History Main / ReligionOfEvil

* The underground demon worshiping cult from ''Literature/OfFearAndFaith'' that tried to sacrifice Elin was definitely this.

* The underground demon worshiping cult from ''Literature/OfFearAndFaith''that tried to sacrifice Elin was definitely this.

* ''EVEOnline'': The Blood Raiders. Since their "religion" invovles vivisection with no anesthesia.... And to a lesser extent Sansa's Nation. They believe in turning people in to "true humans" by destroying the personality yet keeping intelligence and creativity intact.

** Most Daedric cults on the other hand are pretty friendly and just want to worship their kinda evil god in peace

-->--'''Prof. Hartridge''', ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight: Sins of the Fathers''

* At first glance, the Order of the Harvest Moon from the adventure game ''{{Harvester}}'' seems like a slightly skewed BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats. Once you've passed the final step of their initiation ritual, which involves navigating an EvilTowerOfOminousness, killing horrible monsters, and having [[NietzscheWannabe sinister and nihilistic]] conversations with really nasty people, you've discovered their true colors... and their true intentions.

** There's also the Ministry of Paternoster, one fourth of the [[AncientConspiracy Seers of the Throne's]] major factions in ''MageTheAwakening''. To them, [[{{Muggles}} Sleepers]] worshiping Supernal truth profanes the [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Exarchs]], so it is their duty to [[PathOfInspiration remove all truth in religious doctrine]] while being true to the Seer credo of utter domination over the Sleeping world. Notable for being a ''KnightTemplar'' Religion of Evil, since unlike most, cynical Seers, [[BelievingTheirOwnLies they have deluded themselves into truly believing they're a good thing for the world]]-once all Supernal truth has been scoured from the Fallen World, the Exarchs will make the world a utopia under their benevolent hand. In this, they're a pretty good EvilCounterpart to Pentacle mages (the default good guys), who all make a point of questioning their own beliefs.

* The Shine Shine Dan from ''WarriorOfLoveRainbowman'' are the KKK (against Japanese) [[RecycledINSPACE with monsters]] and FacelessMooks.

* In ''[[KushielsLegacy Kushiel's Avatar]]'' by Jacqueline Carey, a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Persia is tired of worshiping [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda Ahura Mazda]] and getting nothing for it; a cult that worships his enemy, the evil [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angra_Mainyu Angra Mainyu]] kills the leaders of the country and takes over. It seems to pay off, as the members of this cult, who describe ''themselves'' as evil, actually do gain supernatural power, but it scares everyone else, gods and humans alike.

* The EvilCounterpart to a ''good'' religion, These guys are usually just trying to appease or even manipulate their god instead of holding reverence.

* The EvilCounterpart to a ''good'' religion, These guys are usually just trying to appease their god instead of the ''good'' religions active reverance.

* The EvilCounterpart to a ''good'' religion, whose deity is not so much worshiped or prayed for rather than appeased and bribed towards leaving mortals alone.

* In ''MassEffect'', the Geth religion comes down to the total extinction of all organic life in the galaxy. Unfortunately, the gods they worship -- the Reapers -- are quite real...
** And in an expansion of the trope [[spoiler:The reaper Sovereign sees them as so inferior that it is insulted by the Geth's worship of it.]]

*** Which is a case of Western confusion. Historical Thuggee may or may not have worshiped Durga in her form as Kālī, but the Kali associated with the Kali Yuga is a different figure--the names seem alike when transliterated. It works dramatically, anyway, so just go with it.

* Worship of Liart the Master of Torments, Achrya the Tangler of evil plots, Gitres the Un-maker, and Nayda the Un-namer in ''TheDeedOfPaksenarrion'' by ElizabethMoon.

[[folder:Comics]]

Most often a {{Fantasy}} trope, the ReligionOfEvil has no pretenses of being anything other than... well, evil. Quite often it'll be a CardCarryingVillain that refers to ''itself'' as evil; sometimes it won't say that word straight out, but its tenets and actions will be such that its followers are necessarily evil. Any time a temple's decoration involves lanterns made out of the [[NothingButSkulls skulls]] of their {{Human Sacrifice}}s, it probably qualifies here (but see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary Sedlec Ossuary]] for a counter-example).

'''No RealLife examples''', please! This is a ''very'' controversial subject and likely to invoke edit wars. It is sufficient to say that certain features of the ReligionOfEvil can be found in historical religions of human history.

!!Examples

* The villains in ''{{Wolfhound}}'', the druids Zhadoba and Man-Eater, are said to be priests of the local ReligionOfEvil. They later turn against each other in an EnemyCivilWar, until the protagonist [[NiceJobBreakingItHero kills Man-Eater]] in revenge for the [[DoomedHometown destruction of his hometown]], leaving Zhadoba the undisputed High Priest.

** In the ''Empire of the East'' trilogy, however, it is made clear that Orcus, the demon prince, did compel his followers to worship him, so the titular [[TheEmpire empire]] was itself a ReligionOfEvil, at least until Orcus' top lieutenants overthrew him in a coup.

* Enter worship of any of the Gods of Chaos in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' and you hit ReligionOfEvil levels very quickly. Each Chaos God has their own angle: Slaanesh worshippers pursue emotional excesses, Khorne worshippers seek only to spill blood in Khorne's name, Nurgle worshippers spread disease and despair, and Tzeentch worshippers are fuelled by ambition and seek to evolve and change. The downside is that there is a roughly 99% chance of getting possessed, sacrificed, burned by witch-hunters or simply [[TheCorruption turning into a screeching, frothing, mindless mutant abomination with four heads that vomit blue fire]]. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but only Chaos gives you eyes inside your mouth.

** The Word Bearers Legion take this trope to its logical conclusion. In fact, Lorgar devoting himself to his official ReligionOfEvil is responsible for the 40kverse being the [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Universe]] it currently is; it was Lorgar's minions who secretly manipulated events so that the HorusHeresy was inevitable -- it was even a Word Bearer Chaplain who conducted the Chaos ritual that ultimately saw Horus corrupted and sworn to Chaos.

* In ''RomancingSaGa'' the three Dark Gods each have followers, however the religion supporting the BigBad is the ReligionOfEvil [[spoiler: One of the Priests of the Temple of Elore in Melvir is actually the leader of said evil religion, even going so far as to summon monsters into the town and said summoning ritual was directly under the Temple of Elore itself, even more disturbing is the sacrifices and strange deaths at the start of the game]]

* In addition to various examples from the usual suspects among the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' gods, ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' has people who worship the King of Shadows (the {{Pure Magic|Being}} BigBad). The second expansion adds the cult of Zehir, worshipers of the yuan-ti god of poison who have set themselves up as the rival to a ''different'' ReligionOfEvil, those who worship Sseth, the yuan-ti's normal patron deity.

* The ''Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermillion'' has a rather complex complex backstory leading to the ReligionOfEvil. The leader, Bellias, was originally the next Supreme Priest of the Bardus Church before his epiphany in the Island of Kanaphia / Truth Isle, in which he turned to Octum as his god. The great irony of this Religion of Evil is that its base is ''the same city as the Bardus Cathedral'' and the portal to Octum (and base of operations) is '''right under the Cathedral'''. And just to demonstrate how evil this religion is, Bellias' second-in-command, Borgeid, is responsible for corrupting the Great Spirits and corrupting the lands. And they resort to terrorism in spreading their beliefs. Yeah, it's that evil.

* The doom cultists in ''EightBitTheater''.
** And whatever Black Mage is worshipping that week. Though Black Mage admits he's only worshipping them for the express purpose of gaining their dark blessings until he is powerful enough to usurp them for his own ends.
*** This comes back to bite him later on, when Chaos rises and he tries to get on his team. Chaos then tells him that he's planning on destroying everything, Black Mage asks if that includes him. Chaos's response? "Biiiiiiiiiiiig time". [[FaceHeelRevolvingDoor Needless to say, Black Mage immediately sees the need to kill Chaos. ]]

* Robin Jarvis has three of these in his two ''Deptford'' trilogies; the cults of Jupiter, Hobb (and his co-gods Mabb and Bauchan), and Suruth Scarophion. All of them practice sacrifice of their fellow sapient animals, since there are no human characters, in gruesome manners. Jupiter eats his sacrifices, Hobb's unfortunately named followers, the Hobbers skin their victims alive in a process referred to as the "bloodybones", and Scarophion's cult (known as the Scale) poison their victims with his blood, which dissolves the victim into a puddle of tar. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids You know, for kids]].

* The child cult that worshipped "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" in the Creator/StephenKing short story ''Children of the Corn'' and the movie series.

* The state religion/culture of Skrea in The Kingdoms Of Evil

* ''Runescape'' originally had only three gods, Saradomin, Zamorak, and Guthix, who were good, evil, and balance. Zamorak is considered more chaotic now, and has some followers who are decent and suggest that their reputation is WrittenbytheWinners. Still, the Zamorakians are arguably 99% evil, featuring all sorts of bloody murder, their members include vampires, werewolves, demons, and [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking an Evil Chicken]], and many of their rituals actually use the word evil.

* The doom cultists in ''8-Bit Theater''.

* The Followers of Kira from ''Manga/DeathNote''. Ironically they are killed off by Kira (actually a follower of Kira but he would have done it himself if he wasn't being watched) as they were obviously creating the cult simply for prestige and greed.
** After [[spoiler: Kira's death]] they reemerge, praying for Kira's return. Possibly a subversion since we never see them do anything evil.

* The ''{{Civilization}} 4'' Mod ''FallFromHeaven'' includes the Ashen Veil religion, which explicitly seeks to bring hell itself to Erebus.

** Sauron also managed to convince Ar-Pharazôn and the Númenoreans to worship his master Morgoth/Melkor with HumanSacrifice, as part of the chain of events that lead to the downfall of Númenor described in ''Akallabêth''.

** Sauron also managed to convince Ar-Pharazôn and the Numenoreans to worship his master Morgoth/Melkor with HumanSacrifice, as part of the chain of events that lead to the downfall of Numenor described in ''Akallabeth''.