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Our Demons Are Different

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Welcome to Hell, we're going to enjoy your stay.

"We are called demons precisely because we do bad things."
— Tablet, Graffiti Kingdom

Demons. Devils. Fiends. They're all over the place in storyland, but no two authors portray them in exactly the same way.

Demons in western fiction tend, by default, to be of a vaguely Abrahamic nature, most often red or black with horns, hooves, and maybe a tail. They're generally found torturing the souls of those that wind up in Hell, making deals with mortals in order to claim their souls for the pit, and are usually on the side of Evil, often opposing Angels.

Demonic names are quite a bit looser than those for Angels, though in the west, they often take inspiration from Hebrew, biblical or mythological sources, as well as the Ars Goetia.

The prospective demon has many options available for customization:

There's no doubt about it. No matter what you choose, Your Demons Are Different.

  • If the source is Japanese, and the demons are really different, the reason may be simply that, in translation, the word "demon" is being substituted for a completely different word, youkai, which really doesn't have a correlating concept in English. "Faerie creature" is probably closer when it comes to traditional function in folklore (in fact, on the occasions where "fae," etc. is translated into Japanese, the term will probably contain the same "you" as "youkai"), but "demon" sounds more likely to kick ass, despite faeries being pretty damn scary.
    • And even if they don't use youkai, Japan still has a lot of words that get translated as "demon", most of them having ma (魔), which means "demon", somewhere in them: Mazoku, Mamono, Majin, Youma, Akuma...

Specific Types:

Individual Demons of Note:

Series which have protagonists up to Demon Slaying especially rely on this trope, as the various ways a demon can be different can often determine how a demon hunter actually operates.

Example Subpages:

Other Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 
  • Black Moon Chronicles: Various types of demons are seen. Most of The Legions of Hell are big, red, horned humanoids, though Lucifer himself looks could almost be mistaken for human. The succubi also originate in hell, and are ambiguously sexual shapeshifters. All demons love human souls, which they eat for lunch. The Big Bad himself is a half-demon spawned by the Devil.
  • Demons of Clean Room are depicted as vaguely humanoid invisible spirits with monstrous tentacles, teeth, etc. They routinely possess human bodies to inflict suffering on humans and can reshape the flesh of hosts in anatomically impossible ways. Some demons seem to have permanent physical bodies, but that may be long-term possession.
  • Demons in The DCU speak in rhymes. Well, the higher positions of middle management do; one's position in Hell is partly signified by how well one can speak. The lowest ranks can't form language, the Lords of Hell speak clearly and fluently, and Hitman (1993) featured one demon several ranks below Etrigan who could only say, "I am Baytor!" In the DCU Hell, a "lower" position is the better one. When Demons improve their standing in Hell, they fall even deeper into the pit. So a promotion is technically a bad thing. Neron was "promoted" to Rhymer after he screwed up big time. And he got killed off. For now anyway.
  • Divangelic from Empowered is a pair of Conjoined Twins - her right half, Vanity, is a devil, but her left half, Charity, is an angel. The mind boggles...
  • Devils in Harvey Comics (i.e.: Hot Stuff the Little Devil) aren't really evil. Like ghosts, they love playing tricks, but don't mean to cause any lasting harm.
  • Mike Mignolia's Hellboy, equipped with fire-engine red skin, cloven hooves for feet, and a right hand which can summon the Apocalypse. Oh, and immense horns on his head that need to be sanded down on a regular basis. In spite of his origins, he's one of the good guys.
    • We get to see more demons as the series goes on. Some, such as Astaroth, Ualac & Helldad fall into the same horned humanoid mold as HB, while others seem to be a twisted combination of various human & animal parts. One storyline in B.P.R.D. features a demoness whose true form has the head of a crow, the wings of a bat, tentacles & an udder with dozens of human-like breasts hanging off it.
    • Part of this variation is because the different artistic styles of Mike Mignola and Guy Davis (the main artist of B.P.R.D.). While Mignola's demons and various monsters tend to be based more directly on real life animals, Davis tends to have a more Body Horror feel to his work. In one of Davis' sketchbooks he even comments that he had to tone down some of the "tentacles and Lovecraftian bits" for one of his demons before the comic went to print.
  • In Lady Death Chaos! continuity, demons were initially depicted as Judeo-Christian in nature, having originated in Hell and initially serving Satan before he was dethroned by the titular protagonist. In the Avatar reboot, they are given a whole new background as the inhuman denizens of a Dark World that isn't necessarily Hell. They come in many different shapes and sizes, so much so its rare to find a actual Big Red Devil among them and unlike in the original continuity (where they were all malevolent), these demons can be both good and bad.
  • Marvel Comics' Anti-Hero Son of Satan is, as the name implies, the Half-Human Hybrid son of a very powerful demon who claimed to be Satan. Of course, Marvel later backpedaled on the whole "real, honest-to-badness Biblical Satan" issue, and which of the many powerful Marvel demons it actually is has been Retconned several times. For that matter, the very nature of demons in the Marvel Universe seems to be a matter of some contention; fallen or degenerated Physical Gods, leftover magical energy from the early days of life on Earth, holdovers from the Creation of the Universe… And of course, the fact that all of them lie their horns off all the time makes it no clearer. Their behavior also varies quite a bit. Some (Mephisto, namely) stick to standard "deals, contracts, and bargains" behavior and seem quite comfortable with that, others (Dormammu, Chthon) are active schemers who are very much a threat to existence, and still there are others (Nightmare) who can't be reasoned with, but don't exactly try and do anything crazy beyond general malevolence.
  • Demons in Necrophim are strange-looking humanoid beings who resent having to share Hell with the Necrophim, and want the angels to finish what they started with Lucifer.
  • Demons in Promethea are beings native to the Immateria that embody mankind's flaws and evils. Because the Immateria is essentially the afterlife, the collective unconscious, the omnipresence of god, the metaphysical form of the universe and the human soul all rolled into one, demons come in a variety of shapes, sizes and temperaments.
    • The smee is a Living Shadow sent by Solomon out to kill Sophie before she could manifest as the newest incarnation of Promethea. He fails, gets a thourough ass-kicking and is captured by the U.S. Government.
    • The host of demons Solomon summons to deal with Promethea look akin to the demonic illustrations from the Dictionnaire Infernal, the various demons hodgepodges of human and animal characteristics, wielding weapons and crowns and other adornments. They are eventually defeated when Stacia (having taken over for Sophia as the Material World's protector while she is off in the Immateria) realizes that they are nothing but an aspect of herself, whereupon she eats them.
    • Asmodeus manifests within the underbelly of the Sephirot Guberah, appearing as a giant monstrous spider. When Sophie and Barbara realize that he is only a threat when they make him a threat, he turns into a fairly normal looking human man that allows them to continue their journey without a fight.
  • Raven of Teen Titans is half-demon/half-human who must control her emotions lest her demonic side be set free. Her Archnemesis Dad Trigon the Terrible is a mighty demon lord and Big Red Devil with Extra Eyes and stag horns.
  • The Darklanders in Reborn are somewhat demonic in nature; they were evil living beings that reincarnated in the afterlife. Their visage varies from person to person and its completely random: some may look completely humans, some are Uplifted Animals and others look like hideous cyborgs. Their supreme leader, Lord Golgotha straight-up looks like a demon with grey skin and horns.
  • The Hellspawn from the series Spawn are humans who made a deal with Malbolgia, the ruler of the eighth realm of Hell, to return to earth for either love or vengeance. Such people usually get sent back several years to a decade after their original death. They're infused with dark energy matter known as Necroplasm, which they have a limited supply of outside of Hell, and are bonded with a symbiotic armor that acts to protect its host. Hellspawn have inhuman strength, speed, movement and healing, and have the ability to use necro-magic (supernatural powers including teleportation, phasing, resurrecting the dead, necro-energy blasts, and much more). In addition, Hellspawn are able to "feed" off the evil energy of the world including people and "dark animals" (rats, bats, roaches, worms, insects, wolves, and snakes), and are also empathic beings able to sense the emotions of others whenever they choose. Finally, they can manipulate the elements and fly. A Hellspawn's time on earth is limited, and every time he uses his necro-magic, it brings the spawn closer to a second death and a return to Hell. The Hellspawn's job is to supply Hell with souls for its army by killing people with his energy, either innocent or evil. Because the main character, Al Simmons, is not really keen on leading the forces of Hell against Heaven, he primarily keeps his powers in check by packing a lot of heat.

    The true demons of the Spawn universe are even more powerful than the Hellspawn. Violator, the main demon that the main character deals with, is superhumanly strong and resilient and has various supernatural powers including shape and size shifting, healing, telepathy, possession of others, the ability to breathe fire, teleportation, and necromancy.

    Fairy Tales 
  • "The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs": Although he is supposed to be explicitly Satan, the Devil behaves more like the kind of giant seen in tales like "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" (living in a house, being looked after and bossed around by a female relative, having an appetite for humans...). Being called a snake is the only classic devil trait he has.

    Fan Works 
  • Always Visible: Roughly speaking, there are no demons at all in the work, but one of Galbraith's nightmares describes a creature born from kleister, which is very similar in description to Pinky from Doom 3.
  • Between Dreams and Memories Universe: Dreamons from the Dream SMP are elaborated on, and the concept behind them seems to deviate from canon: Dreamons can only be seen by their Hosts, fellow Dreamons, and the few people they have a close bond with, and while the Dreamon is dependent on their Host for survival, the Host is also able to survive the unsurvivable (e.g. being shot in the heart) due to their connection with the Dreamon. Dreamons can also become bound to a different Host through an elaborate ritual.
  • Club Penguin Fanon: Demon Penguins have a weakness to silver, are created through a cloning machine, and have their heads explode when they die. They can also be resurrected through cheese and have retractable horns. They are usually red, and carry pitchforks which allow them to teleport.
  • Demon Spawns Series: In this series of Grojband fanfics, the siblings Corey and Trina Riffin are half-demons. They can alter their appearances and have their own different Elemental Powers. However, they lose all of their demon powers for the day if they come in contact with holy water. They're also the children of Satan. While Trina takes after their father, Corey is more like their human mother Amethyst.
  • Devilous Duo: Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Lila Rossi are revealed to be demons from Hell. Marinette is an unusual demon with a soft spot for humans, leading her to try living on Earth in the guise of a regular human and to make friends with the people in her class. Lila wants to get Marinette back into torturing and tempting people, so she also adopts a human guise and attempts to show Marinette how fickle and cruel humans are by telling a few lies and thus turning all of Marinette's friends against her. Lila succeeds. The class abandons Marinette, who concludes that humans really are evil and deserve to be tempted into Hell and then tortured forever. The story ends with Marinette and Lila catching Alya, Marinette's former best friend who was spying on them, and gleefully preparing to torture her.
  • Earth-27: There are several different types of demons:
    • The Fallen were the losers of the angelic civil war, were ritualistically stripped of their grace by the Presence and the angelic loyalists, and were cursed to become demons.
    • Hellions, what many would call "true demons", are the original occupants of Hell. These demons are born through concentrated negative emotion compressing inside an essence cloud.
    • Cambions are children of demonic coupling with non-demonic partners (often humans). They are naturally powerful psychics and can be easily trained to become powerful sorcerers as well.
    • Lords of Chaos are beings of pure chaotic energy closely related to the hellions of Hell, and come in all shapes and sizes.
    • The Lilim are the descendants Lilith, Queen of Monsters. The Lilim are said to often be the most beautiful of demons (although some bear demonic markings which affect their overall beauty) and are consumed by lust, whether this be an unholy thirst for blood, a hunger for tender flesh, an ambition for power, or merely a carnal desire to procreate with mortals, the Lilim are among the most well-known demons.
  • Holo-Chronicles is... a little complex about demons. There is the Demon Trait, which should technically define what a demon is, but it encompasses both western-style demons and Oni. The former are more magic-focused and originate in Fantasia (a classic medieval-ish fantasy world), the latter originate from the east in the realm of Makai and are some of the greatest physical powerhouses in the entire verse, to the point that there is a certain saying about them: "Always count on an oni to win a brawl".
  • Lupine Tree has Lumber Jack, a human soulnote  fused with a timberwolf tree's soul. This fusion fits within Equestria's broad definition of a demon. Once Celestia learns of this, she orders him to be observed by the Paladin Order.
  • The Night Unfurls: There is no specific "demon" race, but some beings are referred to as "demon".
    • The term "demons" is sometimes used to refer to any "barbaric" Standard Fantasy Races within The Horde, like orcs (the word "orc" derives from an old word for "demon"), goblins, or mutants (which may overlap with the former two).
    • Kyril isn't a demon, but the guy is so inhumanly strong and fast that he is rumoured to be a demon wearing a man's skin. He's actually a great one, but no one knows this.
    • The remastered version introduces The Rat, an entity that draws power from the souls of the survivors, the desperate, and the ambitious. He has made deals with mortals before to gain such souls, and now he seeks to accompany Kyril as a means to gain more souls. He compares himself with "the Gods", but he is later revealed to be one of the many "lesser known entities" whose influence faded away due to the presence of Laurendau and Garan, the two prominent goddesses. On a humorous note, he seems to be a bit perturbed when someone calls him a demon.
      Claudia: Demon! You dare make your presence known to the Goddess Reborn?
      The Rat: Demon? Oh... you small-minded little things are so unimaginative.
  • 1000 tearz or deth: There's a patron demon of emoness, a talking tree that sprouts legs when four emos stand in a forest.
  • Oversaturated World: Group Precipitation: "A Hell Trek, by FoME": About a demon girl Harem Seeker with Summon Magic, but there aren't any demons, only a godlike being that can turn into a more menacing form when needing to lay down the hurt and non-sentient beasts:
    The closest things to demons I’ve found are angst monsters and myself. I’m already taken and I don’t think the abominations of crystallized negative energy are your type.
  • The Palaververse: The term "demon[s]" has appeared at least twice, once when talking about Corva, from the narrator, and the other in Once Upon A Winter: "The Mountainside": Unicorns at least, have a concept of demons, and if the other use is the same, then it's applied to beings that basically can't be harmed and are hostile to life or sanity.
  • Pony POV Series: General-Admiral Makarov/the Shadow of Chernobull is commonly called an "Imagination Demon", although Mother Deer implies that it wasn't the case but "close enough". The Shining Armor crew also apparently had a run in with a "fear demon" somewhere in Zebrafrica, but this was a largely Noodle Incident. The creatures sealed in Tartarus are quite demonic in nature, but are actually entities from a destroyed universe. It turns out that Demons in this universe are Fallen Draconequi, making Discord one of them.
  • Read the Fine Print (Evangelion): Bwynvienne, the agent sent by the Infernal Administration, wears a pitch-black business suit and low-heeled shoes, and looks like a woman normal except for her literally flaming hair cascading down her shoulders like a cloak. She can appear and disappear silently at will and detect lies.
  • Story Shuffle: Demons appear in both series:
    • Story Shuffle: In "In the Details", a title that references the phrase "the Devil's in the details", a group of cultists summons the demon Laplace out of Tartarus in order to ask it how to defeat Celestia. Laplace knows everything, but in seeking knowledge of the future it locks the events it sees into being and prevents free will from acting on them. As a result, it has functionally no agency in its own actions, and is known as the Puppet of Predestination and the Actor and the Stage as a result.
    • Story Shuffle 2: Double Masters: In "Doom Inevitable", the demon Zargothrax, a huge humanoid figure with batlike wings, horns and razor-sharp fangs, arriving in Equestria with the intent of bringing ruin to the world. However, the ominous sings and portents preceding his arrival mean that the ponies have plenty of time to prepare for his arrival.
  • Thousand Shinji:
    • The Keeper of Secrets is a daemon of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, created by one of the Chaos Gods and unable to survive out of its home dimension.
    • The new Chaos Gods create new lesser daemons called Black Pharaohs, Valkyries and Reiglings. They're "fragments of their masters' wills, creatures sent out to do their bidding, mirrors of their thoughts and emotions." They're not nice but they're not necessarily evil.
  • The Mansionverse: Demons are similar to ghosts, but were never alive in the first place, being purely ectoplasmic spirits. They take a wide variety of forms (and, indeed, are skilled shapeshifters), and are very magically powerful. Not all demons are evil, although a vast majority of them are (most of those live in the Underworld and can be summoned).
  • There's an abundance of fic made by Buzz Feed Unsolved fans in which Shane is a demon. There are literally hundreds of takes on this concept. Most of the time he's explicitly not evil, just mischievous and more often than not, protective.
  • In the Turning Red fic Turning Red: Secrets of the Panda, Xióngmāo shāshǒu isn’t shown to have any corporeal form, and communicates by possessing various items (including the corrupted red panda spirits).

    Films — Animated 
  • The Amazing Adventures of the Living Corpse: These are normal beings who just happen to look like everything humans fear. While they're made of things like darkness and decay, they're not Always Chaotic Evil, with even their king being kind and helpful. They take many forms, such as a Winged Humanoid, a green imp, or a ball of red light.
  • In the Spanish dub of Dumbo, the Pink Elephants are implied to be this. They are referred to in the lyrics as "las ánimas del terror" ("the spirits of fear") and speculated to be "parientes de Satanás" ("relatives of Satan").

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Though not stated as such in the film itself, the title monster of The Babadook is this sort of creature.
  • Bedeviled: These are humanoid creatures from Another Dimension that can interact with ours via digital signals. They can also create constructs from thin air.
  • Belzebuth: These are fallen angels who seek nothing short of the destruction of the Messiah. They can only interact with the human world by possessing people or objects, but possess complete control over such barring an exorcism. If they're sufficiently powerful, they can destroy the soul of their host, but any human who manages to overcome them is forever immune to demonic influence.
  • Bird Box: Charlie's theory in regards to the creatures' posits them as being demons or something like it, showing people their dead relatives or worst fears and causing irresistible suicidal urges as a result. While his theory on their origin is never confirmed, it is shown that the victims are drawn to visions of past regrets, such as the woman who tried to save Malorie on the street.
  • Black Butler: These appear human, but are completely immune to harm by Earthly objects, can throw a butter knife with the strength to make it cut through bone, and can move faster than the naked eye. They can be bound to contracts to serve humans, but are simply waiting until it's met to eat their souls.
  • Bloody Mallory: There's two varieties: Common demons, a nearly Always Chaotic Evil group of humanoid beings, and super demons, fallen angels who are immensely powerful and have enslaved the common demons.
  • Ciaran the Demon Hunter: These are incorporeal beings who possess people to cause chaos. They resemble blue light and humans they've possessed have yellow eyes.
  • Dark Angel: The Ascent: Demons look pretty similar to humans, but have horns and bat wings. They marry and reproduce, running Hell on God's behalf while piously worshiping Him (yet oddly enough still can't touch any holy objects without harm).
  • Dead Before Dawn: These are dark spirits that can cause suicides and raise the dead.
  • Dead Birds: If demons is even the right term for them. They’re brought into our world by means of gruesome Human Sacrifice, and whoever is possessed receives a Nightmare Face, with a mouthful of sharp teeth and a lack of eyes.
  • Demon Hunter (2005): These come in many levels, from fallen angels at the top to pathetic wretches made of the darkness on the bottom. They are humanoid, but can sometimes be red and have tails, horns and wings. They can possess people, which is only sometimes curable, and breed with humans.
  • Demon Hunter (2016): These are gray, sharp-toothed humanoids who used to be human until Black Magic made them into what they are today. They have Super-Strength and arm-blades, and can shapeshift to blend in with humanity. They can only be killed by decapitation and burial on holy ground, but will come back the second their head is removed from the grave.
  • The Demonologist: These are green-skinned horned humanoid who can manifest as a black smoke to possess humans. While they are in human vessels, they can keep them young by bathing in blood. Their blood can grant Age Without Youth.
  • Die You Zombie Bastards!: These are small, wrinkled monstrosities that love to torment people with food products.
  • Don't Kill It: These are incorporeal beings that only exist to destroy humans' lives. They can only interact with the world via possessing people, which traps the souls in utter agony, but each one has its own way of doing so. Their form when not possessing people resembles an orange, glowing orb.
  • Dust Devil: While the term "demon" is never used, the Dust Devils certainly seem demonic. They’re vicious wind spirits of human origin that have to reside in human bodies, but wish to escape into the spirit realm through use of black magic.
  • Evil Dead: The Kandarian Demon borders on Sentient Cosmic Force of evil. It doesn't have a physical form of its own (until Ash gives it one at the end of the second movie, to better kill it), appearing as a disembodied Impending Doom P.O.V.. It can, however, inhabit numerous dead bodies at once, turning them into horrific Deadites.
  • Flesh for the Beast: These are incorporeal succubi who have their souls bound to human bodies via Human Sacrifice.
  • Ferriman in Ghost Ship is a wicked former human who became a servant of Hell because of his sins. He collects souls for his infernal masters, calling himself a "salvager". He doesn't make deals, and instead tries to tempt people into committing crimes out of the sin of Greed to damn their own souls, which he can then take "home" when he fills his quotum. He can shapeshift, recover from gunshot wounds, and mark ghosts to become his servants in death.
  • Hellbinders: These are beings who don't belong in the realm of the living, and have to possess something that does to enter. They resemble balls of light when not possessing somebody, and hop bodies as soon as their host is killed.
  • Jack-O: These are pumpkin-headed beings who act as automatons for powerful sorcerers.
  • Jennifer's Body: These possess non-virgins sacrificed in Satanic rituals, and give their hosts superhuman abilities in exchange for feeding roughly once a month. If that feeding isn't met, they fade away and cause their hosts to wither. They can be killed via a blade to the heart, and those who survive their bites can inherit their abilities.
  • Legend of the Red Reaper: These are white-skinned humanoids with ridged eyebrows and long hair. Their blood grants immortality at the cost of addiction, they can breed with humans, and they can only be killed by decapitation.
  • Little Evil: These are giant, flaming, skeletal monsters who are trapped in hell and can only escape via sacrificing half-demon children.
  • Nekrotronic: These are evil spirits summoned by Blood Magic, eat souls and have recently figured out how to travel through the Internet. Their true forms resemble glowing green humanoids or black smoke clouds, but they can only interact with the material world by fatally possessing a human.
  • Never Cry Werewolf: In this film, demons are Hell Hounds who can take on the forms of regular dogs. They are also weak to silver just like werewolves.
  • The Dream Demons in A Nightmare on Elm Street. They are ancient and serpentine in appearance, and hold lordship over all nightmares. They find the most evil human imaginable, who they will grant the power to turn dreams into reality. They chose Freddy Krueger, and made him immortal too.
  • Paranormal Activity:
    • Toby, the central demon that serves as the Big Bad of the series, is an invisible being who mostly acts like a poltergeist. It starts out doing harmless things at first, such as moving objects here and there or flipping the switch on and off, but devolves into more malevolent acts. Although it can act on its own, it seems that the demon becomes more powerful by possessing people. In the second film, it is revealed that the demon began to haunt Katie and Kristi because their family made a deal with it to gain wealth in exchange for sacrificing their firstborn son's soul.
    • The Big Bad of Next of Kin is Asmodeus. Like Toby, it is an invisible being who can possess humans. Unlike Toby, who exists in this world because it was summoned, Asmodeus deliberately targets humans because it wants to. It once inflicted a terrible calamity to a Norwegian village, which only stopped when someone managed to trap it in the body of a woman. Since then, it has been passed through the female descendants of said woman.
  • Satan's Slave: These are humanoid beings capable of Black Magic, who go after those whose faith in Islam lapses to torment, kill and enslave them. Their bodies can be destroyed by prayer, which sets them on fire, but they can return to Earth in new forms.
  • The Seventh Curse: These are vicious creatures that eat human flesh and only speak in growls. They're blue, skeletal and have pure white eyes int heir base form, but have a super form that resembles a Xenomorph with bat wings.
  • The Slaughter: These are terrifying Humanoid Abominations from prehistoric times, who have magical powers and can control the dead.
  • Stitches (2001): These are manipulative fiends who wear perfect disguises made of human skin and trap souls in horrible fates via deals.
  • Tales of Halloween: These are Horned Humanoid monsters who can take more human forms and love murder. However, despite that descriptor, they aren't Always Chaotic Evil. Some are vigilantes who bring Karmic Death on the wicked.
  • Truth or Dare (2018): Demons can possess places and even ideas here.
  • Wither: The Vættr/Wither is an earth spirit living underground. She does not actually attack people, rather she steals their souls by looking into their eyes and taking over them.

    Manhua 
  • Retired Heroes: Demons are small pieces of primordial chaos that have intruded on the world. However, while most people treat them as Always Chaotic Evil, the primordial chaos is such a small part of them that it's barely noticeable. They mostly act like a Proud Warrior Race and keep to themselves until a Demon King takes over who has designs on the human world.

    Music 
  • Clamavi de Profundis: Demons are typically depicted as ancient, powerful and unspeakably evil beings, often found deep underground.

    Myths & Religion 
  • While described as water monsters in cryptozoological circles and pop culture, the term "Bunyip" is traditionally taken to mean "dark spirit" in Gamilaraay culture and adjacent cultures like the Wiradjuri (this may in part explain why accounts of these things are so over the place; if it's a generic dark spirit, everything goes). Notably they are etymologically connected to "Bunjil", the Top God of the Kulin Nation and ancestor of the people of the eagle moeity, giving some Fallen Angel vibes.
  • The Bible: In the Old Testament, demons like Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies, were the gods of other tribes in the near East. Beelzebub was a corrupted form of Ba'alzebul, or translated from Phoenician, "Lord of the Temple". Zebub means "flies" in Hebrew, so it was a kind of a Take That! to old Baal. Didn't help that at least one Baal (there were a bunch of them; not surprising since the word just means "lord" in most of the languages of the region) had a habit of divination by watching flies (hey, the Romans did it with birds...).
  • Greek Mythology: "Daemon" referred to spirits in a general sense, without inherent moral connotations. Malevolent spirits were referred to as kakodaimons. Many of them were personifications of things that were bad or unpleasant, such as disease, famine, murder, rage, war, broken pottery, etcetera. They seemed to largely issue from Tartarus and many were either children of Nyx and Erebus, goddess of Night and god of darkness respectively, or were the sons and daughters of Eris, goddess of discord. While they were often seen as enemies of the gods (for example, Apollo would often kill/drive away plague demons with his arrows), they would also sometimes be contracted out by the gods when exacting divine punishment on a mortal or mortals for their crimes. Ares is also often described with kakodaimons of war as servants, either riding out to battle with them or having them guard his fortress-palace in Thrace. The benevolent counterparts of kakodaimons were referred to as agathodaemons or eudaemons.
  • Japanese Mythology: What are colloqiually referred to as "demons", usually but not always called "悪魔 (Akuma)", are a hodgepodge of folklore yokai, Buddhist ashuras and the occasional malignant kami, which is pretty different from the Christian interpretation of them as fallen angels.
  • Buddhism has the maras. The term "mara" can refer to three things, three psychological phenomenons, the Mara (as a particular very powerful semi-deva) and the race of demons ruled by Mara itself. The ten hell realms are also often portrayed as ruled by sadistic maras who torture the denizens, however should be notice that as everything in Buddhism, the maras are also living beings who eventually die and be reborn in something else.
  • Iranian mythologies have the Daeva/Deev, the false or rejected gods. Their power levels vary, but all of them are more powerful than humans in some ways, and are not afraid to exert that power over people. And of course, they serve Ahriman, the personification of all evil. The upper level deev are often depicted as incarnations of classical vices intent on corrupting people, like Aeshma/Khashm (literally meaning "wrath" in Avestan and Persian, respectively) or Åz (meaning "greed"), while lower levels play a role similar to malevolent Fae, or just ruthless supernaturally powered warlords.

    Podcasts 
  • Hero Club: Silas and Sidecar, the brothers Soup. They are called demons from the underworld in the season It Never Sleeps, and are shown reassembling their bodies after being brutally "killed". They and their names also appear in other seasons of wildly different times and places like the Wild West, Montana circa 1910, in a space ship in 2219, and even as birds in Here There Be Monsters. They usually keep their personalities as two vaudeville performers trying to put on an improv performance called "the act", likely under the influence of drugs. Each time they appear, their last name is spelled differently, from Soup, Sciouxp, Sooulp, Zoop, to Swoop (with a silent W).

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Batista was billed in OVW as "The Demon of the Deep" Leviathan. He was summoned from somewhere underwater by the Disciples of Synn and was Bald of Evil with Cute Little Fangs.
  • The Undertaker, "The Demon of Death Valley". One would be remiss to mention the Undertaker without also bringing up his brother Kane, a.k.a. The Devil's Favorite Demon (among other nicknames)
  • Finn Bálor is a curious case, since his WWE "Demon King" persona is inspired by two unrelated figures from Celtic Mythology: folk hero Fionn MacCumhail, and Balor, King of the Fomorians (the Irish equivalent of the jötnar)
  • Rosemary, the demon-possessed version of the former Courtney Rush.
  • CHIKARA had Obariyon and Kodama of The Batiri. They were billed from Bled Island, Slovenia, wore green-and-black facepaint, teamed with a masked goblin named Kobald, and, until Deucalion destroyed Kobald at the return show You Only Live Twice on May 25, 2014, never spoke on camera. When UltraMantis Black brought Kobald, in the storyline, Back from the Dead, he noticed Obariyon and Kodama talking and asked when did they start talking, and they said, "A lot's changed."
    • Gavin Loudspeaker announced Toshie Uematsu as "the dark demon of Joshi" over all three nights of CHIKARA JoshiMania and, on Night III, she teamed with The Batiri in an eight-person mixed-tag match, even wearing Obariyon and Kodama-styled face paint.

    Visual Novels 
  • In The Second Reproduction, the demons are a powerful race with pointy ears and magical powers. All of them also have red eyes and really long lifespans.
  • SHUFFLE! has a demon race, and a god race. It basically means they're capable of magic, and they have long ears. Demons have longer ears than gods.
  • Trapped with Jester: Jester is the Demon of Betrayal and Nightmares. Besides the red eyes and sharp teeth, he appears as a conventional jester, but has powers to bring people back to life and restore their memories.

    Web Animation 
  • Burakku Channel features the titular Burakku, a demon YouTuber. He mostly resembles a high-school-boy in a black and red Gyakuran uniform, with yellow-tinted skin, pointy ears, beady eyes, a constant grin and bangs swept over the left side of his face. There is a red "play" button where his left eye would be on the bangs which mysteriously functions just like a normal eye. He also has the ability to levitate, sprout leathery orange and black wings from his back and summon paperwork contracts for people to sign at a moment's notice, as well as having a special smartphone that appears to be magic and is friends with a small being with a camera for a head named "Camera-chan". He, however, still eats, sleeps, bathes and "relieves himself" like any other human.
  • Hellaverse: In this setting, there is a rigid demon hierarchy: at the bottom are Imps and Hellhounds, Hellborn demons that serve as Hell's lower class. One step up are other Hellborn demons, whom can take all sorts of shapes and appearances and hold a variety of occupations throughout the Seven Rings. Above them are Sinners, humans that underwent demonic apotheosis upon their deaths, their new forms a reflection of their past life somehow. Sinners are among the most common denizens of Hell, because of all the people who die and find themselves there. Ruling over them are the Overlords, a combination of Hellborn and Sinner demons who have eked out a dominion for themselves and have increased their influence and power as a result, gaining new magical abilities and acting as Hell's aristocracy. The 1% of Hell is dominated by the Goetia family, a unique brood of avian demons with special duties and delegations assigned to them, as outlined in the Ars Goetia. Above them are seven demons who each rule over a Ring of Hell and represent a Deadly Sin, such as Asmodeus, Mammon and Belphegor. Finally, the Apex of Hell is ruled by the royal family, consisting of Lucifer Morningstarnote , his wife Lilith, and their daughter Charlotte, the protagonist of Hazbin Hotel.
  • The demons of Hells Belles certainly look the part, particularly the horns, but are actually good. After all, their purpose is to punish evil people. They're big on consent (they *were* the first ones to say "no" to G-d), and they are all himbos.

    Web Original 
  • The Antithesis: Demons only differ from angels by their phenotypes of black wings and dark hair. They live in the same world, but exist on lower layers of a planet that encapsulates Heaven and Hell, called "The Atrium". They do not possess the evil characteristics of the Judeo-Christian religion, but are actually a population of humanoid-looking beings, and their society contains moralistic values, political hierarchies (the highest being Lucifer, their leader/Military Commander/President, the second highest being the Archdemons) that formulate their Parliament, known as the "Obsidian Court". They are characterized with eccentric personalities, and their culture is embellished in art, literature, and theater.
  • Codex Inversus: The Devils are the inhabitants of the Holy Infernal Empire and one of the dominant species in the setting; in appearance, they resemble horned, red-skinned humans. In ancient times, they oversaw the Hells and administered cosmic justice. In the wake of the Collapse and the end of immortality, they formed a theocratic nation founded on the principles of meritocracy and a form of social survival of the fittest, and are known for their byzantine bureaucracies and regulations and for their passion for opera, blood sports, and extremely spicy food. Demons and Dæmons are splinter groups that tried to seize power, failed, and were exiled.
  • Demonic Symphony: The demons are the embodiments of emotional energy projected on the world. In theory, this means that there should be demons for other strong emotions such as love, but this isn't really touched on in the book.
  • Dreamscape:
  • Dream SMP:
    • BadBoyHalo is a Demon, whose Demonic blood grants him semi-immortality, as his life force is tied to Skeppy (who serves as his Soul Jar) and he only loses a canon life when Skeppy does. He is also incredibly tall, standing at 9 feet and 6 inches (289.56cm) — not that you'd be able to tell by looking at his character in-game.
    • Dreamons are a completely different type of entity from Demons. They are able to take on Hosts to do their bidding, but have a variety of weaknesses, which the Dreamon Hunters use for exorcisms and preventing detection by them. Transmuted Dreamons are a rare variation where the Host and the Dreamon constantly and rapidly shift between each other.
  • DSBT InsaniT: Psycho Man calls himself a 'demon lord' and a 'master of the forces of darkness'.
  • Fire Emblem on Forums:
    • Fire Emblem On Forums Wonderful Blessing: In addition to the nebulously-defined demons emerging from Hellrealm, a good portion of the races are designated as Demon Races, not created by the Goddesses, such as goblins, beastkin and gargoyles. Otherwise, they are portrayed as no different from other races.
    • Fire Emblem on Forums: Demon Soul Saga: There are three types of demons in the setting:
      • Inner Demons, mental entities that lay dormant in a person's psyche until awoken with the use of an Akuma Seed. These feed on negative emotions such as stress to get stronger, until they get strong enough to engage their hosts in a Deal with the Devil.
      • Akuma, monsters that are the results of Inner Demons overcoming their hosts in the Deal with the Devil. They create their own Pocket Dimension called Domains and are obsessed with the wish that drove them to make the deal. They are also Mook Makers, creating lesser creatures called Onibi that are hostile to anything that isn't their Akuma. They can only be defeated by a Kaijin.
      • Kaijin, superpowered individuals that are the result of the host overcoming their Inner Demon. They have complete control over their abilities, transforming between their demonic and human forms at will, and are tougher than a normal human even untransformed.
  • How to Hero recommends setting traps with peanut butter if you're looking to catch a demon.
  • In the online novel John Dies at the End, the demons turn out to be extradimensional genetically engineered bioweapons created by an insane organic supercomputer from an Alternate History. Somehow, they are still affected by crosses, prayers and the Bible.
  • Limyaael has a checklist of what to consider when creating demons.
  • Word of God says that the Mortasheen equivalent to demons are the Devilbirds, birds that have been psychically charged with certain emotions and must eat said emotions for sustenance, tending to do it in the most horrifying ways possible.
  • Object Destruction has a blob for a demon (also, Holy Water easily just rids of said demon).
  • In Pact, demons are Always Chaotic Evil beings of entropy. Each one appears to be a unique entity, and they are divided into seven choirs based on their abilities. The most powerful of these choirs, the Choir of Dark, are straight-up Eldritch Abominations that simply erase things, sometimes even from memory.
  • In The Questport Chronicles, many of the demons are said to be demon transformers who can take on any appearance they wish.
  • The Grimm from RWBY are monstrous Living Shadow creatures who are stated to have no souls and are attracted to the negative emotions of humans. They seek to kill any humans they come across, not for food or territory, but simply because they can. They are described as personifications of destruction, originally created by the God of Darkness to rival his brother's creation of living creatures. How exactly they are born is as yet unknown, except that they seem to emerge from black, tar-like "pools of destruction" located in the place the God of Darkness used to inhabit before he and his brother left Remnant millenia ago.
  • The Salvation War has several different variants of demon. They are fallen angels, distorted by their environment. They invade 21th century Earth as part of the apocalypse. It doesn't work. That said, even the angels and, by extension, God/Yahweh and his brother, Satan are more akin to Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, with all their magic explained through various levels of EM field telepathy and generating of massive bursts of electricity, not to mention "body not built for flying" able to do so through internal sacs of gas that give enough buoyancy for their wings to lift... But tend to catch on fire or explode when damaged too much.
  • On the online Spec Evo project A Scientific Fantasy, demons are a family of giant lemurs.
  • In Soon, I Will Rule The World! this trope is invoked here and parodied here involving our world's demons taken from the Ars Goetia.
  • In Tales of MU demons need to feed from humans to survive, and they have a craving for human flesh well beyond said need... and most of the rest is hearsay. They do have a strong association with fire, and have been shown to possess humans and tempt them. The story also has another class of creatures called "yokai" who in Fanon sometimes fall prey to the translation problem mention above.
  • Unwanted Houseguest: The Shadow Demon becomes an Evil Doppelgänger of the Houseguest.
  • In Void Domain, demons are eternal beings from Hell, also known as the Void. On a surface glance, the Void is anything but. Domains provide anything a demon could ever want. It creates the opposite problem. There's nothing to work for. Nothing to live for. And yet, dying leads to something much worse. A demon's death sends them to a place that lives up to the name until they can claw their way back to their domain.
  • Whateley Universe: There are several types of Angels, Devils and Squid, and the extent to which Infernal demons (of which both Christian and Buddhist forms appears) and Mythos Beings differ isn't entirely clear; there is some indication that they all started out the same, but over time some became more adapted to this universe and began to take forms and behaviors similar to the native inhabitants. Even being 'evil' isn't universal; Mythos Beings are shown as either being Above Good and Evil and/or having a Blue-and-Orange Morality which has nothing in common with human morality - indeed, some demons (e.g., Carmilla, Thulia, and to a lesser degree, Gothmog) are notably nicer people than many of the mortals in the series, and even Nyarlathotep is shown as more put-upon than malevolent.
    • The one place they do get specific is in the difference between 'demons' and 'devils': a demon is from a Hell, and their form on Earth is only a projection into our universe; a devil is a spiritual predator from this reality, and exists wholly in the here and now. In practical terms, this means you can banish a demon, but you can't kill it (on Earth, at least), whereas you can't banish a devil (it has nowhere else to go) but you can destroy it permanently.

    Western Animation 
  • In Castlevania (2017), they serve as Dracula's mooks in Season 1 and are occasionally referred to as "goblins". They are savage, winged beasts with dark humanoid bodies and wolf-like faces with some of them having extra eyes like Blue Eyes.
  • In Disenchantment, are small, black, one-eyed creatures from Hell in the form of living shadows. By their nature, demons desire to spread evil and chaos wherever they go; however they are not pure evil, as Luci (one of the main protagonists of the show) is shown to be capable of feeling genuine love and empathy for his friends, even if he prefers to hide it under a meaner exterior.
  • In Gravity Falls, Bill Cipher is referred to as a demon. He doesn't look very scary, he's just a flat triangle with an eye in the middle, but he has the power to enter people's dreams and can cause a lot of damage. He can also possess a person's body if they agree to it (willingly or otherwise). He's more dangerous than he first seems, however: Bill's ultimate goal is to escape the Nightmare Realm into the mortal world. When he manages this in the Grand Finale, he gains Reality Warper powers and turns Gravity Falls into his personal World of Chaos.
  • The titular Devil in Devil May Care. In addition to being a caring (if misguided) ruler of a gentrified Hell, Devil seems to be immune to classic demon weaknesses like summoning circles. He even picks up and reads a Bible with no ill effect, and thinks of God not as an enemy, but as a distant pal who won't return his phone calls.
  • A number of demon and demon-like characters appear in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) and its sister series She-Ra: Princess of Power, but the most prominent one was probably Hordak's little sidekick Imp. Another one that shows up repeatedly is Slaughty, who resembles as red baboon with huge bat wings. He's most notable for an episode where, after a bit of deal making, he tries to deliver He-Man himself to his master, the fiery Spirit of Evil. Backfires spectacularly when it turns out Good Hurts Evil and He-Man is Incorruptible Pure Pureness. It should be noted that Slaughty is actually old enough to have been active on Eternia during the time humans and dragons were friends, prior to the founding of Greyskull.
  • Demons make up the majority of the primary rogues gallery in Jackie Chan Adventures, primarily inspired by those found in Chinese mythology. The second season featured a family of Demon Sorcerers as its Big Bad Duumvirate, with one of them, Shendu, being the overall Big Bad of the show. The fourth season featured Japanese Oni as its villains.
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes is set in a version of Hell called Miseryville, so almost everyone on the show is some kind of demon. For the most part, they seem to have no special powers and are human in all but appearance — which can be pretty much any form imaginable.
  • In the Rankin-Bass version of The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, we have the Wind Demons. We only see one (the Commander), but he looks like a cross between a bat and a mosquito, tends to cause bursts of wind before he speaks, and while not malicious, is the most vocal detractor toward Claus being made immortal.
  • In The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, quite a few supernatural beings are referred to as "demons". Not all of them are evil; in fact, many are quite decent folks.
  • The demonic creatures from Neighbors from Hell are basically as neurotic as the humans of the show's setting.
  • Demons in The Owl House are beings native to the Boiling Isles, having originally arisen from the Titan's corpse as it decayed. Most creatures in the show that are not witches or humans are demons. Some seem to be members of specific species, while others are apparently unique, or at least appear wildly different from their parents. Hooty also explains that they are divided into three categories, the so-called three B's:
    • Bug demons are somewhat insectoid, though what passes as insectoid on the Boiling Isles is somewhat loose; Hooty counts as a worm, despite appearing as an owl. The true signifier of a bug demon is that they communicate with each other through dance, though some, like Hooty, can also speak. In addition to Hooty, fairies are in this category.
    • Bipedal demons are essentially witches in all but looks. They walk on two legs and have an internal bile sack that allows them to perform magic like witches. Unlike witches, they are distinctly non-human, and some may have natural abilities in addition to magic. Warden Wrath and Selene the oracle track student are both in this category.
    • Bestial demons are demons that are neither insectoid nor humanoid, generally resembling wild beasts. These are the monsters you typically encounter in the wild, and most are non-sapient, though exceptions do exist. Slitherbeasts, selkiedomus and giraffes are in this category.
    • King is eventually revealed to not really belong in any of the categories: he can't communicate through dance, he can't cast spells, and his blood test for bestial demonhood came back negative, and he has a sonic scream that no known species has. It's implied that he belongs to an unknown species, or could be completely unique. He turns out to be an infant Titan.
  • The demons in "Pluto's Judgement Day" are all portrayed as a jury of sinister-looking black cats.
  • Demons also appear in The Real Ghostbusters and its sequel series Extreme Ghostbusters. In the first they are intelligent beings akin to the Judeo-Christian stereotype, and in one episode the Ghostbusters went to hell (which is shown to be like an office) after a demon hires them to deal with a humiliating wish he has to grant; the disappearing of every chicken on Earth. In Extreme demons are more violent and unruly.
  • Samurai Jack features a wide variety of demons in its universe: first and foremost, the main villain Aku is an unearthly and unholy being spawned from primordial darkness, resembles a cross between a oni and Nyarlatothep and he has ruled over Earth for thousands of years since ancient times. Besides him, we have lesser demons spawned from the Pit of Hate such as Demongo and Aku's non-robotic foot-soldiers; the Celtic Demons who are revealed to be actually robots and finally, the Minions of Set, a trio of divine Egyptian demons that are pretty much invulnerable to any weapon including the hero's sword which was Forged by the Gods. It takes an actual Egyptian god being summoned in order to destroy them permanently.
  • Demons appear in several episodes of Star vs. the Forces of Evil, with the most prominent being Tom Lucitor, their prince and Star's ex-boyfriend. They have their own kingdom in Mewni's Underworld and come in a variety of appearances, but typically seem to lean towards Dark Is Not Evil. Magic High Commission members Hekapoo and Lekmet also resemble demons, but have no connection with Tom and his kind, being incredibly powerful magical entities, though the latter is described as an "angel goat demon".
  • The Legions of Hell in Teen Titans' fourth season are mainly composed of floating, mute fire-creatures. A similar but scaled-up version with legs was summoned three seasons prior. But Trigon is even bigger, has blood-red skin instead of solid flame, antlers, and four eyes — basically Diablo with mutton chops instead of a tail. Raven, his half-demon spawn, has grey skin, purple eyes and indigo hair.
  • In Ugly Americans, demons are not Always Chaotic Evil but never good-aligned (though they have some rather sinister practices by our standards), resemble the usual red (or pink for females) humanoids with horns, and also have Bizarre Alien Biology like giving birth through the top of their skulls and lactating fire when in heat.
  • On Wishfart, demons are the chief inhabitants of The Underworld (which is ruled by a demon known only as The King of the Underworld) asides from the spirits of the dead. All of them appear pretty much as variations on the classic Horned Humanoid, but otherwise vary in colour, size, and additional traits.

 
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Video Example(s):

The Elect

Called demons by the Atlanteans, their Human allies are shocked to discover that the Elect are in fact an extraturestial threat, not a mystical one.

Madama Butterfly

Wartrain Gouon

Kraken

Umbran Clock Tower

Mictlantecuhtli

Cheshire

Sleep Paralysis...

Chaos Undivided...

Jazz Demons

Demon of Hatred

Demons in Pain/...

Old Demon King

Stray Demon

Covetous Demon

Demon of Song

Smelter Demon

Asylum Demon

Bed of Chaos

Capra Demon

Ceaseless Disch...

Centipede Demon

Chaos Witch Que...

Demon Firesage

Stray Demon

Taurus Demon

The Old One

Old Monk

Penetrator

Phalanx

Storm King

The Maiden in B...

Tower Knight

Vanguard Demon

Adjudicator

Armour Spider

Dirty Colossus

Dragon God

Flamelurker

Fool's Idol

Leechmonger

Maiden Astraea ...

Maneater

Old Hero

False King Allant

King and the Bo...

One-Eyed William

The Sisters Grim

Johnson

Normal Demons

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The Elect

Called demons by the Atlanteans, their Human allies are shocked to discover that the Elect are in fact an extraturestial threat, not a mystical one.

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Example of:

Main / OurDemonsAreDifferent

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The Elect

Madama Butterfly

Wartrain Gouon

Kraken

Umbran Clock Tower

Mictlantecuhtli

Cheshire

Sleep Paralysis...

Chaos Undivided...

Jazz Demons

Demon of Hatred

Demons in Pain/...

Old Demon King

Stray Demon

Covetous Demon

Demon of Song

Smelter Demon

Asylum Demon

Bed of Chaos

Capra Demon

Ceaseless Disch...

Centipede Demon

Chaos Witch Que...

Demon Firesage

Stray Demon

Taurus Demon

The Old One

Old Monk

Penetrator

Phalanx

Storm King

The Maiden in B...

Tower Knight

Vanguard Demon

Adjudicator

Armour Spider

Dirty Colossus

Dragon God

Flamelurker

Fool's Idol

Leechmonger

Maiden Astraea ...

Maneater

Old Hero

False King Allant

King and the Bo...

One-Eyed William

The Sisters Grim

Johnson

Normal Demons