History Main / ReligionOfEvil

*** Subverted with the Blood of Vol. At first glance, it's a LawfulEvil cult that reveres undead, pursues immortality, talks a lot about blood, practices necromancy, and is named after a malevolent lich-queen. When you dig into the setting detail, most of its principles are actually pretty sympathetic: immortality/divinity is a logical goal when the afterlife is [[TheNothingAfterDeath as shitty as it is in Eberron]], they believe that everyone has a spark of divinity in their blood, and they don't pursue undeath, but view Seeker undead as ''martyrs'' who have given up their own shot at divinity to guide others (while being first in line to beat the tar out of non-Seeker undead, more often than not). The religion is, by WordOfGod, actually based on the original beliefs of the line of Vol; Erandis simply hijacked a chunk of it for her own ambitions, and J. Random Blood of Vol Priest in Nowheresville, Karrnath, has almost certainly never heard of her and may well be no more evil than the Sovereign Host priest over in the next village.
*** The Dark Six are a classical pantheon of evil deities cast away from the main pantheon... and [[ChaoticNeutral The Traveller]]. It's possibly subverted, as the Dark Six [[UnreliableNarrator could be]] ''gods of nature'' that were removed from the Sovereign Host not because they were evil, but because the Sovereign Host was becoming the religion of civilization. Which, together with Eberron's Absent Deities-situation, leads to their evil possibly being a result of the Dark Six-worshippers gradually, over the ages, beginning to believe the propaganda spread about their deities.
*** The main religion that plays this straight are the Cults of the Dragon Below. They don't worship Khyber, just [[EldritchAbomination whatever]] they run across: a grab-bag of aberrations and fiends, backed by madness and cruelty.

** The most interesting legacy of Lorgar may be the Chaplains, the unique sect of [[BadassPreacher warrior-priests]] amongst the Space Marines. Their official purpose is to help keep Space Marines from being corrupted; however, not only were they created by the very first Legion to be corrupted (none of the other Traitor Legions have fallen Chaplains amongst their ranks because Chaplains were strictly found amongst the religiously-zealous Word Bearers), they were actually instrumental in corrupting the other Traitor Legions. Nobody remembers this fact now...

* Enter worship of any of the Gods of Chaos in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' and you hit Religion of Evil levels very quickly. Each Chaos God has their own angle: Slaanesh worshippers pursue emotional excesses and all manner of extreme sensational highs, Khorne worshippers seek only to spill as much blood in Khorne's name as possible (often with blatant disregard to the [[TeamKiller source of the blood]] when there isn't enough 'other' blood to shed), Nurgle worshippers revel in spreading disease and despair from their own rotting and infectious yet immortal bodies, and Tzeentch worshippers are fuelled by unprecedented ambition and embrace evolution and change [[BodyHorror no matter what that change entails]]. 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.
** There's also the other side of that coin; the Gods of Chaos are gods of bloodshed, decay, degradation, and relentless ambition, but they're ''also'' (respectively) gods of honor, rebirth, passion, and hope. As you can probably imagine, it's pretty damned hard to out-crapsack the [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Universe]] of [=40K=].
** In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' it is mentioned that while the Norscans openly and unrepentantly worship the Ruinous Powers, they worship several of the same gods as the southerners as well. Manann, god of the sea, is popular among the Norscans (quite obviously, since the Norscans are [[{{Expy}} pretty much Vikings]]), as is Taal, god of the wilderness. Some Norscans in the more civilized regions of Norsca even reject Khorne and prefer to worship Ulric as their war god. This is deeply confusing and upsetting to many priests in TheEmpire, who would prefer to treat all Norscans as AlwaysChaoticEvil instead of occasional co-religionists.
** That said, as mentioned by Literature/CiaphasCain (in Creator/SandyMitchell's ''The Traitor's Hand''), many Chaos cultists start out presuming the organizations they're joining are relatively innocuous like crime networks, interesting occult or deviant pleasure groups, or even social reform movements; they often only grasp the true nature of what they've joined when they're far too corrupted to even care anymore. The cult in that book mostly consisted of the bored, and very few of them had any idea what they were getting themselves into.
** At least in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'', many of the cults initially present themselves as organizations for social and political change, something that the Empire could rather use.
** Because of the way Chaos works (having an open mind will leave you defenseless against demons), Chaos often infiltrates and takes over ''actual'' rebellions and social reform movements.

** Chaos Cultists tend to view the mutations and horrible deformities as blessings. There does exist for every follower of chaos a very small chance of getting immortality by being promoted to a demonic demi-god. Most of them die or go insane way before ever getting close, but as with the D&D example above, most don't look at the likelihood of death or spawnhood and think "hey, that could be me"; they're convinced that they will be among those lucky enough to ascend to daemonhood.
** The Word Bearers Legion take this trope to its logical conclusion. In fact, Lorgar devoting himself to his official Religion of Evil 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 Literature/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 fact, the Imperial Cult worshipped by the Imperium? Created by [[Characters/WordBearers Lorgar]], primarch of the Word Bearers, as his first try at organized religion; when the Emperor smacked him upside the head with the fact he did ''not'' want any religions in his Imperium, even -- or especially -- if those religions deified him as a GodEmperor, Lorgar went running into the arms of the Chaos Gods.

** The Imperial Cult goes so far as to consider genocide a holy act as long as it's being inflicted on aliens.
** The Genestealer cults. Worshippers of a HordeOfAlienLocusts, whose membership is made up exclusively of the victims of FaceFullOfAlienWingWong and their HalfHumanHybrid children. They exist to increase their membership until they register in the HiveCasteSystem, at which point the bugs turn up and devour everything on the planet, ''including the cult''.
** The Elves of ''Fantasy'' still have their pantheon, unlike the Eldar of ''40K''. Also unlike the Eldar they only give [[WarGod Khaine]] (as well as other more malicious gods in the pantheon) a small amount of worship, as he is also the God of Murder and is considered a corrupting influence not unlike Chaos. The Dark Elves have no such worries and actively worship the underworld gods above all others, with Khaine being their patron deity. Wanton acts of murder, torture, and human sacrifice only ''begin'' to describe Khaine worship in Naggaroth.
*** The closest thing anyone has to a "good" religion in the 40K setting is the "Greater Good" beliefs of the Tau (which drives the Tau to put people in internment camps and use forced sterilization, although they don't exterminate non-believers on sight like most of the faiths), and the followers of Cegorach, the Eldar Laughing God (who is a creepy manipulative clown who hides from the Chaos Gods in the Eldar webway, but his manipulations seem to be at least trying to save the Galaxy).
** The religion [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks]] and [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Ocs]] of both settings is evil and simplistic. They follow the Gods Gork and Mork. One is cunningly brutal who will stab you in the back, while the other is brutally cunning who will stab you even when you are looking. The closest thing Orks have to theological debate is killing each other of which God is which. Worship of both Gods usually involves going around killing people and building [[HumongousMecha giant mechs]] in Gork's and Mork's image, which the Orks then use to kill people.

** ''Fiendish Codex II'' notes that most evil people are egotistical-- they don't look at lemures or dretches (bottom-of-the-barrel devils and demons, respectively) and think that will be their afterlife. They think they'll shoot to the top of the infernal hierarchies immediately. In addition, resurrection magic doesn't generally leave the revived with memories of where their soul ended up, so nobody has firsthand information as to what happens after you get killed.
** Both subverted and played straight in the new fourth edition of ''D&D''. Some evil gods actually have large (rational) followings that aren't typically seen as "evil". For example, non-evil worshippers of Bane (god of tyranny) might see him as the patron of "rightful and strong authority", and Grummsh (god of savagery) is worshipped by many as the "god of strength and conquest"- Gruumsh, incidentally, also created the Orcs and they don't have much choice 'but'' to worship him (same iwth Lolth and the Drow) or face his wrath. A new deity, [[TheTropeWithoutATitle the Raven Queen]], is worshipped as a personification of Death without the evil overtones (and is a mixture of Wee Jas and Morr from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''). On the other hand, for those who like this trope straight, we still have , Vecna, Torog, etc., and also a lot of classic Demon Princes who are worshipped as gods by deranged cultists. Some of the more "evil" gods can be justified: for example, Torog's domains include jailers and torturers-- necessary? Perhaps. Likeable? No, not at all.

** Let's not forget The Followers Of Set, a clan that, save for branch groups like the Serpents of Light, worship Set, their antediluvian ancestor and the one they believe to be a god. The main tenants of their faith revolve around absolute corruption, in all its forms, of anyone and everyone. Not surprisingly, most clanmembers follow the Path of Typhon. Also, Settites have a [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent snake theme]], complete with their clan discipline Serpentis.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' has an interesting example. The Covenant's religion didn't (completely) start out this way, but thanks to the High Prophets misinterpreting the sayings of the Oracle in their holy city ([[spoiler:actually a fragment of Mendicant Bias, a Forerunner AI who went nuts and joined the Flood for a while]]) and said Prophets' own corruption and thirst for power, a new tenant of the faith is added; KillAllHumans. Making things worse, this tenant was added simply to cover up the fact that [[spoiler:humans are the true Reclaimers and not the Prophets]]. It is also noteworthy that the end goal of their religion is to activate the Halo rings, thus killing everyone in the galaxy. While at the beginning of the games it's implied that even the Prophets don't know what the rings actually do, by ''Halo 3'' it's abundantly clear that [[OmnicidalManiac they just don't care.]]

* ''Webcomic/MagIsa'' -- In this comic, the cult known as [[http://mag-isa.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/119615 The Order]] is the religion of evil.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2539 Satan tries to build a Super Evil Devil Church]]. He manages to attract his FanBoy for a congregation.

*** The Church Of Lolth, the Spider Queen, is the state religion of Dark Elf society. Lolth herself is an AxCrazy Chaotic Evil {{Sadist}}, so she demands absolute obedience from her followers on the one had, but also punishes them for being ''too'' obedient and slavish towards [[{{Hypocrite}} her own rules]] on the other, and she prefers her clergy to be cunning and ruthless [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbers]] who break the rules and manage to not get caught. She demands human / Elvish sacrifices but her favourites are actually her own top priestesses as she finds it amusing that they were so cocky that they got themselves killed. Other [[SarcasmMode pleasant]] features of the Lolth religion include extreme [[DoesNotLikeMen misandry]] with male Elves being slaves, [[FantasticRacism Dark Elf supremacy]] and hatred towards all other races (especially surface Elves), rampant sexual depravity, and various practices instituted by Lolth designed solely to humiliate and demean her own people.

* Michael Kovac's secondary goal in SMASH, after winning matches, [[TheCorrupter was creating more Apostels of Hell.]][[/folder]]

*** The Church of Shar is an underground cult of {{Straw Nihilist}}s as Shar- the primordial Goddess of Darkness- was the co-creator of the world with her sister Selune, who felt betrayed by her sister when she started populating the planet with messy things like "light" and "life", leading to a titanic battle between the two which Shar lost. The Church thus preaches that the world not only belongs to Shar but was stolen from her, and encourages the faithful to murder followers of Selune and other good-aligned gods, and to embrace despair and their own miserable lot in life as everything you have truly belongs to Shar. You can only criticise a superior [[MyMasterRightOrWrong if you forfeit your life to do so]], you must commit murder or some other heinous crime both on initiation and every ten days thereafter, and apostasy is punished by death. Shar and her clergy are also fond of [[LaserGuidedAmnesia magical memory wipes]] both to ensure obedience and to foster feelings of hopelessness and loss in subordinates and enemies alike. The ultimate ambition of Shar and her church is to kill Selune and any god who opposes her (most of whom are technically [[OffingTheOffspring her own kids)]] and blanket the world in [[TheNightThatNeverEnds eternal darkness]] and converting the mortal races into shades, undead and other evil creatures who will [[{{Narcissist}} worship her forever]].

*** The Church of Shar is an underground cult of {{Straw Nihilist}}s as Shar- the primordial Goddess of Darkness- was the co-creator of the world with her sister Selune, who felt betrayed by her sister when she started populating the planet with messy things like "light" and "life", leading to a titanic battle between the two which Shar lost. The Church thus preaches that the world not only belongs to Shar but was stolen from her, and encourages the faithful to murder followers of Selune and other good-aligned gods, and to embrace despair and their own miserable lot in life as everything you have truly belongs to Shar. You can only criticise a superior [[MyMasterRightOrWrong if you forfeit your life to do so]], and Shar and her clergy are fond of [[LaserGuidedAmnesia magical memory wipes]] both to ensure obedience and to foster feelings of hopelessness and loss in subordinates and enemies alike. The ultimate ambition of Shar and her church is to kill Selune and any god who opposes her (most of whom are technically [[OffingTheOffspring her own kids)]] and blanket the world in [[TheNightThatNeverEnds eternal darkness]] and converting the mortal races into shades, undead and other evil creatures who will [[{{Narcissist}} worship her forever]].

* Wrestling/WWE had a few examples.

** The Wyatt family was a {{Cult}} that followed a mysterious being called "Sister Abigail" who may or may not exist, and were fond of kidnapping and brainwashing other wrestlers to make them members and preaching nihilistic messages about destruction and darkness; after the family broke up, the leader Wrestling/BrayWyatt even ended up possessed by a demon called "The Fiend".

** The Wyatt family was a {{Cult}} that followed a mysterious being called "Sister Abigail" who may or may not exist, and were fond of kidnapping and brainwashing other wrestlers to make them members and preaching nihilistic messages about destruction and darkness; after the family broke up, the leader Wrestler/BrayWyatt even ended up possessed by a demon called "The Fiend".

* Darkfriends from ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' worship The Dark One, the antithesis of the Creator who is a SealedEvilInACan, the Can in this case being the Pattern, of which the world / universe is the tapestry. If he escapes his prison he will unmake the Pattern and bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, but Darkfriends believe that once he has done this he will remake the world in his image and reward his loyal worshippers by resurrecting them as immortals who lord over the rest of humanity. In practice though most are actually quite terrified of the idea that this will happen in their lifetime and the majority simply joined for the perks, since Darkfriends tend to be quite well connected and for most Darkfriends its more like an international, criminal secret society and mutual benefit group. The books happen to take place as the Dark One is starting to escape, and the initial reaction of every Darkfriend is abject terror followed by varying degrees of fanaticism, resentment and paranoia towards non-Darkfriends and each other. Almost every single Darkfriend is both terrified of the Dark One beyond measure and entertains the delusions that they will be his favoured subject, and almost none of them dare to think that the Dark One is simply an OmnicidalManiac who will just destroy the world and that's it.

* The Ministry of Darkness, led by Wrestling/TheUndertaker, which worshipped a Satanic "higher power" and whose antics involved kidnapping, brainwashing and attempted human sacrifice, although it's unclear if any of it was real or not since Wrestling/VinceMcMahon was revealed to be the "higher power" in question and claimed the whole thing was just a ruse to get under the skin of his ArchEnemy Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin, despite Undertaker at least and some of his cronies apparently having genuine supernatural powers of their own.

** Most settings have one, if not dozens of these; the followers of Lolth or Bane from ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' and ''TableTopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' and Takhisis from ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' are only the most prominent examples. Other major examples in the standard Third Edition ''D&D'' cosmology are the churches of Hextor, Nerull, Erythnul, Gruumsh, Maglubiyet, Tiamat, and any of the DemonLordsAndArchdevils.

*** Bane is the God of Tyranny, Strife and Fear. His church was initially marked by sectarian violence that he encouraged and approved of, believing it [[TheSocialDarwinist culled the weak from the strong]], but when [[TopGod Ao]] declared that the power of a deity would now be tied to how many followers they actually ''had'', he shifted to a more orderly and hierarchical approach that promoted ambition, obedience, discipline and harsh punishments for those under their power.
*** The Church Of Lolth, the Spider Queen, is the state religion of Dark Elf society. Lolth herself is an AxCrazy Chaotic Evil {{Sadist}}, so she demands absolute obedience from her followers on the one had, but can also punishes them for being ''too'' obedient and slavish towards [[{{Hypocrite}} her own rules]], and she prefers her clergy to be cunning and ruthless [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbers]] who break the rules and manage to not get caught. She demands human / Elvish sacrifices but her favourites are actually her own top priestesses as she finds it amusing that they were so cocky that they got themselves killed. Other [[SarcasmMode pleasant]] features of the Lolth religion include extreme [[DoesNotLikeMen misandry]] with male Elves being slaves, [[FantasticRacism Dark Elf supremacy]] and hatred towards all other races (especially surface Elves), rampant sexual depravity, and various practices instituted by Lolth designed solely to humiliate and demean her own people.

*** The Church Of Lolth, the Spider Queen, is the state religion of Dark Elf society. Lolth herself is an AxCrazy Chaotic Evil {{Sadist}}, so she demands absolute obedience from her followers on the one had, but can also punishes them for being ''too'' obedient and slavish towards [[{{Hypocrite}} her own rules]], and she prefers her clergy to be cunning and ruthless [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbers]] who break the rules and manage to not get caught. She demands human / Elvish sacrifices but her favourites are actually her own top priestesses as she finds it amusing that they were so cocky that they got themselves killed. Other [[SarcasmMode pleasant]] features of the Lolth religion include extreme [[DoesNotLikeMen misandry]] with male Elves being slaves, [[FantasticRacism Dark Elf supremacy]] and hatred towards all other races (especially surface Elves), rampant sexual depravity, and various practices instituted by Lolth designed solely to humiliate and demean her own people.
*** The Church of Shar is an underground cult of {{Straw Nihilist}}s as Shar- the primordial Goddess of Darkness- was the co-creator of the world with her sister Selune, who felt betrayed by her sister when she started populating the planet with messy things like "light" and "life", leading to a titanic battle between the two which Shar lost. The Church thus preaches that the world not only belongs to Shar but was stolen from her, and encourages the faithful to murder followers of Selune and other good-aligned gods, and to embrace despair and their own miserable lot in life as everything you have truly belongs to Shar. You can only criticise a superior [[MyMasterRightOrWrong if you forfeit your life to do so]], and Shar and her clergy are fond of [[LaserInducedAmnesia magical memory wipe]] both to ensure obedience and to foster feelings of hopelessness and loss in subordinates and enemies alike. The ultimate ambition of Shar and her church is to kill Selune and any god who opposes her (most of whom are technically [[OffingTheOffspring her own kids)]] and blanket the world in [[TheNightThatNeverEnds eternal darkness]] and converting the mortal races into shades, undead and other evil creatures who will [[{{Narcissist}} worship her forever]].

*** The Church Of Lolth, the Spider Queen, is the state religion of Dark Elf society. Lolth herself is an AxCrazy Chaotic Evil {{Sadist}}, so she demands absolute obedience from her followers on the one had, but can also punishes them for being ''too'' obedient and slavish towards [[{{Hypocrite}} her own rules]], and she prefers her clergy to be cunning and ruthless [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbers]] who break the rules and manage to not get caught. She demands human / Elvish sacrifices but her favourites are actually her own top priestesses as she finds it amusing that they were so cocky that they got themselves killed. Other [[SarcasmMode pleasant]] features of the Lolth religion include extreme [[DoesNotLikeMen misandry]] with male Elves being slaves, [[FantasticRacism Dark Elf supremacy]] and hatred towards all other races (especially surface Elves), rampant sexual depravity, and various practices instituted by Lolth designed solely to humiliate and demean her own people.
*** The Church of Shar is an underground cult of {{Straw Nihilist}}s as Shar- the primordial Goddess of Darkness- was the co-creator of the world with her sister Selune, who felt betrayed by her sister when she started populating the planet with messy things like "light" and "life", leading to a titanic battle between the two which Shar lost. The Church thus preaches that the world not only belongs to Shar but was stolen from her, and encourages the faithful to murder followers of Selune and other good-aligned gods, and to embrace despair and their own miserable lot in life (for instance, you can only criticise a superior if you forfeit your life to do so). The ultimate ambition of Shar and her church is to kill Selune and any god who opposes her (most of whom are technically [[OffingTheOffspring her own kids)]] and blanket the world in [[TheNightThatNeverEnds eternal darkness]] and converting the mortal races into shades, undead and other evil creatures who will [[{{Narcissist}} worship her forever]].

*** The Church Of Lolth, the Spider Queen, is the state religion of Dark Elf society. Lolth herself is an AxCrazy Chaotic Evil {{Sadist}}, so she demands absolute obedience from her followers on the one had, but can also punishes them for being ''too'' obedient and slavish towards [[{{Hypocrite}} her own rules]], and she prefers her clergy to be cunning and ruthless [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbers]] who break the rules and manage to not get caught. She demands human / Elvish sacrifices but her favourites are actually her own top priestesses as she finds it amusing that they were so cocky that they got themselves killed. Other [[SarcasmMode pleasant]] features of the Lolth religion include extreme [[DoesNotLikeMen misandry]] with male Elves being slaves, [[FantasticRacism Dark Elf supremacy]] and hatred towards all other races (especially surface Elves), rampant sexual depravity, and various practices instituted by Lolth designed solely to humiliate and demean her own people.
*** The Church of Shar is an underground cult of {{Straw Nihilist}}s as Shar- the primordial Goddess of Darkness- was the co-creator of the world with her sister Selune, who felt betrayed by her sister when she started populating the planet with messy things like "light" and "life", leading to a titanic battle between the two which Shar lost. The Church thus preaches that the world not only belongs to Shar but was stolen from her, and encourages the faithful to murder followers of Selune and other good-aligned gods, and to embrace despair and their own miserable lot in life (for instance, you can only criticise a superior if you forfeit your life to do so). The ultimate ambition of Shar and her church is to kill Selune and any god who opposes her (most of whom are technically [[OffingTheOffspring her own kids) and blanket the world in [[TheNightThatNeverEnds eternal darkness]].

*** The Church Of Lolth, the Spider Queen, is the state religion of Dark Elf society. Lolth herself is an AxCrazy Chaotic Evil {{Sadist}}, so she demands absolute obedience from her followers on the one had, but can also punishes them for being 'too'' obedient and slavish towards [[{{Hyprocrite}} her own rules]], and she prefers her clergy to be cunning and ruthless [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder backstabbers]] who break the rules and manage to not get caught. She demands human / Elvish sacrifices but her favourites are actually her own top priestesses as she finds it amusing that they were so cocky that they got themselves killed. Other [[SarcasmMode pleasant]] features of the Lolth religion include extreme [[DoesNotLikeMen misandry]] with male Elves being slaves, [[FantasticRacism Dark Elf supremacy]] and hatred towards all other races (especially surface Elves), rampant sexual depravity, and various practices instituted by Lolth designed solely to humiliate and demean her own people.

** Most settings have one, if not dozens of these; the followers of Lolth from ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' and ''TableTopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' and Takhisis from ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' are only the most prominent examples.
** Other major examples in the standard Third Edition ''D&D'' cosmology are the churches of Hextor, Nerull, Erythnul, Gruumsh, Maglubiyet, Tiamat, and any of the DemonLordsAndArchdevils.
** Hextor's church falls between this and PathOfInspiration. Where his clerics have power, they openly preach his creed of militarism, conquest and tyranny. In other places, they claim he's a god of fitness, discipline and strength.

** Both subverted and played straight in the new fourth edition of ''D&D''. Some evil gods actually have large (rational) followings that aren't typically seen as "evil". For example, non-evil worshippers of Bane (god of tyranny) might see him as the patron of "rightful and strong authority", and Grummsh (god of savagery) is worshipped by many as the "god of strength and conquest". A new deity, [[TheTropeWithoutATitle the Raven Queen]], is worshipped as a personification of Death without the evil overtones (and is a mixture of Wee Jas and Morr from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''). On the other hand, for those who like this trope straight, we still have Lolth, Vecna, Torog, etc., and also a lot of classic Demon Princes who are worshipped as gods by deranged cultists. Some of the more "evil" gods can be justified: for example, Torog's domains include jailers and torturers-- necessary? Perhaps. Likeable? No, not at all.

* ''WebVideo/AldriversDevourerOfCos'': The Church of the Tupperware, with [[OmmidicalManic Joan Rivers]] as its creator and leader. She intends to use the chruch as a means to [[ApocalypseHow devour the entire world and then, the entire universe]].

** In the fan-made ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'', servants of [[TheDarkSide the All-Consuming Darkness]] occasionally gather into "Dark Cults", basically sects who worship it exchange for powers. Their practice vary depending on the cult, but typically include things such as HumanSacrifice or sequestrating people in [[UnholyGround Tainted Areas]] so they will get corrupted. Most of them [[EvilWillFail rarely last long however]], as [[RealityEnsues their practices tend to attract attention from the authorities]].

** Ultimately it is a {{Deconstruction}} of the concept, showing that an organization composed of murderous sociopaths would [[RealityEnsues eventually collapse under the weight of the collective dysfunctions of its individual members]]. Not enough of them are sane enough to have any clue what their doing. It is also shown that Joe cribbed bits and pieces from various religions and philosophies to create it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' has the Healing Church. They started Yharnam's obsession with blood, seeking to spread the Old Blood they found in the defiled Pthumerian tombs under the city. When people started transforming into monsters when misusing the blood, they kept experimenting to further the changes, perverting the Great Ones' desire for children through their powerlust. Their clerics became the worst monsters of the lot, and their experiments worsened the already terrible situation from pure NightmareFuel into CosmicHorrorStory with their demented desire to ascend. [[spoiler:The entire city and surroundings had to be sealed in a dream realm just to protect everything else from the consequences of their feud with [[MadScientist Byrgenwerth College.]] ]] While it started as a CorruptChurch, its later actions pushed it squarely here.

** Throughout the series, [[BigBad Count]] {{Dracula}} is revived by cultists who see him as the bringer of a new age of man. At least four times in the series do we see him revived in a black sabbath, conducted by the villains of the series:

** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow2'': The Church of Satan is this, complete with burying their parishioners alive so they would have a closer link with their lord and indoctrinating those with authority and political power. Its HighPriest also happens to be a SinisterMinister of the CorruptChurch.