History Main / DevilButNoGod

* [[WildMassGuessing Possibly]] ''{{Reaper}}''. The Devil is a main character and several demons have appeared, but neither God nor explicit angels have.

* A rather curious inversion occurs in TheBible; God and Satan both exist, but it is very clear Satan is far weaker than God and overall he is barely important at all in the Bible. In Revelation, we get lots of supernatural evil/nasty entities, but they were all [[GodIsEvil sent by God]]; things get specially confusing because sometimes its not even clear Satan is working against God at all, as the leopard-like Beast that emerges from the ocean receives gifts from Satan and asks God's permission to kill the saints (which he of course gives).

** ''TransformersAnimated'' as well. Character designer ([[OneOfUs and fellow fan]][[WordOfGod Derrick Wyatt]] has stated many times that Primus is not in the ''Animated'' universe, but Unicron might exist, albeit simply as a mechanical EldricthAbomination rather than an actual god. Course, given the nature of the Transformers Multiverse as a whole, [[YourMileageMayVary YMMV]] on whether you agree or not.

* While the ''book'' of ''TheLordOfTheRings'' averts this trope (see below), this is pretty much the impression of someone who only watched the movies and never read any of the book or backstory. Its possible to watch the movies without ever learning that Gandalf is a maia (or even what a [[OurAngelsAreDifferent maia]] is), or the existence of the [[CouncilofAngels Valar]] or [[{{God}} Eru]], or know about the downfall or [[AndManGrewProud Numenor]]. ''Something'' [[MysteriousWays subtly]] influences everyone's fate and sends [[DeusExMachina Gandalf back from the dead]], but it is sufficiently abstract and distant when compared to [[{{Satan}} Sauron]] as to qualify for this trope.

* In CHARMED, the Devil ("the Source", short for "Source of All Evil") appears in several successive versions, but the show is maddeningly vague about who or what is in charge of "up there". The "White lighters" answer to "the Elders", but who do THEY answer to? Blank-out.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* [[http://bogleech.com/mortasheen.htm Mortasheen]], as it usually does, does this in a weird way. There are no gods (unless you count [[OlympusMons The Ultimates]]), mainly because the creator, [[WordOfGod who said it himself]] is an "agnostic science nut". However, there are [[OurDemonsAreDifferent the equivalents to demons]] The Devilbirds, birds charged in the egg with negative psychic energy to cause and feed off of negative emotions, usually in a HighOctaneNightmareFuel manner. But, there are no angel equivalents. There [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=Necromon&order=9&offset=48#/d4p0bm were]] [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=Necromon+Celestials#/d7psvh once]] when Mortasheen was still called Necromon, but the creator couldn't come up with any re-designs for them that he liked, so he scrapped them. AndThatsTerrible.

* In ''IncarnationsOfImmortality'' by PiersAnthony, the devil is quite active in the world and actively advertises (with billboards!) for Hell. God never intervenes directly, because it would be breaking His own rules (Satan has no such scruples).

** TheStormlightArchive has [[spoiler: several shards (i.e. specialized gods) involved at some point, but by the end of the first book, it is quite clear that the one most definitely invested in saving Roshar from destruction is dead, while the most definitely evil shard who killed him is apparently returning to finish the job. Or something; it's hard to say. Still, Ouch.]]

** In the New World, there are demons that can be summoned and bound and which can [[DealWithTheDevil make deals with mortals]], and the books are very clear that where they come from ''is'' Hell. But there's no clear evidence of any benevolent deity in the driver's seat -- the [[VampireTheRequiem Lancea Sanctum]] only ''claims'' they got their BloodMagic from angels, the gods in the [[MageTheAwakening Oneiros]] are just [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve reflections of mortal belief]], and the [[PrometheanTheCreated qashmallim]] are ''far'' from benevolent, fluffy-winged cherubs.

** The ascended beings are sorta stand-ins for angelic beings: clad in white, all-knowing and infuriatingly self-satisfied. Occasionally one of them will get around their own PrimeDirective to pull off a genuine miracle, like when [[spoiler: Oma Desala fights Anubis to a standstill]], or when [[spoiler: Morgan La Fey heals Teal'c]] in ''The Ark of Truth''.

* In [[DragonAge Dragon Age: Origins]] a rage demon the PC fights with the help of a [[ChurchMilitant templar]] laughs at the templar's declarations of faith, taunting him that the god he worships and the heaven he hopes for simply don't exist, but that there are demons. He then attacks the party. (There is never any solid indication that the god the templars worship really exists. Their church was started by a prophet who was said to have divine powers, but there is a competing theory that she was simply an incredibly powerful mage.)

** According to Justice in the ''Awakening'' expansion pack even the spirits don't know if the Maker exists. As for the Devil there are no clear analogues except maybe the four demons that, according to the in-game codex, taught Humanity BloodMagic. You can fight several of them in the games as optional bosses and they are pretty strong.

** It's worth noting that early in the company's history, TSR did publish statistics for God, Jesus and Archangels, but later removed them from publication after heavy criticism. So in the case of DungeonsAndDragons the lack of a God is due to outside pressure and not oversight.

** Note that most of this takes place in the book of Revelation. Which is... [[MindScrew literally impossible to understand.]]

*** That or it could be that the whole idea of giving an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent being stats was a bit silly to begin with (unless they were putting infinity signs in front of everything.)
*** Silly to begin with if you assume they bought the idea that god, Jesus and archangels happen to be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; by having stats with finite numbers they actually denied such to be the case, before speaking like a fundie remember your milleage may vary.
**** Considering that the use of the word "God" on this page is essentially monotheistic (at least as regards to God, Jesus and Archangels); the above is not an unreasonable assumption to make. If you actually expect someone to define every word before they use it then this page would be affully long.

-->'''John:''' "There's good and bad everywhere, don't you think?"
-->'''Jack:''' "I'd say there's bad everywhere; good, I don't know about."

* Loosely adhered to in {{Brutal Legend}}. Ormagöden, a great fire-beast who flies through the sky, seems to be the nearest thing the setting has to God, and is brought to the earth and killed by the demonic First Ones. His death more-or-less creates the world. Afterwards, there are plenty of demons and other hellish creatures, but the Titans, who were more angelic, have left the world.

* Inverted in the ''{{Pokemon}}'' series games and anime where there is a counterpart for God called Arceus, but there is no counterpart for the Devil. Played straight in the ''PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games however, where Arceus is nowhere to be seen, and that only one Pokemon, [[spoiler: _______]] is the true evil one.

* Trigon in ''TeenTitans'' is built up as the series' parallel to Satan in almost every way, but there doesn't seem to be a contrasting "God" figure at all.

-->--''Midnight Run''

* In DeathNote, the only supernatural beings are the mostly malvolent {{Shinigami}}, and their world is a rather hellish place.

* Taken to unfathomable levels in the SouthPark movie (as well as the TV show). Heaven is shown to have only about two thousand residents while Hell has over a ''hundred million''.

* God makes only a few appearances in SouthPark while Satan certainly has far more. In fact, everyone goes to Hell who isn't Mormon.