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Horned Humanoid

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"But I can get into anything with a loose enough collar. Just gotta ease one horn through and then angle it up. There's a term [in our language] for getting caught unprepared that translates to 'running around with clothing stuck on your horns.'"
Iron Bull, Dragon Age: Inquisition

Whether huge and hideous or helical and handsome, having horns can hamper the head of hatless heroes and hated hostiles homologously. Habitants of Hell haggle Holy Halos for hot horns. Horned heads of hairy hombres and hembras hermosas highlight the Half Human Hybrids' heterogeneous heritage that hybridizes human with hoofed husbandry.

The Horned Humanoid hails from the Hellenic, characteristically hefting the horns of haughty rams, honored harts, hilarious goats, and hoary bulls. Humorously, holding a single horn hardly ever heralds holiness.

Subtrope of Monstrous Humanoid.

Usually either demonic or bestial, being an important aspect of the Big Red Devil physical archetype, but also having having strong connections to Brutish Bulls, Marvelous Deer, and Gruesome Goats as well as being a mandatory feature for Cernunnos, minotaurs, oni and Fauns and Satyrs and optional on Draconic Humanoids. Many an evil example sports Horns of Villainy; more barbaric examples will sport Horns of Barbarism. A few might be Cuckold Horns (or compared to them). See also Crown of Horns and Sinister Deer Skull.


Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Ao no Fuuin depicts Oni with small, sharp horns on their heads.
  • Berserk:
    • Nosferatu Zodd sports a massive pair of bull's horns in his winged minotaur-like Apostle form. He loses one of his horns after fighting against Griffith.
    • A heretic cult kidnaps Casca and gets ready to sacrifice her, with a man wearing a goat's head mask presiding. Then the Apostles get involved, turning him into a giant goat-man.
  • Bleach:
    • Ichigo's first hollow form is a powerful bipedal reptilian creature with a mane of hair, a long tail protruding from its back, three clawed toes, and spikes jutting from its shoulders. His second form is humanoid with retractable claws, tufts of red fur on its wrist and clavicles, and a horned mask that covers its entire head. It can No-Sell everything Ulquiorra throws at it.
    • Aizen's experiment White is initially assumed in-universe to be a Vasto Lorde due to its great power and humanoid appearance. Its arms end in sword-like appendages instead of hands, and it's covered in a jet-black exoskeleton. It was created by Aizen merging the Hollowfied souls of Soul Reapers, creating an artificial Vasto Lorde. It's the Hollow that forms the basis of Ichigo's Hollow powers and is what takes control of Ichigo to defeat Ulquiorra.
  • Humans possessed by demons in Blue Exorcist are often horned. The protagonist himself gains a pair of fiery horns when using his flames.
  • Brave Raideen: Demon Emperor Barao's One-Winged Angel form has bright pink horns.
  • The demons in Chrono Crusade all have horns that mind link them to Pandemonium. Pandemonium controls their actions to a certain degree via this link and constantly supplies their "legion" cells with energy. If their horns are ever removed they must find an alternate source of power, such as a human's soul via a contract, or else they will die after their "legion" is depleted.
  • In DARLING in the FRANXX, we have Zero Two. She has a pair of small red horns on the top of her head and the headband she wears connects to them for an unknown purpose. Since she's part-klaxosaur, the horns probably come from her klaxosaur blood.
  • Tade from Delicious in Dungeon has a small pair of horns.
  • Digimon: Devimon, Wargreymon, Flamedramon (a rhino-like nose-horn), Agunimon, and Yaksamon.
  • Lilith and her descendants in The Demon Girl Next Door are all humanoid-looking, except they have horns and a tail. This is the result of their powers being progressively sealed by the Light Clan; they originally look more like Big Red Devil.
  • Frieza, King Cold, Captain Ginyu, and Dabura of Dragon Ball fame. In Frieza's case, they're most prominent in his first and second forms (the second, in particular, looks rather Satanic), and vanish entirely when he crosses the Bishōnen Line.
  • Dragons in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid have the ability to take on human forms, though some of them keep their horns visible at all times. Tohru explains that it's a sign of power, as horns are lumps of magic that are often targeted in attacks. The humans around them simply pass it off as cosplay.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Mina Ashido has two small horns on her head, for some reason. They seem quite soft and sensitive, as Nejire Hado accidentally caused her discomfort when she started playing with them.
    • Little Eri has a small, singular horn on the side of her forehead. It's directly tied to her Quirk; it shrinks when she uses it too much, and was later shown to have resumed growing slightly.
    • Pony Tsunotori from Class 1-B has two large horns on either side of her head. Her Quirk, Horn Cannon, allows her to detach them and shoot them as projectiles. New horns grow in almost immediately after she detaches them.
    • Minor character Miyagi Daikaku has horns thanks to his Quirk, "Big Horn". Because he's a newscaster, he had to snap one of them off because it was blocking view of the monitors behind him, sparking in-universe controversy.
  • Naruto:
    • Son Goku the Four-Tailed beast.
    • Kinkaku and Ginkaku.
    • Kabuto in Sage Mode.
    • Three of the members of Orochimaru's Sound Four gain horns when they reach the second stages of their Cursed Seal forms - Kidomaru gets two brown conical devil-style horns, Sakon & Ukon each get a long, thick, curved red horn curving up from their foreheads, and Tayuya gets a veritable crown of sharp white horns growing in several directions.
    • The Sage of Six Paths, as well as his mother. His mother's were large enough that she was nick-named the "Rabbit Goddess" while the Sage's were significantly shorter. His sons in turn lacked horns, with the older son possessing only markings on his forehead.
  • Several citizens of the Magic World in Negima! Magister Negi Magi have horns, most notably Princess Theodora, President Seras, Shirabe and Tamaki.
  • One Piece:
    • Horns are not uncommon on humanoids, which the author describes as analogous to buck teeth. For example, Moria (a human) and Oars (a giant) both have horns.
      • Dellinger has horns on his head, though they are easily mistaken for a part of his baseball cap. He possesses incredible speed and uses those sharp horns to impale his targets. He's a hybrid human and fighting-fish fishman, though in this universe, fighting fish are monstrous and have long, curved horns, which the ones on Dellinger's head increasingly resemble as he reaches adulthood.
      • Mad Scientist Caesar Clown has horns on his head.
      • Kaido, one of the Four Emperors, along with his son Yamato both have impressive sets of horns reminiscent of a water buffalo. Both are described in-series as Oni, appropriately enough.
    • Tony Tony Chopper, a reindeer whose Devil Fruit caused an Anthropomorphic Transformation, has horns coming from holes in his hat.
  • The Santovasku of Royal Blood in Outlanders have cute horns that curl over their face like big eyebrows.
  • Scanty and Kneesocks from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, being demons, naturally have horns. Scanty has two curved ones on the back of her head while Kneesocks has a single sharp horn on her forehead.
  • The dragonfolk from Tales of Wedding Rings look like normal humans with small horns growing from their temples.
  • A common (though not universal) trait for members of the Hell-Horde in 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess. The Hell-Lord, his wife, and his daughter all have horns rising vertically from their scalps; Enki, Youki, and Insuke have oni-like horns rising from their foreheads; and Torture has curved horns pointing forward from the sides of her head.
  • The Demon race in Tsuyokute New Saga all have horns...except for the future Demon Lord. He is instead a Winged Humanoid, which the current Demon Lord Louisa notes is rare.
  • In Unlimited Fafnir, Tear has tiny horns sticking out of her head.
  • In Urusei Yatsura, the Oni are a humanoid alien race with small horns on their heads.
  • This is actually an important plot point in Voltes V. Born in Boazania and got two horns sticking out? No? Then prepare for a life of pariah-esque slavery supporting the planet's thriving galactic tourism industry. See, the Boazanians regard horns as a sign of nobility and honour, and those without them are refused the privileges that the Horned ones are entitled to. Funnily enough, there was once a time when both Horned and Hornless Boazanians co-existed in peace - until one day, the Horned decided that the Hornless were to be oppressed, building a Fantastic Caste System based on their physical differences.

    Art 
  • Michelangelo Buonarroti's sculpture of Moses shows the prophet with two tiny horns coming out of his head. This weird attribute comes from the Latin translation of Exodus, specifically after Moses' encounter with God on Mt. Sinainote .
  • There are multiple works of prehistoric art that seem to depict humanoid figures with horns or antlers. What exactly they are meant to represent or signify is still being debated.

    Audio Plays 
  • In Starboard, the outlaw ship Taranau's Captain Saeth and First-mate Picell are both diafol, hairless humanoids with curved horns.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) fanfiction, the Titan Thor is the beastly kind: he's built like a giant upright ape and as part of his caprinae traits, he has ram-like horns curling out of his head. Calling him "haughty", as rams usually are, seems like an unfair assessment of his character, and despite his red coloration (and even being compared to a beast from the Book of Revelation based on his horns at one point), he's no devil.
  • Casey Steele: Rebecca Clause has them due to Dragon Ancestry:
    She frowned and then rubbed the dainty silver horns on her head
  • Dungeon Keeper Ami: Multiple types of magical humanoid creatures have horns:
    • Horned Reapers.
    • Youma.
  • Enlightenments: It's a Team ICO Series fic, so of course horned humanoids show up. Some fanon additions to the horns include Wander growing a large pair like Ico's and expansions on how Dormin perceives them: the horns show up as light to their senses and allow them to see through the horn-bearers' eyes, and in Wander's case create a constant telepathic connection between Dormin and Wander unless one of them (usually Wander) shuts it down. The amount of Dormin's soul inside a horned person also affects how much spiritual light they give off: horned boys like Ico have softly glowing horns to Dormin's sight, while Wander's shine, though in either case they appear inert to mortal vision.
  • Evershade: In Reforming: Implied, given that mutants are human, and it's said that the mutant condition called GSD can give horns.
  • Kiyohime in Fate of the Clans has a pair of white ones.
  • In Fate of the Clans: Bad Ends there's Cú Chulainn growing ten of them as a Beast's Crown when Beast VI possesses him.

    Films — Animation 
  • In ''Sleeping Beauty', Maleficent appears to have horns, although that might just be the shape of her headdress.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Discworld:
    • The King of the Elves in Lords and Ladies appears as a satyr with huge antlers, reflecting the Horned God of Celtic mythology. A more parodic version of the Horned God is Herne the Hunted, who has little horns between his rabbit ears.
    • Astfgl, King of Hell in Eric, generally appears as a pantomime Demon King, wearing a cowl with little red horns on it. When he gets really annoyed, he turns into a demon from a heavy metal cover, and massive ram's horns rip through the cowl.
  • This is part of what identifies demons in the web-novel Domina, along with red eyes, fangs, and (sometimes) a tail. Note that none of these are natural; demons are humans modified in specific ways by the toy maker.
  • In The Girl from the Miracles District, Iben's true form boasts in impressive pair of curved horns. He claims that Robin is a fellow Horned Humanoid, but Nikita is yet to see this.
  • The phagors of Helliconia have horns with sharp edges, that curve back over their shoulders like an elongated goat's horns. Phagor slaves have these removed to deprive them of these formidable weapons.
  • The premise of Joe Hill's novel Horns is that the main character Ig Perrish unexpectedly wakes up one day with horns growing out of his head, horns that compel people to tell Ig their worst secrets. It's the first step of Ig transforming into a Big Red Devil.
  • Imogene's Antlers is a children's book about a girl who wakes up with antlers.
  • In The Iron Teeth web serial, after evolving hobgoblins start to grow horns. Blacknail has taken to filing his down. They might look imposing, but horns made disguising himself and wearing hats impossible.
  • Dragons and demons in I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level undergo Voluntary Shapeshifting between their native and humanoid forms, and in the humanoid forms they are always horned. Demons tend to have caprine-looking horns, while dragons tend to have straight, conical horns.
  • A Master of Djinn: Djinn often look like this, with a generally humanoid body but also large horns. Siti does too in her djinn form.
  • Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn: In the main character's dream, the king of the elves has a rack of horns like a deer. For most of the book, that's what he thinks it is. It's not until he sees the king in person that he realizes it's a crown of branches.
  • In Monster, the title character's chief rival for work as a cryptid dogcatcher is Hardy, a tall guy with ram's horns. Hardy claims they're a mark of a demonic ancestor, but Monster suspects his competitor is really half-satyr and only claims to be part demon because it sounds cooler.
  • The Damiani in the Star Trek Novel 'Verse. Damiani have three sexes, with the number of horns signifying which sex an individual belongs to. The loose equivalent of females have three, one on the forehead and one above each temple, the loose equivalent of males have only the forehead horn, and the third sex has only the two on the temples.
  • Third Time Lucky: And Other Stories of the Most Powerful Wizard in the World: Magdelene has a housekeeper, Kali, who's a female demon with red eyes and horns. Later on Magdelene's son sends a demon against her who's horned as well, and much bigger than humans.
  • The Traitor Son Cycle:
    • The trolls in this world have horns.
    • When Orley and his band start getting mutated by death magic, they slowly grow antlers.
  • Whateley Universe: horns are one of the more common types of Gross Structural Dystrophynote , with notable examples including Phobos, Deimos, Darqueheart, and The Fabulous Imp.

    Live-Action TV 

    Myths & Religion 
  • Classical Mythology:
    • Dionysus is described as having horns in Orphic mythology, and was depicted either wearing horns or actually having them. In Bacchae, Pentheus perceives him as having a bull's horns.
    • And then there's Pan and the satyrs, both traditionally depicted with goat horns, and the bull-headed Minotaur.
    • Apollo in his Carneios aspect is also depicted with ram horns. In fact, it has been suggested that Apollo's horned iconography had more impact on Satan's horned depiction than Pan, as Pan tends to be depicted more animalistically rather than just a guy with horns.
    • Zeus has ram's horns as the syncretic deity Zeus Ammon.
  • Oni of Japanese legends had a single, sometimes off-center horn. Modern depictions in anime often have two-horned oni as well; when there's a literal Red Oni, Blue Oni pair, most likely one will have a single horn and the other will have two.
  • Classically, horns were thought to be a symptom not of cheating on one's spouse, but the opposite: being cuckolded. Supposedly, the reason Oberon had horns was because Titania got around. (With no less than the personification of dreams, to hear some tell it.)
  • Cernunnos, the stag-horned god of animals and fertility from the Celtic Mythology.
  • The male god in Wicca is often referred as "The Horned God" and is often depicted similarly to Pan and/or Cernunnos.
  • More folklore than mythology, but Herne the Hunter definitely fits this trope.
  • In ancient Canaanite mythology, bulls were an important symbol of power — hence why several major gods, including the wise, kingly El, are sometimes depicted as bulls or simply having bull horns.
  • Medieval and Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo Buonarroti often depicted Moses with horns, due to the Vulgate (Latin Bible translation) misreading the Hebrew of The Book Of Exodus 34:35 as stating that Moses's face was "horned" (keren) instead of "shining" (karan). This contributed to the anti-Semitic belief that all Jews have horns.
    • The klezmer group The Klezmatics played with this stereotype by titling one of their albums Jews with Horns.
  • Satan is often portrayed as having horns, which probably owes something to the pagan gods describes above. Note that the only passage in the Bible that even gets close to assigning Satan a physical form describes him as a serpent instead.
    • The Bible also says he often appears as an angel of light, so there's that...
    • At least a few people interpret horns as originally being a sign of good, or, more specifically, truth. For example, a goat with seven horns and seven eyes is said to have held the Seven Spirits of God.
  • Veles, a prominent Slavic god and opponent to the god of thunder Perun, is often depicted as having horns. This may be due to him being a patron to peasants and protector of cattle, among the many, many other things he's associated with.
    • In the same vein is the Leshy, a Slavic forest spirit.
  • Wendigo are in modern times depicted as horned or deer-headed. This is mostly fabrication from the movie, as traditionally they're either depicted as chillingly human, ice zombies or owls.
  • The Navajo, the Sioux and other indigenous peoples from the deserts and prairies often depict divine beings with buffalo horns, such as this depiction of a Thunder Bird. Seeing as this animal was hunted for sustenance, many gods embody the power, authority and virility of the bison.

    Pinball 
  • The title monster of Gorgar, a giant red-skinned Satanic Archetype with small bull horns.
  • The referees in Capcom Pinball's Flipper Football are depicted with small red horns.
  • In Big Bang Bar, Ray (of "Ray's Ball Busters") is a large blue-skinned alien with a pair of curved ram horns on his head.
  • Played with in Varkon; the two arrow lights on the lower playfield give Varkon the appearance of having small orange horns.
  • The Devil and lesser demons in Devil's Dare all have a pair of horns on their heads.
  • Not surprisingly, devil horns are prominently featured in the AC/DC pinball:
    • The Underworld playfield looks like a fiery head topped with small curved red horns. In the basic version of the game (those without the lower playfield), the horns appear on lead guitarist Angus Young's head instead.
    • On the "Luci" Premium Edition table, the three female Hot as Hell demons (Luci on the backglass, and a blonde and a brunette in the Underworld) all have small horns.
    • Not a humanoid, but the Rock 'n Roll Train also has horns on its smokebox.

    Professional Wrestling 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Games Workshop games:
    • Shared Warhammer, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 examples:
      • Horns are a common trait amongst the daemons of Chaos, most notably the daemons of Khorne, fitting as they do into the Big Red Devil archetype. Many Nurgle demons have what appear to be antlers, which seems a bit incongruous until you realize that they're actually a reference to Shope papilloma virus, the so-called "Jackalope Disease".
      • Most Beastmen have horns of various shapes and sizes as goat-men are the most common type but even those with other animalistic traits, such as the more avian Tzaangors, sport crowns of sharp horns. Size and number of horns are used to determine rank among the beastmen, which is why those humans mutated with bestial traits and exiled still can't get any respect from them.
      • Horns are one of the most common forms of mutation gifted to the followers of the Chaos Gods and are considered a sign of great favour.
    • In Warhammer and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Skaven Grey Seers, the priests of the Great Horned Rat, have multiple curving horns growing from their heads as a sign of being one of their god’s chosen.
    • Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Ogroid Thaumaturges have a wide set of curved horns sprouting from their heads, along with a smaller pair of horns emerging from their foreheads. Together with their cloven hooves and massive size, these horns give the Thaumaturges an almost devilish appearance.
  • Magic: The Gathering: After Lim-Dûl attempted to break free from Leshrac's influence, the planeswalker disfigured him by giving him a pair of large antlers in retribution and to make sure that Lim-Dûl would always know he was only a working animal for his master.
  • Mechanical Dream: Zïns have large, pointed horns curling down and forwards from their temples.
  • Pathfinder:
    • While the game follows D&D's lead in terms of keeping horns optional for tieflings, you'd be hard-pressed to find one without them in a Pathfinder illustration prior to the release of the tiefling-specific splatbook Blood of Fiends. Even in said supplement, those with horns outnumber those without nearly two to one.
    • The empyreal lord Cernunnos resembles a human with a pair of antlers rising from his brows.
  • Rifts: The Cernun are horned Snake People resembling the ram-horned serpents prevalent in Celtic art; it's speculated that they may have inspired this motif in the first place, and that an ancient Cernun dimensional traveler may have been what started the myth of the horned god Cernunnos.
  • Rocket Age: Maduri, the Martian warrior caste, have "tusks" growing from their cheek bones and lower jaw, with the females growing large and more impressive sets.
  • Shadowrun: Standard trolls sport a variety of different types of horns, as do the Fomori, Cyclops, and Minotaur subtypes.
  • The World of Darkness:
    • Changeling: The Lost: Common , especially among the Beast, Ogre, Darkling, and sometimes even Fairest seemings.
    • Demon: The Fallen: Horns are an option for the Fallen's Apocalyptic Form, which, in addition to looking badass, also gives them an extra attack form.

    Theatre 
  • Tsukipro: The second SQ stage play had the characters in costume as Yōkai for a video shoot, only for Tsubasa and Eichi to fall through a portal into an AU where they actually are those yokai. They wake up and see Shiki (Shuuten Doji) and Shu (a water dragon) with what they think are still fake horns, but when they start talking in normal 21st-century style and realize Shiki and Shu are acting like they're from another time, Tsubasa and Eichi grab their respective partners' horns, and realize they're real. The others don't have horns, but Eichi and the twins are a Little Bit Beastly. Rikka is a male Yuki Onna, and Dai... has a skeleton on his cape, that freaks Tsubasa out.
  • In many productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck will have horns; for what it's worth, contemporary portraits sometimes showed him as a satyr/faun. Oberon may have them as well.

    Video Games 
  • Arknights has a lot of horned characters. Any of the Little Bit Beastly characters based on a species with horns (like bulls or deer) will have horns or antlers. Members of the Sarkaz (a race based on demons, Oni, and of all three Draconic Humanoid races also are defined by horns. In addition, there's Dusk, Nian, and Ling, who have draconic tails and horns themed more after Chinese dragons, and are parts of an ancient god who was broken into a dozen "siblings."
  • Atlas Reactor: Magnus is a Half-Human Hybrid (via LEGO Genetics) between a human and a stegosaurus, and as a result sports a magnificent trio of horns.
  • Avengers Academy: Loki can take on a Frost Giant form, which features two horns curling back into his hair.
  • Bendy and the Ink Machine: As the game is based in a cartoon studio that has a demon as its biggest star, it can be expected to have multiple examples:
    • Alice Angel, despite being an angel, also has two horns on her head.
    • Allison Angle, a live version of Alice, also has the horns.
    • Bendy, the studio's demonic star creation. He's got two little horns on his head in his cartoon form, he's got two longer horns on his head in the 3D form he spends most of his time in during the game, and he's got really long, jiggly horns on his head in his One-Winged Angel form.
    • Susie Campbell shares the character's horns after she was turned into a version of Alice.
  • Caves of Qud: Mutant characters can have Horns as a mutation, including singular rhino-esque horns and antlers. They're not there just for show either; while horned mutants can't wear helmets, they have a chance to deliver vicious headbutts in the middle of combat, which cause decent damage and rip the enemy open for bleeding damage.
  • Multiple types of horns are some of the many, many costume options in both Champions Online and City of Heroes.
  • In Coffee Talk: Lua, and by extension all succubi, have horns. Lua's in particular have marks on them that glow when she's angry.
  • Dark Souls:
    • Manus, the Father of the Abyss, has a massive set of horns. What's especially creepy is they appear to be growing out of his eye sockets, and there are around eight or nine glowing red eyes scattered around the horns.
    • The Ghrus of Farron Swamp in Dark Souls III all have their faces obscured by a mass of white fur and twisted horns.
  • In Dicey Dungeons, the three shopkeepers are elflike beings with horns.
  • Disgaea: The Succubus class, as well as Taro and Raspberyl from Disgaea 2 and 3.
  • The Desire Demons in Dragon Age look like beautiful, scantily-clad women... with horns.
    • Dragon Age II shows that the Qunari are also horned, though the ones you meet in the first game are hornless. It's stated that naturally hornless Qunari aren't all that uncommon and it's a sign that they're meant for a special role, while the others are members of a merchant caste. The mercenaries and the merchant in Awakening apparently removed their horns, something that Qunari who have abandoned their people's dogma decided to do. Despite this, interestingly, there seems to be a positive correlation with horn size and rank—Qunari grunts in the second game have unimpressive horns, more skilled soldiers larger ones, and then the Arishok's set puts Texas longhorns to shame.
    • The Ogres had horns. Fitting, they're born from a Qunari Broodmother.
  • Elden Ring: 'Omen' is the in-universe term for humans born with horns (and occasionally other animalistic features) growing out of their body, a remnant of the pre-Erdtree ages. Omens are heavily persecuted and most have their horns cut off as infants- and if they survive the process, are exiled to the sewers.
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • Hircine, Daedric Prince of the Hunt, most commonly takes the form of a humanoid with large antlers.
    • Clavicus Vile, Daedric Prince of Bargains and Wishes, typically takes the form of a very short man or boy with small horns protruding from his head. Vile's external conscience, Barbas, normally takes the form of a Canine Companion, but in Online, he briefly takes a humanoid form complete with horns of his own.
    • Mehrunes Dagon, Daedric Prince of Destruction, typically takes the form of a four-armed Big Red Devil complete with classic "devil-style" horns.
    • The form taken by Molag Bal, Daedric Prince of Domination and Corruption, varies between appearances, most often having a mix of various undead and reptilian traits. One consistent trait he possesses is the presence of horns, often spiraling downward from the top or back of his head.
    • Sanguine, the Daedric Prince of Debauchery and Hedonism, typically takes the form of a short, portly man with devil horns.
    • Many of the lesser Daedra have this trait, particularly the Dremora, an intelligent lesser Daedric race who are most commonly found in the service of Mehrunes Dagon as his Legions of Hell. Dremora variously have two or four horns on their head, and the horns tend to get larger and more pronounced among the higher-ranking Dremora. In particular, the Dremora Lords in their appearance in Skyrim, look like gigantic, black and red-skinned men with curling ram horns above their temples. Other humanoid lesser Daedra to possess horns include the Herne, Morphoid Daedra, Ogrim, Skaafin, and Xivilai.
    • The Frost Giants of Skyrim and Solstheim are roughly the same size and build of standard Giants, but have white fur, five eyes, and two long, curved horns on their heads.
  • The Hero of Fable will end up growing a nice set of horns if one is particularly evil.
  • Fate/Grand Order:
    • Several of the Heroic Spirits have horns. Usually this is a sign of either oni or dragon heritage, though there are various other reasons for horns as well. For example, Frankenstein's Monster has an artificial horn that's part of the mechanism used to animate her.
    • The Beast-class entities that serve as the game's overarching threats all have horns, which are designated as their "crowns" and serve as a sign of their ascendancy to being one of the Beasts.
    • Subverted with Mephistopheles. His "Heroic Spirit Formal Dress" Craft Essence image reveals that his horns are actually part of his hat.
  • Final Fantasy: Most notably on the summons Bahamut and Ifrit.
    • Exdeath's final form, Neo-Exdeath, in Final Fantasy V.
    • The Ronso of Final Fantasy X. Party member Kimahri's horn was broken off in the past after he refused to admit that Biran, another Ronso, was stronger than him. After leaving the Ronso, they promise to build a giant statue of Yuna, "with grand horn on front!"
    • Also, the Rev (and sub-species Revgaji) of Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics A2, the garif of XII, and the Gria of Final Fantasy Tactics A2.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, Summoners are born with with a single horn, evoking the horn-like accessories of the Summoner class in previous games.
    • The dragon-like Au Ra from Final Fantasy XIV possess horns that come in many different shapes; some rather typical, others looking more like fins. They also function as their ears.
      • The Padajal are Hyurs who are chosen by the Elementals to serve the will of the forest and they gain horns in the process. The Endwalker tank role quests show that those who disobey the Elementals' will can have their Padajal status revoked and that also includes losing the horns.
  • Genshin Impact:
    • Ganyu, a cross between a human and a qilin who has goat horns on her head.
    • Version 2.3 gives us Arataki Itto and the oni race in Inazuma, who have these as the main characteristic of their race. They are split into two groups: the crimson oni and blue oni.
  • This is the most prominent race trait of the Draphs in Granblue Fantasy, where their horns come in various shapes and sizes.
  • Honkai Impact 3rd:
    • Mei gets a pair of these on her head when she fully awakens as the Herrscher of Thunder. They actually make her resemble an oni of sorts.
    • There's also the Vodka Girls Rozaliya and Liliya, who both have horns of different lengths on their heads.
  • ICO:
    • Ico's bovine horns are seen as a curse, and he's left to die in a haunted castle because of them.
    • Shadow of the Colossus: Wander starts to sprout some horns at the end as a sign of his tie with Dormin, who sports a pretty impressive pair of horns Themself. According to Word of God, Wander is actually the progenitor of the horned bloodline, making him Ico’s distant ancestor.
  • Jak and Daxter: Jak has horns in his dark form during the second game. Oddly enough, they are missing in the third. A fanon explanation is that the positive/balancing effects of the Light Eco caused them to disappear.
  • Kamiko: Yamato is a blue-haired woman who, upon being bestowed the Blade of Kusanagi and becoming one of the supernatural warriors the game's title refers to, gains a pair of white, deer-like antlers.
  • Legacy of Kain: Many demons, the magic missile shooting creatures in Blood Omen, and in some concept art for Soul Reaver, Kain. What he has now may or may not qualify. Precursor murals sometimes add horns to their enemies.
  • The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: At first, the undead warriors of Dante's Freezer to be wearing horned helmets. However, the Ogres' second phase, where their armor is broken off, shows that their horns are in fact growing out of their skulls.
  • Leshy features the titular forest spirit, horns and all.
  • LiEat: Dragons have horns but usually hide them.
  • The Maid of Fairewell Heights: Undertaker, who has curled horns on her head.
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: Played with. Big Boss gets a piece of shrapnel lodged in his head that comes to resemble a horn. Quite befitting for a man who is "already a demon". If the player accrues enough Demon Points by killing enemies, letting Buddies be critically wounded and forced to withdraw, developing nukes, etc., the demonic imagery becomes stronger as the cranial shrapnel becomes longer and more horn-like, and Big Boss becomes covered in blood on a permanent basis.
  • Yōkinshi from Onmyoji has a single horn on his forehead not unlike Hozuki, while Yasha has two on either side of his head. The Hair Eater has four, two of which are shorter and positioned in the same fashion as Yasha above, while the other two are much longer and stick backwards through his hair (strangely enough, this trait is not shared with his older sister En'enra).
  • Persona 5: The main character's Guardian Entity, Arsène, has the appearance of a man with two black and red horns coming out of his forehead.
  • The Dewman race of Phantasy Star Online 2 has horns. Males have a singular horn protruding from their forehead, while females have two horns growing from their temples.
  • The dragonfolk and demonfolk of Princess Connect! Re:Dive have horns that grow from either above their foreheads or right above their ears. These are rarely commented on and none of the horned people introduced have been evil or villainous (aside from Akari and Yori, who work for a Harmless Villain and don't really do anything evil). Eriko, though, is a rather mentally unstable demonfolk.
  • Lidelle, from Puyo Puyo, has horns which she is ashamed of and covers with her Odango Hair. However, she learns to accept them after meeting the Dark Prince, another character with horns.
  • Playing the Endless Setlist in Rock Band 3 will unlock one horned hairstyle for each gender of rocker.
  • Shantae (2002): A large, humanoid beast with two horns on its head serves as the boss of undead and demon-infested Cackle Mound.
  • Shing!'s most common variety of Yokai have horns on their forehead and they reflect their size too, so the bigger the Yokai, the bigger the horns.
  • General Roz from Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser is a Bishōnen with big horns, most likely as a reference to Voltes V's Boazans mentioned above.
  • Horns are surprisingly rare in Touhou Project. They seem to be exclusive to Oni, and they're not the most common species (Yuugi Hoshiguma has a central forehead horn, Suika Ibuka has two really big ones coming out of both sides of her head, and Kasen Ibaraki is strongly suspected of being an oni because of the two round hair buns she never, ever removes).
    • Keine Kamishirasawa has a pair in her beast form as a were-hakutaku, which she decorates with a pretty ribbon.
    • Seija Kijin also has two small horns.
    • Konngara, the final boss of the Jigoku route in the very first game, has what looks like a single unicorn-style horn, though close inspection shows that it is a metal spike (with blood) shoved through her forehead.
  • Twisted Wonderland: Malleus Draconia, due to being a Draconic Humanoid. His mother Meleanor is also one.
  • Warcraft:
    • Many demonic creatures such as felhounds and doomguards, while others seem to have them for little reason (Sasquatch come to mind).
    • Ogres have two heads, one of them having one eye and one horn.
    • Malfurion Stormrage has stag antlers due to his druid powers.
    • Malfurion's brother Illidan grows horns after the Skull of Gul'dan turns him into a partially demonic being. The Satyrs are similar, being former Night Elves that were corrupted by Fel magic.
  • WildStar: The Draken have an extensive variety of horns.
  • World of Warcraft:
    • Female Draenei have horns, while males have large bony crests. Some ogres also have a single horn.
    • The Tauren, giant fuzzy minotaurs one can play as a Horde-side character.
    • Dragons often retain their horns when taking on human form.

    Visual Novels 
  • Hanyuu from Higurashi: When They Cry has two horns on her head, one of which is chipped slightly. No one ever comments on their appearance. In the original visual novel, it's shown that she still had them when she was a living human, hinted to be due to a recessive genetic defect. They're a large part of the reason why she ended up being sacrificed, since her horns led people to think she was a demon.
  • Juniper's Knot: The demoness as seen in official screenshots.

    Webcomics 
  • Alice and the Nightmare: Rougina used to have horns on her head, made of Cinnabar, but they shattered after her sister Bianchia — who herself is also an example — was kidnapped.
  • Ava's Demon: The four demons possessing the four main characters all have horns of various shapes, colour and sizes. When Ava Ire undergoes a nasty Transformation of the Possessed she gains a smaller version of Wrathia's ram horns.
  • Charby the Vampirate: Some of the elite vampires have them, as do dragons, the scotodino, the onekamari and mermen.
  • Contemplating Reiko: All the members of the Mouryou clan.
  • El Goonish Shive: Grace becomes one when she transforms into her Omega form while angry. The horns morph away when she calms down. Both the horns themselves and their association with anger are a result of her parentage including a creature whose horns behave the same way.
  • Evil Diva: All the devils have horns.
  • In The Forgotten Order there is a race of witches with horns of varying shapes and sizes.
  • Girl Genius: Some, though by no means all, of the Jägerkin have horns of varying shapes and sizes.
  • The Greenhouse: The demon 'Red' has a somewhat evolving appearance, from anthropomorphic red mist to Hot as Hell humanoid. Her horns are present right from the start. Though one breaks off when she's severed from Mica and spends too much of her reserves, and they disappear entirely when she's put into the body of a cat, which gets a second tail instead.
  • Heartcore: All demons have horns of different shapes and sizes. Amethyst's horns, for example, are large, red, and curve forward; while Carval's horns are orange, point up and outward, and are stubbier.
  • Homestuck:
    • This is a racial feature of all the Trolls. The actual styles vary wildly from individual to individual, and include simply short, straight like Terezi, curled ram horns like Aradia, goatlike horns on Gamzee, and even lightning bolts on Eridan. You can see all of their horns here. Some of the Trolls point out how annoying their horns can be. Tavros's are so large, he can't get into his sleeping chamber ("recuperacoon"). Karkat gets picked on because his aren't pointed at the end, they're round. Equius is so strong, he no longer has two arrow shaped horns; he broke one off, so he has a flat one on his right side.
    • Liches, enemies uncommonly depicted during the kids' adventures in the medium, have horns that project horizontally from their skulls before taking right-angle turns upwards midway down their lengths.
  • I'm the Grim Reaper: Scarlet's horns are not intrinsic to being a reaper, but they are part of the look Satan gave her. Her horns grow when she invokes the power of her demon, and vanish if she is somehow Brought Down to Normal.
  • Kill Six Billion Demons: Not all Devils have horns, but the vast majority of them do. They have just as much variety as the Devils themselves, ranging from short and rounded, to utterly huge. The only type of Devil that doesn’t have horns is Pale Devils (due to them being more insect-like). Goblins also have horns, though they’re much less noticeable, being more like small nubs on the goblins’ foreheads.
  • Lovely Lovecraft: Night Gaunts have horns in their Dreamlands forms.
  • A reoccurring character of Metempsychosis is a red Humanoid Alien with large bull-like horns.
  • In Oceanfalls, monsters are mostly human in appearance, but have red eyes and one horn on their forehead.
  • The Demi in The Overture are renowned and hunted for their black moonshale horns.
  • Realta: The comic is set in a world where humans have attributes of Zodiac signs, which most obviously translates to having animalistic traits. Members of clans based on horned animals thus have them.
    • Elowen and their grandfather, being of the Virgo clan, both have antlers on their heads.
    • Amelia, as a Capricorn, has goatlike horns.
    • Taurus have bulllike horns that extend from the sides of their heads.
  • The demons in Slightly Damned have some members who possess horns note , the demons who do have them consider them signs of strength and beauty and can be brought to tears or become murderously violent if they are damaged.
  • Tower of God: Endorsi has a tiny, skin-colored horn above her right temple, Hoh has a big red horn growing from the side of his head, and Ja Wangnan has two small red horns at the rear base of his skull.
  • Nudge from Wapsi Square is a trickster demigod who looks mostly humanoid, although she has long, curly mountain-goat horns, as well as hooves and a tail.

    Web Animation 

    Web Original 
  • Fire Emblem on Forums:
    • Demon Soul Saga: A few Kaijin forms, including Akihiko's Ibaraki-Douji, Mildred's Proioxis and Durga, are this trope.
    • Wonderful Blessing: Oni, based on mythological oni can have horns.
    • Solrise Academy: The Belgor, one of the setting's races, have horns and tails, resembling demons. They are, otherwise, not demonic in origin despite Fantastic Racism against them.
  • New Life SMP: As a stick puppet, Martyn's real-life daughter Amelia is depicted with a pair of black goat-like horns, similar to those of the Snow Creepers which Martyn has declared himself the guardians of.
  • In Reasoning, the Architect is a strange, humanoid, skull-headed creature with bony horns protruding from his scalp.
  • Subeta: All (humanoid) Subetan natives have Pointy Ears, but the Ji-Meneb, who are mostly found in Shadowglen and Darkside, have horns as well, usually with a ram-like curl.

    Western Animation 
  • Like the Horned King, the Lich from Adventure Time has a helm with curled horns, one of them permanently broken.
  • Elves in The Dragon Prince have small horns; the color and style vary by the kind of elf.
  • Jackie Chan Adventures: Amongst the Demon Sorcerers, Dai Gui the Earth Demon in particular overall looks like a minotaur: a largely humanoid body with especially human-like arms, and giant horns sprouting from his head. Like the bull which his head and horns resemble, Dai Gui is overall a dim-witted and vicious brute, as well as being a literal demon who wants to take over the world like the rest of his siblings.
  • Jimmy Two-Shoes has this trope in spades: Lucius, Beezy, Molotov, Jez, plus several background characters. They are meant to be demons after all...
  • Multiple demons in The Owl House are depicted with horns of various shapes and sizes, though special mention goes to Faust, the former principal of Hexside. His steer-like horns are so comically large that the flashback he's featured in shows him having to turn or tilt his head to avoid bumping into things.
  • The Operavox adaptation of "The Rhinegold" of The Ring of the Nibelung portrays giants Fafnir and Fasolt with horns.
  • A number of Transformers have horns, perhaps most notably Unicron, which helps to add to his almost demonic appearance.

    Real Life 
  • Human papillomavirus is known to cause an extreme form of this if you have a certain immune deficiency. Said "horns" are usually not on the head, though.
  • Cutaneous horns are another natural example of this, believed to be caused by radiation. Unlike papllomavirus, these tend to form on the head, as well as other sun-exposed parts of the body. They're formed from keratin, the same material that makes up hair, toenails, and other mammals' horns.
  • Horned helmets can give this appearance, although such horns are accessories rather than being attached to the person.


 
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The Horned King

While never said to be one, the Horned King is a tall, skeletal and of course horned overlord, who seeks the Black Cauldron to reanimate an unstoppable army of the undead, so that he may used them to conqueror the world.

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