History Main / FaithHeelTurn

* In the 1993 Creator/DCComics ''ComicBook/{{Bloodlines}}'' crossover, a priest was attacked by one of the alien parasites. He awoke afterwards with a crisis of faith and decay powers, leading to him embracing evil and calling himself Cardinal Sin. Likewise, the man who held a shotgun on the priest was attacked and discovered he now had healing abilities and actually saved the priest before he died, now calling himself Samaritan. Samaritan ended up dying as he managed to cancel out Cardinal Sin's death touch.

** The Chaos Dwarfs were a group of Dwarfs who were cut off from the rest of their kin after cataclysm isolated in the East. They then renounce worshiping their ancestors, and now worship the chaos god Hashut as their new master.

Not to be confused with [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Faith's]] heel turn; [[JustForPun becoming kill happy has nothing to do with atheism]].

** In the new timeline, the events of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' [[spoiler:have sapped whatever faith he had for the Elder Gods, seeing them as more burden than help, considering they did nothing to stop Shao Kahn or Shinnok, both of who regarded the Elder Gods as "toothless worms." This is clearly evident in TheStinger for ''MKX'', [[PayEvilUntoEvil where he decides to take matters into his own hands]] [[KickTheSonOfABitch by reducing Shinnok to a mere living head]] and [[WellIntentionedExtremist using a more]] [[KnightTemplar hard-line]] [[HeWhoFightsMonsters stance]] on defending Earthrealm from external threats.]]

* In ''Anime/WeissKreuz'', [[ThePsychoRangers Schwarz]]'s resident PsychoKnifeNut Farfarello started out as a devout Catholic child, but when he learned that he was adopted and that the nun who was his teacher was his biological mother, he had a psychotic episode and murdered his entire adopted family. As an adult, he claims that his desire is to kill God, and spends his spare time torturing priests to death.

* Kirei Kotomine of ''LightNovel/FateZero'' had known for many years that he was [[TheSociopath inclined by his nature to evil]] but chose to adhere to the tenets of the Church. Due to the influence of Gilgamesh during the Fourth War, he began a descent into villainy, [[LateArrivalSpoiler ending with him laughing happily as he witnessed a fire kill five hundred people]].

When a character who gets religion turns ''good'' as a result, that's a HeelFaithTurn. If a character who gets religion turns ''evil'', it's probably a {{Cult}}, CorruptChurch, PathOfInspiration or outright ReligionOfEvil.

* OlderThanFeudalism: [[Literature/TheBible The Book of Job]] subverts this trope. {{Satan}} posits that Job is only a good, religious man because he is prosperous, and that if he suffered, would curse God. Satan attempts to test this theory; messengers arrive informing him that all of his livestock were stolen or killed, as well as his servants and children. When that isn't enough, Satan afflicts Job with illness. Job refuses to curse God, despite urging to do so by his wife and his friends, though he does finally break down and ask God "why?" God sharply rebukes Job and his friends but rewards him for his faith by doubling his family and possessions.
* Played straight in 2nd Chronicles of the Bible, however, when after Jehoiada the priest's death, King Joash of Judah turned away from following God and had Jehoiada's son killed for prophesying against him, eventually leading to his own death.

*** Averted from the reincarnated form of him as [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Soma Cruz]], who decides to not become the dark lord. It takes an (assumed) KillTheCutie moment to drive him to evil, and even then he can resist]].

* Brother Justin in ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' starts out as a well-meaning preacher. However, the combination of some bad luck, the [[PoisonousFriend influence]] of his [[BrotherSisterIncest loving sister]] and an unfortunate case of VillainousLineage ensures he ends up [[TheAntiChrist rather different]].

* The main character from the title story of Creator/WillEisner's ''A Contract With God'' is like this. Having lived his life as a good Jew only to lose his adopted daughter turns him into a slum lord. Being Will Eisner, though, he makes it both convincing and tragic.

* The main character from the title story of Creator/WillEisner's ''A Contract With God'' is like this. Having lived his life as a good Jew only to lose his adopted daughter turns him into a slum lord.
** Being Will Eisner, though, he makes it both convincing and tragic.

* ''Warhammer'''s sci-fi counterpart, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' gives us Lorgar and the Word Bearers; Lorgar was a deeply religious man who worshiped the Emperor as God made Flesh, going out of his way to spread Emperor worship wherever he and the Word Bearers went. Unfortunately for Lorgar, the Imperium at the time enforced the secular Imperial Truth that banned all religion, a conflict that culminated in the Emperor [[KickTheDog ordering the Ultramarines to firebomb the temple-city of Monarchia, the crown jewel of Lorgar's efforts, and forcing the Word Bearers to kneel before Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines (a move that Guilliman thought went too far).]] his faith in the Emperor roughly shattered, Lorgar went searching for some other truth to believe in, eventually finding it in [[GodOfEvil the Chaos Gods]].

** The Blackguard is a BlackKnight class that functions as the evil inverse of ThePaladin base class. A character need not be an example of this trope to become a Blackguard (many classes can meet the requirements), but a unique rule grants special bonuses to ex-Paladins that become blackguards. Low-level ex-Paladins gain evil versions of the Paladin class feature they lost when they broke their oaths, and mid-level Paladins gain the ability to swap out up to ten ex-Paladin levels for Blackguard levels, meaning they can finish the PrestigeClass at level 11 (this can't normally be done until level 16).
** The Ur-Priest is a MinmaxersDelight PrestigeClass that is famous for leaning very hard into LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards. Thematically, the class represents someone who steals magic from the Gods, rather than being given it for being a loyal servant. The class requires not only Evil alignment but prolonged study of the application of evil, as represented by the Spell Focus - Evil feat required to start taking the class. Taking a level in Ur-Priest permanently locks the character out of ''all'' other diving spellcasting. Alas, the class is most famous for its spell progression starting 5 levels behind but progressing at double the normal speed, eventually unlocking maximum level spells two levels before a normal Cleric would.

* In the 1993 Creator/DCComics ''Bloodlines'' crossover, a priest was attacked by one of the alien parasites. He awoke afterwards with a crisis of faith and decay powers, leading to him embracing evil and calling himself Cardinal Sin. Likewise, the man who held a shotgun on the priest was attacked and discovered he now had healing abilities and actually saved the priest before he died, now calling himself Samaritan. Samaritan ended up dying as he managed to cancel out Cardinal Sin's death touch.
* In ''ComicBook/{{The Kingdom|DC}}'', Minister William, a future prophet who upheld Superman as divine and above fault, was greatly disillusioned by his "deity's" confession of truth concerning the Kansas disaster that William was rescued from as a boy, that the disaster itself was not Superman's purpose but rather his fault for letting society be protected by [[NinetiesAntiHero the new generation of "heroes"]]. With his faith in Superman shattered, William is soon transformed into Gog and becomes Superman's oppressor.

* In ''Anime/WeissKreuz'', [[ThePsychoRangers Schwarz]]'s resident AxCrazy KnifeNut Farfarello started out as a devout Catholic child, but when he learned that he was adopted and that the nun who was his teacher was his biological mother, he had a psychotic episode and murdered his entire adopted family. As an adult, he claims that his desire is to kill God, and spends his spare time torturing priests to death.

* Brother Justin in ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' starts out as a well-meaning preacher. However, some bad luck, combined with the [[PoisonousFriend influence]] of his [[BrotherSisterIncest loving sister]] ensures he ends up [[TheAntiChrist rather different]]. In his case, it was an unfortunate case of VillainousLineage, though.

* In ''ComicBook/TheKingdom'', Minister William, a future prophet who upheld Superman as divine and above fault, was greatly disillusioned by his "deity's" confession of truth concerning the Kansas disaster that William was rescued from as a boy, that the disaster itself was not Superman's purpose but rather his fault for letting society be protected by [[NinetiesAntiHero the new generation of "heroes"]]. With his faith in Superman shattered, William is soon transformed into Gog and becomes Superman's oppressor.

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* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', the goddess [[spoiler:Meyneth]] is a kind and loving deity who just wants to protect life on the two titans [[spoiler:even to the point of pulling a HeroicSacrifice to do so]]. However, because of her desire for peace between the two worlds, her most loyal supporter - Egil - turns on her; believing that his people must take revenge against the Bionis.

* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'': Ciella of the villainous group Agito used to be one of the most well known Paladyns out there. She had a strong faith in the Ilian Church and the goddess. However, all of the dirty actions the the church performed in the goddess's name and made her take part in eventually caused her to lose her belief in them all as she fell into despair. Now all she wants is to plunge the whole world into despair with the ever so faithful Elisanne being on the top of her hitlist.

* In ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'', [[spoiler:Mattias (the FinalBoss of Ophilia's story) was once a high-ranking member of the Order of the Sacred Flame, but after his church got destroyed and many of its members killed with it, [[EvilStoleMyFaith he denounced his faith in the 12 gods]] and turned to the dark 13th god Galdera for answers. He initially used Galdera's power for good, but became drunk on this power over time]].

* Deconstructed with ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. [[spoiler:[[HumanoidAbomination Corypheus the Elder One]] was motivated into [[AGodAmI attempting to become a god]] by merging [[SpiritWorld the Fade]] with Thedas after he realized his own god, Dumat, was killed by mortals and that there was no trace of [[CrystalDragonJesus the Maker]] in the Black City. ''Before'' he visited the Black City and lost his faith, he was an EvilSorcerer likely responsible for corrupting it in the first place (which is said to have been what caused the Maker to abandon it). In effect, his loss of faith didn't actually change his ideology at all, he just thinks he needs to replace Dumat to give meaning to the world.]]

* Brother Justin in ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'' starts out as a well-meaning preacher. However, some bad luck, combined with the [[PoisonousFriend influence]] of his [[BrotherSisterIncest loving sister]] ensures he ends up [[TheAntiChrist rather different]]. In his case, it was an unfortunate case of InTheBlood, though.