into.

Western Animation

• Disenchantment: Asmodeus is portrayed as a Big Red Devil who rules over Hell.
• Star Trek: The Animated Series: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" has the bridge crew of the Enterprise held in stocks in a duplicate setting of Salem, Massachusetts during the witch trials. The chief prosecutor is Asmodeus, who remembers how his people were vilified by greedy and guileful Earthlings. He appears in human form wearing the pilgrim-like garb appropriate for the setting.

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Oh oh oh Asmodeus...