History Main / DemiurgeArchetype

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime]]. Conquering the universe, making what he can in his image, destroying what he couldn't conquer and erasing all knowledge of his failures. He uses a huge military of spacecraft, robots and clones connected to a hive mind who espouse a dogma about him, and even brainwashed people of the planets he is invading. Immortal and narcissistic, everything exists to where he is [[ReligiousHorror the god, the church, and the churchgoer]] with no room for individualism. LightIsNotGood incarnate, as he's always espousing how he'll bring light to the universe.[[note]]Ironically, when Adora destroys him, he's a mass of shadows.[[/note]] Series creator Creator/NDStevenson admitted that when creating him they were thinking of what it was like to grow up in a deeply fundamentalist environment while transmasculine and bigender.

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': Nobuyuki Sugou/Fairy King Oberon rules the online MMORPG Alfheim Online (AFO), which he and his company created from leftover data in the titular Sword Art Online (which they acquired when the original creators went bankrupt). As such, he is positioned as a pale imitation of the SAO creator Akihiko Kayaba (who serves as the [[HeelFaceTurn formerly malevolent]] god figure), and in his false god position, he manipulates the players to climb a rigged tree, tortures hundreds of imprisoned players, and sexually abuses one of them as a LustObject (who happens to be the LoveInterest Asuna). When Kirito gets the upper hand on him with help from [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Kayaba]], he even whines that he's the god of this world, earning a ShutUpHannibal from Kirito.

* In the mythos of Creator/WilliamBlake, Urizen serves as both a fallen satanic figure and the representative of law and reason. Urizen, believing himself to be holy, was exiled from the divine and created a universe in which his law ruled above all else. He represents uniformity, stifles creativity, and is the origin of both religious dogmatism and enlightenment rationalism.

* It's revealed later in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' that [[spoiler:Chuck]] is the Abrahamic God and the creator of the physical universe, although he's only one of the group of primordial deities that includes himself, Amara, Death, and the Shadow of the Empty. He goes out of his way to make sure the faiths of the world neglect the other three gods, and is generally an obtuse, fickle sort of being who views all of existence as his entertainment.

* ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireII'': Deathevan, an embodiment of human evil and the child of Tyr/Myria from the previous game, is worshipped as Father Evans, the god of the CorruptChurch Evrai. In his human form, he resembles a GrandpaGod much like common depictions of God in Christianity, and he uses his church to pose as the sole god of the world rather than one of many gods and brainwashes his followers into doing nothing but mindlessly serving and worshiping him 24/7 while masterminding the demon attacks on other parts of the world.
* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'', Myria takes on this role. Unlike Deathevan, however, she's a far more morally-ambiguous figure, but she's still posing as the One True God and worshipped by the Urkan Church. It's later revealed that she's protecting humanity from the Desert of Death and the dangers of uncontrolled technological development, but Yggdrasil argues back that what she's doing is keeping humanity in a GildedCage. In the end, she's found praying to God, "if there is a God," and asking what she should have done instead, but she doesn't receive an answer - except from her sister.

Simple: take a page from UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} and make it so that the evil God is akin to the Demiurge- [[NotQuiteTheAlmighty not the true God]], but a villainous pretender. In Gnostic thought, the God of the Bible (or at least the Old Testament) is not the true God, but an imposter known as Yaldabaoth who [[AGodAmI falsely believes himself to be the true God]] and keeps humanity, his creation, in the dark of the truth to torment them and lord his power over them. As such, the Demiurge Archetype will be worshipped as the god of the setting, and may very well have created humanity and/or the physical plane, but is only posing as the true god. They will use their power to torment and oppress humanity, keeping them from achieving true ascension/spirituality/enlightenment, and will likely be the god of a CorruptChurch and/or TheTheocracy that they use to enforce their will.

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': Akio Ohtori/End Of The World/Prince Dios. A former deity now fallen into despair and obscurity, Akio deceives and manipulates the students of Ohtori Academy with both his position as "[[InsistantTerminology Acting]]" Chairman of the Board and with various displays of magic. The final episodes reveal that much of this magic is actually [[MasterOfIllusion an elaborate special effects setup]] to compensate for the true power of Dios being sealed behind the [[GateOfTruth Rose Gate]]. Likewise, his domain of Ohtori Academy is itself implied to magically separated from the "real" world, possibly even being a PocketDimension. Meanwhile the closest thing to an ''actual'' deity is his sister Anthy, whom he's abused into subservice; her leaving him during the GrandFinale renders him helpless.

* ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': (WARNING: Major spoilers ahead!) [[spoiler: Akio Ohtori/End Of The World/Prince Dios. A former deity now fallen into despair and obscurity, Akio deceives and manipulates the students of Ohtori Academy with both his position as "[[InsistantTerminology Acting]]" Chairman of the Board and with various displays of magic. The final episodes reveal that much of this magic is actually [[MasterOfIllusion an elaborate special effects setup]] to compensate for the true power of Dios being sealed behind the [[GateOfTruth Rose Gate]]. Likewise, his domain of Ohtori Academy is itself implied to magically separated from the "real" world, possibly even being a PocketDimension. Meanwhile the closest thing to an ''actual'' deity is his sister Anthy, whom he's abused into subservice; her leaving him during the GrandFinale renders him helpless.]]

* ''Manga/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': (WARNING: Major spoilers ahead!) [[spoiler: Akio Ohtori/End Of The World/Prince Dios. A former deity now fallen into despair and obscurity, Akio deceives and manipulates the students of Ohtori Academy with both his position as "[[InsistantTerminology Acting]]" Chairman of the Board and with various displays of magic. The final episodes reveal that much of this magic is actually [[MasterOfIllusion an elaborate special effects setup]] to compensate for the true power of Dios being sealed behind the [[GateOfTruth Rose Gate]]. Likewise, his domain of Ohtori Academy is itself implied to magically separated from the "real" world, possibly even being a PocketDimension. Meanwhile the closest thing to an ''actual'' deity is his sister Anthy, whom he's abused into subservice; her leaving him during the GrandFinale renders him helpless.]]

* ''Manga/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': (WARNING: Major spoilers ahead!) [[spoiler: Akio Ohtori/End Of The World/Prince Dios. A former deity now fallen into despair and obscurity, Akio deceives and manipulates the students of Ohtori Academy with both his position as "[[InsistantTerminology Acting]]" Chairman of the Board and with various displays of magic. The final episodes reveal that much of this magic is actually [[MasterOfIllusion an elaborate special effects setup]] to compensate for the true power of Dios being sealed behind the [[GateOfTruth Rose Gate]]. Likewise, his domain of Ohtori Academy is itself implied to magically separated from the "real" world, possibly even being a PocketDimension. Meanwhile the closes thing to an ''actual'' deity is his sister Anthy, whom he's abused into subservice; her leaving him during the Grand Finale renders him helpless.]]

* ''ComicBook/CliveBarkersNextTestament'': Has Wick, who employs a [[BrightIsNotGood color motif]] instead of a [[LightIsNotGood light motif]] actually ''is'' the Abrahamic God but only as part of a triune, two of whom turned on him around the time of the New Testament. All the atrocities committed in the Old Testament, the slaughter of the firstborn, the torture of Job[[note]]Done for laughs[[/note]], death for those who criticized him and his prophets, the real turning point was Abraham being ordered to kill his son. That's when his brothers[=/=]peers turned on him and, as they are collectively greater than him, imprisoned Wick away from people. Notably, Gnosticism is in part a reaction to the evil actions of the Old Testament God, interpreting them so that a "real" benevolent god could exist, which Wick and his brothers embody well.

* In ''Recap/BlackMirrorUSSCallister'' Robert Daly is the deeply introverted CTO of Callister who helped create the VRMMO Infinity game, where he eventually made an offline mod based on his favorite TV show (A pastiche of ''Franchise/StarTrek''), where he plays as an {{Expy}} of Captain Kirk. However, the AI characters inside the game are based on his real life coworkers he felt slighted against (Most of which he was overdramatic about), even having their personalities and memories. Giving them a BarbieDollAnatomy, he leaves them alone with nothing to do but drink and bang their heads against the wall, when he comes in he forces them to play out an episode plot, or just straight up abuses them when in a foul mood, and if they get out of line, he invokes BodyHorror, [[CompleteMonster or worse.]] He knows they are sentient, because he admits their suffering makes him happy. His most personal punching bag, CEO and fellow company founder Walton, outright describes him as "An Asshole God ruling over a bubble universe." In the end, the crew break out of his system during an update, which had deleted the mod with Daly still inside, now unable to log out, while the crew more than earned the happy ending.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Invoked by a Grimm-corrupted Salem when she meets with the reincarnation of her husband Ozma. Since both of them have been cursed by the setting's true Gods with different forms of immortality, said Gods have left the planet, and they're the only two beings on the planet capable of using magic, Salem wants the two of them to rule over the human race as the new gods. Ozma doesn't object... at first. And Salem is even fairly benevolent... at first. However, once Ozma makes the mistake of telling Salem about the four Relics the Gods left behind, and that assembling all four would be likely to cause an ApocalypseHow, things quickly devolve into a battle that destroys their castle and kills their children. By the present day, no human (or [[LittleBitBeastly Faunus]]) even remembers them.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime]]. Conquering the universe, making what he can in his image, destroying what he couldn't conquer and erasing all knowledge of his failures. He uses a huge military of spacecraft, robots and clones connected to a hive mind who espouse a dogma about him, and even brainwashed people of the planets he is invading. Immortal and narcissistic, everything exists to where he is [[ReligiousHorror the god, the church, and the churchgoer]] with no room for individualism. LightIsNotGood incarnate, as he's always espousing how he'll bring light to the universe[[note]]Ironically, when Adora destroys him, he's a mass of shadows.[[/note]] Series creator Creator/NDStevenson admitted that when creating him they were thinking of what it was like to grow up in a deeply fundamentalist environment while transmasculine and bigender.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime]]. Conquering the universe, making what he can in his image, destroying what he couldn't conquer and erasing all knowledge of his failures. He uses a huge military of spacecraft, robots and clones connected to a hive mind who espouse a dogma about him, and even brainwashed people of the planets he is invading. Immortal and narcissistic, everything exists to where he is [[ReligiousHorror the god, the church, and the churchgoer]] with no room for individualism. LightIsNotGood incarnate, as he's always espousing how he'll bring light to the universe[[note]]Ironically, when Adora destroys him, he's a mass of shadows.[[/note]] Series creator ''Creator/NoelleStevenson'' admitted that when creating him they were thinking of what it was like to grow up in a deeply fundamentalist environment while transmasculine and bigender.

* Nobuyuki Sugou from ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' rules the online game Alfheim Online (AFO) as the Fairy King Oberon, where he manipulates the players to climb a rigged tree, tortures hundreds of imprisoned players, and sexually abuses one of them as a LustObject (Who happens to be the LoveInterest Asuna). When Kirito gets the upper hand on him with help from [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Kayaba]], he even whines that he's the god of this world, earning a ShutUpHannibal from Kirito.

* ''ComicBook/CliveBarkersNextTestament'': Has Wick, who ''is'' the Abrahamic God but he did such things as part of a triune, two of whom turned on him around the time of the New Testament. All the atrocities committed in the Old Testament, the slaughter of the firstborn, the torture of Job[[note]]Done for laughs[[/note]], death for those who criticized god and his prophets, the real turning point was Abraham being ordered to kill his son. That's when his brothers[=/=]peers turned on him and, as they are collectively greater than him, imprisoned Wick away from people. Notably, Gnosticism is in part a reaction to the evil actions of the Old Testament god, interpreting them so that a "real" benevolent god could exist, which Wick and his brothers embody well.

* CliveBarkersNextTestament: Has Wick, who ''is'' the Abrahamic God but he did such things as part of a triune, two of whom turned on him around the time of the New Testament. All the atrocities committed in the Old Testament, the slaughter of the firstborn, the torture of Job[[note]]Done for laughs[[/note]], death for those who criticized god and his prophets, the real turning point was Abraham being ordered to kill his son. That's when his brothers[=/=]peers turned on him and, as they are collectively greater than him, imprisoned Wick away from people. Notably, Gnosticism is in part a reaction to the evil actions of the Old Testament god, interpreting them so that a "real" benevolent god could exist, which Wick and his brothers embody well.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Characters/StevenUniverseWhiteDiamond White Diamond]]. While the Diamond Authority is billed as four matriarchs working together to lead the Gem Homeworld, White is the defacto GodEmpress of all gemkind. Her power easily surpasses that of Blue and Yellow Diamond, let alone lesser gems. She claims to be the [[UltimateLifeForm perfect being]], with all other gems, even the other Diamonds, merely being flawed reflections of herself. She refuses to listen to others or admit that she is wrong, and the end result of her plans would be the annihilation of all other life in the universe in order to fuel the creation of more gems- more subjects for her to rule. She demands that her subjects be perfect in their actions, thoughts, and desires at all times, and destroys everything that is "off-color". The only one shown to be able to stand up to her is [[MessianicArchetype Steven]].