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"I am called a villain, but mine is a doctrine reflected in the unspoken truths behind all other philosophies. Recognize that truth, my child: Strife is the single element most essential to meaning and existence. Without conflict, without struggle, all of creation might as well be so many unmoving, unfeeling stones. Without me to hate, who would have cause to call themselves holy or just?"
In a polytheistic religion each God and Goddess serves a specific role and fills a certain niche: love, life, war, death, and everything in between; be it Aardvarks or Zebras. One such incredibly vital purpose, believe it or not, is Evil.
Please allow us to play as (uncomfortably) literal Devil's Advocates. On the one hand, the Balance Between Good and Evil must per force have Evil to balance Good, lest the latter become an intolerant conformist theocracy. Likewise, it also serves as a definition of what not to do for worshipers of all the Good and Neutral gods. Most importantly for purposes of this Wiki, it also serves as an excellent plot enabler and antagonist for the heroes and forces of good to fight against.
Being the absolute apex of the Sliding Scale of Villain Threat, The Chosen One can spend an entire series fighting their way up from the Religion of Evil, the Black Pope, its Dark Messiah, and then fight the God Of Evil itself... or at least enable a good god that was a Sealed Good in a Can to do so.
This God(dess) Of Evil can take any shape or form... not just as a master tempter and deceiver, but because evil includes a heady and large portfolio. As Characters they can have as varying a range of personalities as any normal villains.
Here are a few popular variants: Standard Gods Of Evil can take after Satan, being rebels from The Light and tempting peasant and king alike. Kind of a non-denominational counterpart of Crystal Dragon Jesus. However, most aren't futile rebels; they are very real and threats often motivated by goals other than rebellion for its own sake. The Grim Reaper is at times represented as a God Of Evil, wanting nothing but the death of every living thing, and the protagonist in particular. War too may be shown this way, desiring to bring about a world where Asskicking Equals Authority and the weak are killed just for being weak... which does raise the question of whether or not it's ironic for heroes to vanquish them by fighting. If they have any philosophy, ethos, or commandment, it's usually that Might Makes Right, that ethics and morality are mere shackles for The Fettered masses of Muggles, and that Evil represents the path to power.
Not surprisingly, they tend to be cruel, dominating and treacherous. If there is more than one God Of Evil in a setting, they usually engage in Eviler than Thou, betraying each other before any lasting headway against the forces of good can be made. Their metaphysical home, where worshipers and non-worshiping sinners end up, is usually akin to Hell. Given the above, why would anyone worship them? Well, they usually offer worshipers power in life via a Deal with the Devil, fine print and afterlife be damned (literally). Plus, just because they'll go to hell if/when they die, doesn't mean they'll be tortured souls... they might become the torturers. Provided they don't fail their dark lord first, that is. And of course, most gods of evil are worshipped out of fear of what would happen if they stopped worshipping. Is it any surprise their pawns in the Divine Chessboard are usually unwitting or unwilling?
Their followers include Cults, the Religion of Evil and Path of Inspiration. Necromancers and Infernalists usually get their powers by worshipping them. Expect them to forge many an Artifact of Doom as a source/repository of their power. When they or their agents are actively recruiting, expect them to be The Corrupter. Sometimes the God Of Evil is also literally Evil. Likely candidate for Ultimate Evil and As Long as There Is Evil. A theocracy to one of these is probably The Empire. May be creator of an Always Chaotic Evil race. May have a court of Demon Lords and Archdevils, or if they exist at all these may be upstarts or otherwise in opposition. Gods of evil may have the Legions Of Hell at their command.
Contrast Eldritch Abomination, which, as horrifying as it may be and act, is completely amoral and not malicious. Compare God Is Evil and Everybody Hates Hades. If a God of Evil exists in a setting where the Big Bad who actually drives the plot is a mortal, they'll be the Bigger Bad. May overlap or also be a Mad God.
The Good Counterpart to this trope is the God of Good.
To avoid Flame Bait and Edit Wars, note that this trope isn't about gods who simply are evil, it's about gods of evil. Jerk Ass Gods that are petty, vain, or prone to Disproportionate Retribution do not qualify. If the god in question has, on at least one occasion, shown mercy or helped a mortal for ostensibly benevolent and non- Evil Plan related reasons, they don't qualify.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Hades in Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter acts like a stereotypical God Of Evil. He harbors a vaguely articulated hatred for the living and wants to end all life on Earth in "the Great Eclipse", and he wishes that his kingdom of the dead expand with their inclusion. Either way, he and most of his lackeys manifest some of the most potent evil auras of any enemies ever faced. Even Poseidon escapes this treatment, being a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- Chaos in Sailor Moon.
- Kardis in Record of Lodoss War.
- Jashin of the Naruto universe, literally means "Evil God". He/she/it is mostly an excuse god to allow his follower Hidan to practice his Religion of Evil Blood Magic (read: fight and kill people), and it's quite possible (despite living in a world full of magic and monsters) that Jashin doesn't exist at all.
- Although the fact that the experiments of Jashin's other followers made him impressively immortal, to the extent that he was one half of the purportedly unkillable 'zombie twins' and apparently hasn't actually died yet after spending several months as a severed head down a deep hole, and his rituals give him the ability to make someone share his injuries indicates there's something to Jashinism. This doesn't require a god as such but it does require something.
- Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo in Slayers , along with three other Dark Lords that exist in the verse.
- Dark Star Dugradigdu in Lost Universe.
- The Idea of Evil and the God Hand from Berserk. The former is intresting in that is was made from our need for there to be a God of Evil.
- The Emperor of Darkness from the Mazinger Z saga.
Comicbooks
- For DC Comics:
- Darkseid, the Big Bad of Jack Kirby's New Gods, has been called the God of Evil by many people in the DCU. And in Final Crisis he comes close to being a full blown Eldritch Abomination — his very existence is causing reality to die. Just to bring this point home, here's what Boss Dark Side says: "There was a war in Heaven. I won." He is the poster boy for Dystopia Justifies The Means- his goal is to turn the entire universe into an even more hellish version of Apokolips, a world of perpetual enslavement and burning fire pits where the only purpose you are told to have is to endlessly worship Darkseid.
- Ares, God of War, is the Arch-Enemy of Wonder Woman.
- Trigon the Terrible isn't just referred to as a god, but the Literal Manifestation of ALL Evil that has ever existed. Think Dormmamu, but in the DC Universe instead of Marvel.
- And for the Marvel Universe:
- The Elder Gods, powerful magical entities native to Earth, born billions of years ago shortly after the planet was created. While they did not originate as evil, they began cannibalizing each other once they found out that they could gain more power that way, eventually degenerating into extremely powerful demons. Only Gaea and Oshtur did not join their brethren; the latter fled to another dimension and eventually became one of the Vishanti, while the former birthed the entity Atum which proceeded to hunt down and eat the Elder Gods themselves. A handful escaped into other dimensions and Gaea and Atum set up numerous magical barriers to hamper their returning, while Atum degenerated himself into the evil creature the Demogorge due to the demons he consumed; he expelled this from himself and it became The Legions of Hell- demons such as Thog and Mephisto-, while he retired to live in the sun. The Elder Gods include:
- Set, a multi-headed serpent who was the first to cannibalise, and the demon partly responsible for the death of the dinosaurs; he managed to bypass the barriers and started feasting on the life energies of the dinos, but after learning Gaea planned on making them extinct and starting over with mammals, used mind control to send them to kill all mammilian creatures. Gaea responded by waking up Atum and the battle between the two, apart from costing Set his original head (two more kept replacing them when Atum cut them off, until he had seven), ended up causing the extinction event itself and left Set so weakened he had to flee again. He later returned as a major recurring villain during Marvels take on Conan the Barbarian.
- Chthon, the writer of the Darkhold, an evil magical tome responsible for, amongst other things, the creation of vampires; the god of Chaos, and more specifically chaos magic. He is the source of the power of the Scarlet Witch, with the long term plan of using her as a host, and is currently sealed away in Mount Wundagore (or at least, part of him is), which became the magical (and irradiated) source of clay for Fantastic Four villain the Puppet Master. He is basically the Evil Sorceror of the group.
- Aside from the Elders, the regular gods are divided into pantheons, each of which has their own bad guys:
- Loki, foster brother and Arch-Enemy of The Mighty Thor, is the God of Mischief and Evil in Marvel's Norse pantheon, a powerful magician and Manipulative Bastard extraordinaire who seeks to conquer Asgard and kill his heroic sibling. He is technically not a god, but a very small, god-sized Frost Giant, adopted by Odin as a babe as penance after Odin slew his father in battle. Loki bares no real grudge for that (in the comics, anyway), but instead grew resentful because he thought Thor was treated as the favourite, especially by other Asgardians. As boys, he often tricked Thor into getting into dangerous situations hoping he would die in the process, and as full grown gods got him banished from Asgard on several occasions. Accidentally caused the formation of The Avengers when he pitted Thor against the Incredible Hulk, and remains one of their most persistent and powerful adversaries, often by giving common thugs superpowers and sending them into battle against them, or using his magic to cause all sorts of trouble. He is the father of various evil creatures as well as Hela, Goddess of Death, who borders on an Everybody Hates Hades evil god herself.
- Amatsu-Mikaboshi, for the Shinto pantheon, a demonic creature and a malevolent Death God (not their only death god, just their bad one) that serves as the God of Evil for those gods, and their most primal enemy. He/ she/ it is the Anthropomorphic Personification of the primordial darkness that once ruled the Earth after the defeat of the Elder Gods; prior to that, it once ruled the Marvel Universe and prior to that, it ruled the universe preceding that universe, and originally was the nothingness before existence. Over time it had to constantly descend as it dealt with the various new creatures and gods that peppered the planet It regained some of its old stature by slaughtering, eating and enslaving hundreds of gods and demons (notably Zeus and Nightmare) to become the Chaos King, where it (re)joined the cosmic pantheon alongside Eternity and Death, seeking to destroy the multiverse and return it all to primordial darkness. At full power it just falls short of being some kind of Anti-God, though it might be more accurate to say it is anti-Creation, preferring to exist in and rule over a chaotic nothingness.
- Set, not the Elder God but the God of Evil for the Heliopolitan (ie. Egyptian) pantheon, based on the mythological Set but, in-universe, taking the name of the Elder God for its badass connotations. Like Set and Loki, he uses magic and soul-stealing to enhance his powers, to the point he now rivals Odin, arguably the most powerful god in any pantheon.
- Everybody Hates Hades and, as Pluto, this Death God of the Greek pantheon serves as their resident bad guy, and enemy of Marvels' Hercules. In DC he is portrayed more faithfully as a more neutral figure. Aside from him there is Ares, God of War, though in recent years Ares has become an Ascended Extra and morphed into an Anti-Hero, albeit a very dark and violent one.
- Eldritch Abominations like Shuma-Gorath and Dormammu are worshiped as gods in the dimensions they rule over, and numerous others, and wield nigh-omnipotent power arguably above every other god previously mentioned, at least at full strength and in their own worlds. In the case of Dormammu at least, worship also serves as a source of power, though Shuma-Gorath used to command regular human sacrifices as well. Both seek to conquer the Earth- Shuma-Gorath has actually already done this, twice, in ancient times- and can be guaranteed to torture and kill everything on the planet/ universe if they ever succeed. Hell Lords like Mephisto wield godlike power within their dimensions, but are not treated as gods per say, or seemingly worshiped in any way except by the odd gullible mortal.
- Some other Marvel supervillains are sometimes worshiped as gods themselves, most notably Apocalypse who was, as it happens, also mistaken for Set and various other gods throughout his immortal lifespan, and would use this influence to force civilizations to fight to the death until only the strongest survived. In the Legacy novel series Magneto was worshiped as God on Genosha, while Doctor Doom has successfully stolen godlike power numerous times from cosmic beings, though on such occasions he prefers to be actively worshiped as a King or Emperor rather than a deity. Selene, another X-Men villain, is a 17,000 year old vampiric mutant sorceress named after and sometimes worshiped as a goddess, the attainment of which is her ultimate goal. The Green Goblin once thought he was one of these, but he was actually just driven mad(der) by an Artifact of Doom.
- The Big Bad of Fear Itself the Serpent is the Asgardian god of fear and Odin's brother Cul Borson.
- Anathos from Les Légendaires is basically this trope incarnated; he was part of the Gods who created Alysia, but turned against them because he wanted to become a "Mastergod", destroyed the original Alysia, was sealed away by them after his defeat and came back in order to attempt The End of the World as We Know It. He even stated to have created this universe's version of Hell.
Gamebooks
Literature
Live-Action TV
Mythology & Religion
- Some more dualistic forms of Zoroastrianism claim Angra Mainyu (better known by the Persian name Ahriman) as the Evil Counterpart to Ahura Mazda. In other words, he is essentially the anti-God, or God of evil.
- Set counts to a degree (especially in later versions of Egyptian Mythology), though contrary to popular opinion he wasn't a snake god, and was actually a good guy in earlier myths. A better Egyptian example would be Apep (Apophis), the monstrous serpent that tried to eat Ra every night and wasn't so much worshipped as worshipped against, straddling the line between God of Evil and Eldritch Abomination.
- Set would be considered more Chaotic Neutral, whereas Apep was fairly Chaotic Evil. Set was one of the gods that helped Ra in the fight against Apep every night.
- Actually, given the time spane and the many cult centers, this stuff not only changed but had different truths in different places at the same time. Fun. Set lost ground as the Horus cult gained it in later centuries, and became more identified with foreigners and the desert, even becoming identified sometimes with the chaos-serpent he had used to fight. By the time Petrarch recorded the most familiar-to-moderns versions of the Egyptian gods, he was bidding fair for this role.
- He really was never a serpent, particularly, though. His normal representation was was-headed; no one ever remembers this because the was was, as best we can tell, a made-up chimaera thing that represented stuff like wisdom.
- Satan is often portrayed this way in Western media, as a direct Evil Counterpart of God. This is actually in contrast to most Christian doctrine, where Satan is recognized as being a far lesser power than God and has no chance of succeeding in his cosmic takeover bid. As a rule of thumb, the more strict and fundamentalist your sect is, the more powerful Satan tends to be in your worldview. Being inferior to God does not stop him being a God of Evil however; he still possesses godlike power ("god" in the looser sense, that is). When tempting Jesus he showed and offered him the entire world if he would but bow at his feet, claiming that everything on Earth had been given to him. Assuming of course that he was even vaguely truthful.
- In Islam, he is a Jerkass for no reason, so this makes him definitely a God of Evil in that religion.
- He's as he is because of his pride before God, and the fall from grace that he suffered as a result of that. He spends his days taking that frustration out by tempting others to sin. Nor is he a God of Evil, because he cant do anything by himself, and all he accomplishes is God's plan anyway.
- In a way, Satan is a double subversion. While angels are nothing compared to YHWH, that's because He's an omnipotent Eldritch Abomination beyond all space-time. Angels, however, still have a god-like power, and would probably be worshipped as such by a polytheistic religion. That being said, Satan is never described in The Bible as being a representation of evil, but merely an evil angel. Satan being the personification of evil is more Word of Dante.
- In essence while Zoroastrianism portrays Ahriman as an evil overlord of a hostile empire, Christianity portrays Satan as a terrorist.
- In Shinto Ama-no-Kagaseo is the Anthropomorphic Personification of Amatsu-Mikaboshi, which is essentially The Dark Side. So, basically, it is the personification of Evil, or at least discord, destruction and chaos, and destructive impulses.
- Lakota tradition features Unk, the goddess of water and disease, who creates a number of eldritch monstrosities. Oddly, it was the earth goddess's jealousy that got her expelled, even before she did anything evil.
- As Ragnarok starts draw closer, Loki eventually starts to no longer be the God of Mischeif/Lies and then becomes the God of Evil and the one who leades the Forces of Chaos into the Last Battle.
- Suprisingly mostly averted in Greek/Roman mythology, as most of the gods that get depicted as evil in adaptions (such as Hades and Ares) were really neutral or Jerk Ass Gods, not flat-out evil ones, though pretty much all of the gods can be petty, spiteful bastards anyway. The nearest equivalent would probably be the various monsters that pop up and have to be defeated by either gods or heroes, the most notable and powerful being Typhon who was a match for the entire Greek pantheon (but not Zeus). Even then, many of those monsters (who were actually children / pieces of Typhon) ended up being the gods' pets.
- Any religion that has conquered another religion often turns the old gods into demons. This is the origin of the word "demonize". And now you know.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons usually has at least one (but usually three) in each setting.
- Dragonlance, being almost entirely about the Balance Between Good and Evil, divides all its gods into gods of good, gods of evil, and gods of neutrality. Obviously, each of them does have the own unique spheres of influence above and beyond their alignment.
- Special mention should go to Asmodeus, ruler of hell and supreme archdevil now become the god of sin.
- Also Cyric. Who could make a page on Gods of Evil without mentioning him? He's really the God of Lies, Trickery, Deceit, etc, but he's most certainly evil. Along with his pets Kezef (a giant dog capable of devouring gods, he even bit off Tyr's, the God of Justice, hand) and the Night Serpent (who will devour the sun while she feeds on the dreams and souls of the dead). Oh, and Cyric murdered good, pure-hearted goddess Mystra (though with the aid of another) out of pure bitterness and jealousy. He is currently imprisoned, but that doesn't stop him from doing evil. Not to mention, he's a god of trickery. Who knows if that is the real Cyric that Tyr imprisioned? Or how long until he somehow tricks Malik (his extremely stupid demi-god Chosen) into getting him out? His destiny is also to destroy the world in a battle-to-the-death with Torm (new Chief of the Gods since Tyr's death) where they kill each other and destroy the world. Somehow the Tormish (Torm-worshippers) think this is a good thing and will lead to a new world of goodness and renewal.
- And Bane! THE God of Evil. Cyric seems more of a trickster type, despite being completely nutters by now. The title of Forgotten Realms real god of evil should go to Bane. His most devoted follower even got turned into a demi-god of "worship of evil". What other god can say they have another god as their follower?
- And in the Eberron setting, you've got the Dark Six, a whole pantheon of these (though they can have positive effects and do have plenty of non-evil worshippers in certain parts of the world). There are also the Rakshasa Rajahs, ancient demonic beings who once ruled the world, each corresponding to a different kind of evil. The other main dark powers in the setting (the Dreaming Dark and the Daelkyr) are, however, closer to a related but distinct trope...
- There are hints the Dark Six were not always gods of evil. It's likely they were originally the gods of the goblin empire, before humans moved in. There is a progression from "foreign gods" to "part of our pantheon" to "rustic gods, opposed but in balance with the civilized gods" to "gods of evil." It's likely their current form is the result of embittered worshipers becoming increasingly hostile, and a propaganda effort by the Sovereign Host that cast them as villains and was eventually embraced by their remaining followers.
- Izrador of the Midnight setting is fairly standard as dark gods go. The other gods tried to banish him from heaven, but did not expect the unforeseen side effect that it would not only send him to the world of mortals, but also severed all connection between heaven and earth. Think of Sauron if he got his ring back, only worse.
- Pathfinder features six in the basic manual:Asmodeus, former Archdevil and Lawful Evil god of tyranny, contracts, slavery and Pride; Lamashtu, former Demon Lord and the Chaotic Evil goddess of madness, monsters, and nightmares; Norgorber, Neutral Evil god of poison, secrets, greed, and murder; Urgathoa, Neutral Evil goddess of disease, undeath, and gluttony; Zon-Kuthon, Lawful Evil god of pain, envy, darkness, and loss; and Rovagug, Chaotic Evil Eldritch Abomination of wrath, disasters, destruction, and Nietzsche Wannabes. There's also the Four Horsemen and the Oinidaemon who rule the Neutral Evil, nihilistic daemons and may well be powerful enough to count.
- The Gods of Chaos from Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 can be considered to be this. Technically they aren't necessarily evil (just chaotic), but seeing how they are mostly powered by negative emotions, have armies of daemons, followers that tend to enjoy burning, killing, raping and/or corrupting whatever they come across, and want to reduce the material universe into pure chaos, it's pretty safe to consider them evil.
- C'Tan in 40, 000 have no other ambition than killing all form of life in the universe and eating its soul.
- The best (worst) part about the evil, universe-destroying Gods of Chaos is their portfolio. Tzeentch is the god of change, ambition, and hope.
- Likewise, Nurgle, the god of corruption and disease, also happens to be the god of fortitude and preservation. Khorne, god of hatred, violence and bloodshed also happens to be the god of courage and honor, while Slaanesh, god(ess) of hedonism and decadence also happens to be the god(ess) of love and passion. There are some actions not even some of the chaos gods will stand for, like bringing the head of a defenseless opponent to Khorne, which is a certain way to get yourself killed, although not for a very noble reason. Khorne is, after all, the god of Ax Crazy Blood Knights.
- There are, however, some fairly unambiguously evil gods in Warhammer, although there is generally some argument (in-universe and out) as to whether they are gods in their own right, or aspects of another (and occasionally, as to which other god they are an aspect of). Khaine (God of Murder, Assassins and Poisoners) is a case in point, with some claiming he is an aspect of Khorne as worshipped by the elves*
even to the point of claiming he's an elven blend of Khorne and Slaanesh, and the reason for the emnity of those two deities , while some say he's an aspect of Morr (God of Death, Dreams and Omens), and those who say Khaine is a god in his own right are split as to whether he's Morr's younger brother, or one of the children of Asuryan and Eldanesh* Morr being a human god, while the others are part of the elven pantheon . Stromfels (God of Storms, Pirates, Sharks and Wreckers) is in a similar, though less extreme position* being either an aspect of, or rebellious younger brother to Manann, God of the Sea . The Horned Rat, though, is pretty a pretty straightforward evil god, complete with his own species of evil anthropomorphic rats to worship him.
- Khaine in Warhammer 40,000 is more of a Type V Anti-Hero. He was the elven pantheon's God of Evil, but when Slaanesh killed the rest of the gods, only Khaine was able to stand up to him. While he lost the battle with Slaanesh and could not prevent the Chaos god's ascension, he remains alive and the Eldar still pray to him on the basis that he's a monster and a villain, but he's still their monster and villain. Ultimately, while Khaine is war-like, arrogant and relishes in killing, he remains an Eldar god and doesn't want to see the Eldar die out.
- Exalted has the Forbidden Gods, deities whose areas of influence are so thoroughly depraved by any moral standard that they've been cut off from the support of the Celestial Bureaucracy and are forbidden to be worshipped. If you expand your definition of "god" a bit beyond the setting's use of the term, the Yozis, the Neverborn, and some behemoths all qualify.
- The Ebon Dragon may be one of the clearest examples. He invented the concept of betrayal, and had a significant hand in creating both fate and free will because the potential suffering caused by the contradiction between the two amuses him. This was before he became a Yozi.
- He also had a critical hand in the creation of the Unconquered Sun, a being of such perfect morality that should he fail to follow his virtues to their fullest extremes his power measurably weakens in response. The Ebon Dragon did this for one singular reason; he needed a protagonist to antagonize against and oppose on all levels in order to actualize himself into a form that could actually do anything (having an opponent allowed him to transcend the role of 'The Ultimate Darkness' and become 'The Dragon's Shadow'). It's one beastly God of Evil who simply can't get proper Godding done without a God of Good.
- The Ebon Dragon is not technically a God of Evil, because Exalted has no objective Evil for there to be a God of. The Ebon Dragon would like to convince you that there IS, though, and that he is it.
- Or in layman's terms: The Ebon Dragon is more accurately the God of Shadow Archetypes, the Primal Nemesis. He defines himself as the Nemesis of Light, so he's Darkness. He defines himself as the Nemesis of Trust, so he's Betrayal. He defined himself as the Nemesis of the Four Virtures of Compassion, Conviction, Temperance, and Valor, so he's Cruel, Pragmatic, Unfettered, and Spineless. In fact, he's stated to not truly exist in metaphysical terms-without other beings to state what his evil is, he's nothing at all.
- Magic: The Gathering has the God of Phyrexia, Yawgmoth, known in several cultures of Dominaria as the Dark Lord, the Hidden One, and the Lord of Wastes. It took a massive effort and the lives of countless people, including several Planeswalkers, to stop him when he attempted to take over Dominaria and spread dominion over The Multiverse. While he is believed to be dead, nothing is ever certain with Yawgmoth, and rumors linger that he is still alive, biding his time as he recovers his strength.
- Two flavours in The Dark Eye: Demons want to destroy creation, the strongest are dark shadows of the major gods. The Nameless God is a renegade god who wants to rule creation and doesn't shirk from anything imaginable (and unimaginable) to achieve that goal.
- The World of Darkness has a field day with this trope.
Videogames
- The God of Death Oswald Leingold from Fantasia - Realm of Thanos, who much prefers to be called the Demon Lord.
- Charnel from Sacrifice is a Card-Carrying Villain God of Evil who is Genre Savvy about how important his place is in the pantheon. Amusingly, Charnel is publicly the most fervent opponent of the game's Final Boss, Omnicidal Maniac Marduk, as he doesn't like competitors. It remains ambiguous just how much he knows about who's really responsible for summoning Marduk and whether his lines of reasoning for siccing you on the other gods are genuine or simply him using you to settle his old grudges.
- Silent Hill fandom is divided as to whether the power of the eponymous town and the deity its cult attempts to summon is a God Of Evil or an Eldritch Abomination. The games themselves are not very helpful in determining which is more true.
- More subtly, it may even be a god of good, with characters projecting their own evil onto it.
- In Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, the Goddess of Evil is also a Sealed Evil in a Can which will awaken when enough violence and fighting takes place. Until it turns out that she's really just the Goddess of Chaos, counterpart of the "good" Goddess of Order, and mankind cannot exist properly without both of them in balance. Plus, the Goddess of Order decides that the only way to make order is to destroy all life.
- Technically, Yami from Ōkami is the God of Darkness (and Machines), but he could easily be described as this as well. He rules over all the previous villains of the game and is only defeated due to all the people of the world praying for the protagonist to win.
- Kri from Rise Of The Kasai. Neither it nor its followers make any attempt to hide or justify it.
- The Old Gods of World of Warcraft. Yogg-Saron is all over this one: "BOW DOWN BEFORE THE GOD OF DEATH!!!"
- Shinnok of Mortal Kombat is a definite God of Evil.
- Falerin of Adventure Quest is an interesting subversion; he is the God of Evil, but he is not malevolent and bloodthirsty. He's quite gentlemanly and passive; in fact, he helps the protagonists indirectly against the actual Big Bad.
- Fain of Lusternia. He's not an Anthropomorphic Personification, and eviller "Gods" exist, but given the way he tempts and manipulates mortals and other Gods, he's the closest (sentient) thing to it in the game.
- The final bosses of Dragon Quests 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
- Persona's Nyarlathotep, an Eldritch Abomination created by Humanity's collective evil.
- The Daedric Princes of The Elder Scrolls are generally regarded as such by human society. Most of them are just very morally flexible with how they, and their followers accomplish their goals—no Prince's domain is straightforward "evil". However, Mehrunes Dagon is the Prince of chaos and destruction, Molag Bal is the Prince of dominion and rape, and Vaermina is the Prince of fear and nightmares, so they more or less fit the trope to a T.
- Medusa in Kid Icarus is the goddess of darkness in a world were Dark is Evil. Her sister is the goddess of light.
- Darkrai, the Big Bad of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series games is an in-universe example of this trope (The original was originally portrayed as at least somewhat evil, but not quite to the extent of his PMD incarnation - after the movie, he was clumsily retconned into being True Neutral). Here, he's portrayed as a completely evil nightmare master who traps people in unending nightmares for fun, and his ultimate goal is to cover the entire world in darkness! He even tries to kill the main characters (such as tricking them into committing suicide) during different parts of the game so that his evil plan will actually work!
- Return To Krondor has Narlor, the Dark God. A god that had to be sealed away. A god that if released, could prove to be an Eldritch Abomination for Midkemia.
- Deconstructed horrifically in Arc Rise Fantasia. Prince Weiss basically accuses the god Eesa of being one of these. The other gods, Real and Imaginal are an Omnicidal Maniac and a racist jerkass, so the party doesn't really have any other frame of reference... until it's revealed that Eesa is actually an emotionally-broken Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. How she became one is pure Tear Jerker material.
- Dragon Quest VII gave us the Dark Lord Orgodemir, the Big Bad of the game. He actually poses as God at one point!
- Septerra Core. Gemma.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Demise is the Demon King that tried to get the Triforce with his hordes of monsters long before the events of the game. He was sealed away by the goddess Hylia in a form called The Imprisoned. Ghirahim, his sword, seeks to free him from this state, which he eventually succeeds in doing. He is stated to be the father of monsters, and when Link defeats him at the end, he curses the descendants of Link and Zelda to face an incarnation of his hatred — that being all of the games' final bosses, but especially the being who becomes known as Ganon.
- The Lufia series has the Sinistrals.
- The Elder God in Legacy of Kain is eventually revealed to be this in Deception, following truckloads of Foreshadowing in Soul Reaver 2.
- Tathamet, the Prime Evil and God of Chaos in the Diablo verse. When Tathamet suffered a Mutual Kill with Anu the God of Order, his body became Hell and his seven heads became the seven Prime Evils, including series Big Bad Diablo. In Diablo III, it's revealed that Diablo's scheme all along was to reunite the Prime Evils into Tathamet reborn (with Diablo at the helm of course) to end the war between Heaven and Hell once and for all.
Visual Novels
- Played with in Fate Stay Night. Angra Mainyu is the god of evil in Zoroastianism and actually exists in this setting. The Einzberns summoned Angra Mainyu. The problem? They didn't get the god, they got some villager from thousands of years ago called Angra Mainyu.
- The specifics surrounding this are expanded upon in Fate Hollow Ataraxia. When he was inevitably killed in the ensuing fighting, his soul was sucked into the Grail, but wasn't turned into mana like normal for Servants because it identified him as a human. And since he was viewed as the actual god of evil, the Grail became corrupted and began to grant all wishes in the most destructive possible manner. Thus, Angra Mainyu the god never appears in the story.
Webcomics
Western Animation
- The Transformers franchise has the Dark God Unicron, the Chaos Bringer and arch enemy of the Creator-God Primus.
- Trigon from Teen Titans'' who, like his original comic book counterpart above, is supposed to literally be the incarnation of all evil.
- Discord in the season 2 premiere of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic is the Trickster god of Disharmony and Chaos. Unlike Nightmare Moon, not only does he not turn good, he's thus far the only purely evil villain in the series.
- Nightmare Moon doesn't count because she is only the corrupted God of the Moon, not a literal God of Evil.
- Until Queen Chrysalis comes along, that is.
- Zarm from Captain Planet.
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