History Main / ReligionOfEvil

* ''VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}}'' has the Healing Church. They are ultimately responsible for Yharnam's obsession with blood, seeking to spread the Old Blood that they had discovered in the defiled Pthumerian tombs under the city. When people started transforming into monsters when misusing the blood, rather than back down, they hid the connection so that their leaders, the Choir, could continue their ascension attempts. The main game sees the Choir turn innocent civilians into proto-Great One monsters, torch a section of the city when the Ashen Blood plague (which they created and spread ''on purpose'') got too bad, and encourage a vicious cycle of hunters turning into beasts, and clerics turning into the worst beasts of all. The DLC shows they did ''even worse''. [[spoiler: They had hunters specifically to kill anyone who found out their secrets, they turned the patients in the Astral Clocktower into malformed lumps of flesh, and the nightmare itself is a curse placed on them for the atrocities they committed against the Fishing Hamlet.]] Ironically, the [[EldritchAbomination gods]] they worship and are [[GodhoodSeeker desperately trying to emulate]] are implied to be far less malevolent.

* The Necromongers in ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick''. They worship pain and death, have a very sinister gothic design theme, are on a holy crusade to convert the universe to their ways and kill anyone who refuses, and ultimately want to follow their "holy half-dead" Lord Marshal into the underverse.

* ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' has the Children of Doom, who follow the evil sorcerer Thulsa Doom. They practice human sacrifice by feeding live victims to giant snakes. They also practice cannibalism, and King Osric mentions that one of Doom's followers murdered his own father by stabbing him in the heart with a serpent-shaped dagger.

*** 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 Banite religion is the most popular of all the evil religions as it at least has the image of being "tough but fair" and promotes stability, but the ultimate goal of Bane and his church to TakeOverTheWorld and to destroy ''all'' other gods and churches who don't submit to Bane.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Technomagia i smoki'', which has lots of various religions, mostly in the background. The cult of Gryphon seems scary, but is actually quite harmless. The cult of Five used to be benevolent - now it's a theocracy with totalitarian ambitions and the head priest (who orchestrated this change) is the BigBad. The one straight example would be the cult of King Tick, a [[SinglePreceptReligion religion whose sole point]] seems to be making {{Human Sacrifice}}s to a literal enormous arachnid.

* Deconstructed in ''WebVideo/CriticalRole''. Tharizdun, the Chained Oblivion, is less of a god and more of a manifestation of unending darkness and torment, who is imprisoned in the Abyss and will devour the world if it is ever freed. In the DungeonMaster's words, you would have to be insane to even ''think'' of voluntarily worshiping a deity whose entire deal is "[[OmnicidalManiac If I win, you all go mad and die]]." Tharizdun instead uses trickery and deception to gain followers, appearing to them as false deities like [[spoiler:the Angel of Irons]].

* Deconstructed in ''WebVideo/CriticalRole''. Tharizdun, the Chained Oblivion, is less of a god and more of a manifestation of unending darkness and torment, who is imprisoned in the Abyss and will devour the world if it is ever freed. In the DungeonMaster's words, you would have to be insane to even ''think'' of worshiping a deity whose entire deal is "[[OmnicidalManiac If I win, you all go mad and die]]." Tharizdun instead uses trickery and deception to gain followers, appearing to them as false deities like [[spoiler:the Angel of Irons]].

* PlayedWith in ''Technomagia i smoki'', which has lots of various religions, mostly in the background. The cult of Gryphon seems scary, but is actually quite harmless. The cult of Five used to be benevolent - now it's a theocracy with totalitarian ambitions and the head priest (who orchestrated this change) is TheBigBad. The one straight example would be the cult of King Tick, a [[SinglePreceptReligion religion whose sole point]] seems to be making {{Human Sacrifice}}s to a literal enormous arachnid.

** 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 primary state religion in ''Kobold Quest'' is explicitly stated to be one of death. If the protagonist chooses to attend a sermon, they'll bear witness to one of the daily blood sacrifices, and can even partake in it. ''Children'' are brought to these as fun outing.

*** Most morally-iffy faiths in the Mists are [[PathOfInspiration tools of the realm's Darklord]], but there's also some faiths that come from worshipping [[GodOfEvil evil deities]] from mainstream D&D, like the religion of the Lawgiver (actually Bane, god of Tyranny). For Mist-native religions, you have the cult of the Wolf God (which was also probably made up by a Darklord, but this one actually believes what he preaches), patron of werewolves, whose philosophy is basically 'be as ChaoticEvil as possible'. For some of that IronicHell those Dark Powers love, the darklord is cursed to return to normal form if he ever cuts lose, meaning that he can preach the tenets of his cult but not practice them himself.

* Church of the Key in ''VideoGame/{{Alundra 2}}''. They promise you happiness, they turn you into a soulless slave.

-->'''Simon, Seeker of Secrets''': Not a pretty sight, isn't it? The true face of the blood-worshipping, beast-purging Healing Church.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} IV'' Mod ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'' includes the Ashen Veil religion, which explicitly seeks to bring hell itself to Erebus. So despised is this religion [[EvenEvilHasStandards evil civilizations]] join confederations to stamp it, if [[PragmaticVillainy only to have a world to rule]].
** The Illians worship the winter god Mulcarn. Their goal is to turn everything to ice again, so they can prosper. Of course, no other civilization can survive on ice. After the death of their god, their task is to turn their leader into a new winter god.
* The ''VideoGame/ChzoMythos'' series of games concerns [[spoiler:The Order of Blessed Agonies, a cult whose members worship the eponymous Chzo]]. The cult has prayer books, religious texts, a symbol, a founder, and a fairly clear objective. Chzo is referred to as a "pain elemental", and appropriately, all of the order are masochists.
** You might also call them a "religion of idiots", because they ''hadn't got a clue that their objective was completely wrong.'' They were also being fooled by their "god". [[spoiler:Chzo just wanted a new prince, and the order were just a whole bunch of {{Unwitting Pawn}}s.]]

* A bit of a subversion in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', as the [[ChurchOfHappyology Church of Unitology]] seems like this as you go through the game, what with them wanting bring [[ArtifactOfDoom the Marker]] back to Earth and turn everyone into Necromorphs, but you'll find somewhere in the middle of play that there are Unitologists that didn't think turning into Necromorphs was all that of a great idea, but [[BigBad Mercer]] killed them. Played straight in that this really seems to be how the Church and most Unitologists are.
** The promise of a coming of angels that will touch the bodies of the dead to transform them into heavenly beings that are reborn in paradise doesn't sound so bad by itself. It's only when you realize that these "angels" are giant alien bats that will jam an arm-long spine into your skull and [[BodyHorror transform you into space zombies]], which don't discriminate between believers and non-believers, wait for your natural death, or make your death any less painfull than being torn to pieces, that one starts to doubt that path to paradise is really such a good idea.
** What really makes it ironic though, is that its "prophet" didn't start it, and in fact was opposed to it. He merely found the Black Marker and was immune to its effects, and people that were affected by it started worshiping him as a prophet. He began trying to blow the whistle on a government plot to use the Marker as a weapon. The two military officials that were in charge of the project kidnapped him and killed him with a Necromorph to martyr him in order to strengthen Unitology, which would most likely throw suspicion away from the government and quell social upheaval that Altman was causing.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' features the Order of Zugzwang, a cult that worships the BigBad. Interestingly, it counts both monsters ''and'' humans amongst its ranks.

* ''Videogame/DragonsDogma'' has Salvation, a cult that worships the Dragon that stole your heart as a harbinger of the endtimes and serve as TheUsualAdversaries for The Arisen. Hilariously, the Dragon doesn't care one bit about them.

* ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerAttackOfDarkforce EXTRAPOWER Attack of Darkforce]]'': The MadScientist Michael uses the destruction of Tokyo as an excuse to make one of these. Major features being him as the central god and the use of his giant, faceless, laser-spewing man-made angels to kill nonbelievers.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' introduced the Children of Atom, a cult that worshiped the unexploded A-bomb in the crater at the bottom of the town of Megaton. In that game they were seen as mostly harmless nutters, with the exception of a few members who tried to spread "Atom's blessing" by irradiating water supplies, but they could be talked down. By ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', set ten years later, the Children have expanded into the Commonwealth, aggressively spread Atom's message by attacking people with weapons that fire pulses of gamma radiation, and some even tried to get a pre-war missile silo operational so they could bless the world with Division. The ones in the ''Far Harbor'' expansion are nearly at war with the eponymous town, and seek to tear down the condensers that keep settlements safe from the island's radioactive fog as an affront to Atom. Unlike the cultists on the mainland, you can join this faction and help them succeed.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', we have [[http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Grimleal the Grimleal cult]]. As semi-{{exp|y}}ies of the Loptous Cult, they worship the Fallen Dragon Grima and are led by the EvilSorcerer Validar. [[spoiler:And the PlayerCharacter is supposed to become its leader, as the "perfect" SoulJar of Grima.]]
* ''VideoGame/GrimDawn'' has the Cult of Ch'thon. According to the mythology Ch'thon was a primordial god who was betrayed by his fellows, who tore him apart and used his blood to create the first mortal life. The cult sees all blood as belonging to Ch'thon and are determined to return it to him, making copious use of BloodMagic and HumanSacrifice.

* The White Mantle of ''VideoGame/GuildWars: Prophecies'' starts out seeming like a bunch of pretty cool guys. They're a functional theocracy, wear nice outfits, welcome you into Kryta after your [[DoomedHometown homeland gets burnt to a crisp]], and induct you into their order. The only real problem is that the gods they worship are actually a race of [[BlueAndOrangeMorality amoral]] illusion-weavers who are currently harvesting the souls of specific individuals to power the seal on an entrance to the realm of a very real and very evil god. And they're not doing this because it's necessary for the greater good; they just want to make sure they themselves stay alive.
** After the destruction of most of the Mursaat race by the opening of the entrance they'd kept sealed until [[NiceJobBreakingItHero some nosy heroes showed up]], the White Mantle hired former bandits, thugs, and other detritus of society, named them Peacekeepers, and sent them out to kill anyone who didn't agree with the Mantle.
* ''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 tenet of the faith is added; KillAllHumans. Making things worse, this tenet 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.]]
* At first glance, the Order of the Harvest Moon from the adventure game ''VideoGame/{{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 [[StrawNihilist sinister and nihilistic]] conversations with really nasty people, you've discovered their true colors... and their true intentions.
* In the Heretic and Hexen series, the Serpent Riders are fond of forming cults dedicated to their own worship, and among the enemies you face, there are 'dark bishops' and 'heresiarchs'.
* The Multitude in ''Videogame/{{Incursion}}'' is a, well, multitude of demon ghosts who each want you to go kill and slaughter and rape and be generally depraved in that particular ghost's name, and are willing to bribe you with power for it. Zurvash is slightly more philosophical about it, making no bones about the fact that he has no regard for civilization, ethics, or foresight, and glorying in brutality and domination.
* The ''Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermillion'' has a rather complex backstory leading to the Religion of Evil. 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 the lands themselves. And they resort to terrorism in spreading their beliefs. Yeah, it's that evil.
* ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' has a few examples, but only one truly fits. While the ancient vampires worshipped the soul-devouring [[EldritchAbomination Elder God]], they believed his wheel of fate was good and divine. The vampires of Kain's empire deified him after they conquered humanity, he was their creator. The priests of Avernus Cathedral (the official religion of which is never explored in detail), however, are members of a secret cult worshipping Hash'ak'gik, a group of hylden possessing the body of a horribly mutated vampire from the future. They performed ritual human sacrifice to their 'god', cutting the throats of their first born and throwing them into a massive pit.
** ''Soul Reaver'' also briefly features a run-in with human vampire worshippers, who seemingly kidnap humans and feed them to their masters, presumably in the hope that they will one day be converted into vampires themselves. Either way, pretty evil.

* The Ensanglante of the ''VideoGame/MafiaIII'' DLC "Sign of the Times."
* In ''Franchise/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]].
** The second game reveals that the vast majority of the Geth prefer a "live and let live" approach, the ones that followed Saren being seen as heretics.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 3'', the corrupted Space Pirates certainly seem to regard Dark Samus like Jesus, referring to themselves as disciples.

** In ''VIII'', there were the Necromancers, but they were only enemies if you chose the Light Path. If you chose the Dark Path, they were important allies.
** In ''IX'' they had some fun with this. The "evil cult" here was the Cult of the Great Honk. These guys weren't related to the main plot, and were {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s at best. (In fact, one of the quests involving them required you to convince a group of them to leave a city ''without'' killing them. (The Great Honk wasn't even a real god, it was a giant goose that the actual gods [[FluffyTheTerrible kept as a pet.]]

* 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'' Religion of Evil, those who worship Sseth, the yuan-ti's normal patron deity.
** The first game, meanwhile, had the "People of the Eye", who were working to resurrect the [[LizardFolk Creator Race]] through such means as attempting genocide against an entire city through a MysticalPlague.
* In ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'' the Brotherhood of Cain, founded by disgruntled loyalists of a mad ruler, took to worship the Morning Star by HumanSacrifice. Abaddon, the High Priest of Satan, also preaches human desires are sacred, leading to serial killers becoming high priests and being able to torture, rape and murder with impunity, such acts even being praised.

* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'': [[GodOfEvil Skaen]] worship is widely perceived as this and it certainly has the evil deeds to back it up, but the truth is a little more complicated than that; Skaen is the god of rebellion, so many of his worshippers are [[LaResistance people rebelling against those who oppress or wrong them]]. Unfortunately, Skaen is ''also'' the god of hate, so he encourages his worshippers to do so in [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized the most disproportionately violent and cruel manner physically possible]] in order to indulge their hatred. Further, once the rebels/worshippers win, Skaen abandons them for someone else because they’re not the underdogs anymore. Because of all this, worshipping Skaen is unsurprisingly banned in most regions, and in the few places it isn’t, his worshippers tend to end up with such lovely jobs as “torturer” or “executioner”.

* In ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheKasai'' the titular Kasai is an evil cult whose only purpose is to gather up six marks that are branded on to people's flesh, and use them to cast a spell that will allow their GodOfEvil to enter the world and wreak havok. Said marks are often found on children, who they will kill and skin to use the magic.
* In ''VideoGame/RomancingSaGa'' the three Dark Gods each have followers, however the religion supporting the BigBad is the Religion of Evil [[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]].

* The Cult of the Aten in ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld.'' Unlike the Morninglight, who at least ''pretend'' to be a benevolent religion, the Atenists openly worship one of [[EldritchAbomination the Dreamers]] as a god, revere the [[HumanoidAbomination corrupted Pharaoh]] UsefulNotes/{{Akhenaten}} as their messiah, deliberately infect themselves with [[MysticalPlague the Filth]] as an initiation rite, recruit additional followers by [[WaterSourceTampering pumping Filth into the local water supply]], and are all about waking up Aten [[ApocalypseCult so he can destroy the world]]. For good measure, they've been like this ever since Akhenaten created Atenism as the state religion of Egypt.

* [[VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters The Thurists]] are very much this. ''Every'' member indulges in an EvilLaugh, even in the battle quips (ordinary units will have the laugh replace their normal grunts and cries), their "god" is World Eater Thuris, the sickest of the lot (mentally, that is -- Raksha's a MagnificentBastard and Feinne is simply mindless), and they regularly purge other religions, especially the followers of Apis, who many of their members were converted from. [[spoiler:Danette is a survivor of one of these purges, which razed the town of Pulkina ten years ago.]] And if that wasn't bad enough, they have a reputation for indulging in the spread of Scarlet Iago -- this may have killed [[spoiler:Shauna/Shari and]] Trish's parents 15 years ago during a vaccine panic, and if it weren't for a charitable donation by Cristophe and Levin, it could have claimed the Raide survivors under Nereid care as well. Kanan and her lot all fail to comprehend why evil religions are doomed to swift destruction -- namely, [[EvilIsNotAToy that they are mere pawns for the "gods" they worship]].

* LampshadeHanging in ''VideoGame/StarControlII'': the Ilwrath are theocratic self-declared worshippers of Evil and Death, but if the player confronts them over this ("If your actions are judged by your society as correct, aren't you, in fact, good?") they tie themselves into a logical knot before deciding to attack the player for being annoying.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/BountyHunter'' we have the Bando Gora. A cult of drug addicted, brainwashed, zombie-like followers who wear animal skulls over their faces and possess GlowingEyesOfDoom. They live on a graveyard moon and are lead by an insane, dark Jedi whose only purpose is to spread her drug and indoctrinate more people into her cult to serve as her slaves.

* The Drowned Man's worshippers in ''VideoGame/SunlessSea'', who generally turn out to be cannibals. The Chapel of Lights, a heretical Christian sect that worships the Drowned Man, offers free food to passing zee-captains that isn't ''always'' human flesh, but has a very real chance to be. [[spoiler:Players of VideoGame/FallenLondon may recognise the Drowned Man as Mister Eaten.]]

* The Cult of the Damned in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}''. Originally they were often seduced by promises of eternal life, social grievances, and disillusionment with the Holy Light. In the modern era this is exacerbated by the widespread trauma and suffering experienced by humanity. Members are given a potion after their initiation that removes their ability to object and makes them unquestioning fanatics.
** And the followers of the demons of the Burning Legion from the same series.
** Also the Twilight Hammer, who worship the [[EldritchAbomination cosmic horroresque Old Gods]]. The entire goal of their religion is to bring about the end of the world.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

Why would anyone voluntarily follow such a religion? Maybe they have such horrible lives that they [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds just want to bring down everyone else]]. Maybe they believe that their Satan will visit them with natural disasters or curse them with misfortune if they don't pay the proper tribute of rites and sacrifices. Maybe they think that they can get the perks from their evil god during their lifetimes but [[LoopholeAbuse wriggle out of the consequences]]. Or maybe they think that their universe's {{Hell}} will be [[AHellOfATime an eternal debauched party]], or that they'll be guaranteed to be the people [[DemonOfHumanOrigin on top of it]]. Or maybe they're anti-authoritarian types who mistakenly think SatanIsGood. Or, sometimes, they really are [[EvilFeelsGood just]] [[ForTheEvulz jerks]].

Why would anyone voluntarily follow such a religion? Maybe they have such horrible lives that they [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds just want to bring down everyone else]]. Maybe they believe that their Satan will visit them with natural disasters or curse them with misfortune if they don't pay the proper tribute of rites and sacrifices. Maybe they think that they can get the perks from their evil god during their lifetimes but [[LoopholeAbuse wriggle out of the consequences]]. Or maybe they think that their universe's {{Hell}} will be [[AHellOfATime an eternal debauched party]], or that they'll be guaranteed to be the people [[DemonOfHumanOrigin on top of it]]. Or maybe they're anti-authoritarian types who mistakenly think SatanIsGood.

[[noreallife]]'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' [[note]]We know you Website/{{Reddit}} [[RageAgainstTheHeavens atheist]] [[HollywoodAtheist types]] are just itching to say "AllOfThem".[[/note]] This is a ''very'' controversial subject and likely to invoke edit wars. It is sufficient to say that certain features of the Religion of Evil can be found in historical religions of human history, either because of human error, context (including a lack of), etc. Moreover, there has never been a (mainstream) religion ''intentionally'' aiming at worshipping evil gods, with historical examples of GodOfEvil having people worshipping ''against'' them (most notably [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Apep]]).

[[noreallife]]'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' This is a ''very'' controversial subject and likely to invoke edit wars. It is sufficient to say that certain features of the Religion of Evil can be found in historical religions of human history, either because of human error, context (including a lack of), etc. Moreover, there has never been a (mainstream) religion ''intentionally'' aiming at worshipping evil gods, with historical examples of GodOfEvil having people worshipping ''against'' them (most notably [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Apep]]).

** In ''IX'' they had some fun with this, and it might have been okay if the game as a whole [[ObviousBeta wasn't so poorly done]]. The "evil cult" here was the Cult of the Great Honk. These guys weren't related to the main plot, and were {{Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain}}s at best. (In fact, one of the quests involving them required you to convince a group of them to leave a city ''without'' killing them. (The Great Honk wasn't even a real god, it was a giant goose that the actual gods [[FluffyTheTerrible kept as a pet.]]

* The child cult that worships "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" in the ''Literature/NightShift'' short story "Children of the Corn" and the movie series based on it.

* The child cult that worshiped "He Who Walks Behind The Rows" in the Creator/StephenKing short story ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheCorn'' and the movie series.

* The Dark Brotherhood in the Literature/{{Drenai}} novels.

** In the ''Literature/ConanTheBarbarian'' story "Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn", Salome institutes HumanSacrifice as part of the religious practices.

-->''The Druids of his own isle of Erin had strange dark rites of worship, but nothing like this. Dark trees shut in this grim scene, lit by a single torch. Through the branches moaned an eerie night-wind. Cormac was alone among men of a strange race and he had just seen the heart of a man ripped from his still pulsing body.''

** In ''ComicBook/BatmanTheBlackMirror'', Batman discovers an underground society named Mirror House run by a man named the Dealer who hosts auctions of super-villain objects as a way to celebrate the belief that cruelty and malevolence is humanity's "divine spark."

** ''TableTopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has a number of these. The Church of [[{{Satan}} Asmodeus]] controls [[TheEmpire Cheliax]], while their neighbour, Nidal, worships [[TortureTechnician Zon-Kuthon]]. Cultists of [[ProfessionalKiller Norgorber]], [[TheUndead Urgathoa]], [[MotherOfAThousandYoung Lamashtu]], and [[OmnicidalManiac Rovagug]] are distressingly common, both among society's outcasts, and the setting's various monsters. And that's without getting into the cults centered on various DemonLordsAndArchdevils, evil demigods, or gods forbid, [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse The Four Horsemen]]. The Demon Lord [[KillerGorilla Angazahn]] in particular has a substantial following in the [[DarkestAfrica Mwangi Expanse]].

** And, from a certain perspective, The Cult of the Illuminated.
* Such cults fit in well in the world where ''TabletopGame/{{KULT}}'' is set in.
* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', until its destruction Phyrexia (think equal parts CyberneticsEatYourSoul, BodyHorror, and TheLegionsOfHell) always had religious traits, with [[BigBad Yawgmoth]] at the head. These traits have been exaggerated by the [[http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/137 white-mana faction]] of the reborn Phyrexia, calling itself the Machine Orthodoxy. In keeping with its Phyrexian nature, it really isn't very pleasant; the flaying and horrible mutilation of enemies and converts, gratuitous use of ritualized surgery, and [[OurAngelsAreDifferent stripping angels of their honour]] and [[FallenAngel turning them into sociopathic monsters]] all get four thumbs up from the average Whiterexian. For added horror, white has [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218058 Phyrexian Unlife]], which depicts an androgynous but most likely female porcelain mask looking at her newly-completed hands. And who do you do this to when you cast it? A [[{{mooks}} creature]]? No. Your opponent? No. You do it to ''yourself''.

* In ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'', Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage. Cletus and his ilk worship the god Knull, a primordial being who revels in death and darkness and the creator of the symbiotes. To this end, Carnage recruits {{Serial Killer}}s like himself as well as the downtrodden and insane to turn Earth-2018.688 into one giant offering to Knull. Their efforts are opposed by the Katsuki Bakugou of that world, who has since bonded with the Venom symbiote and is taking down their members one-by-one.

* A ''Fanfic/AFathersWrath'' takes the Naruto example from above in Anime & Manga and [[AdaptationExpansion multiplies it]]. Here, Jashin is shown to have many more followers than just Hidan and The BigBad is one of them as well, giving Jashin a backstory of how he was once a mighty conqueror who when struck down by The Sage of Six Paths was made into and worshipped as a God by his surviving army.

* In the backstory of ''Fanfic/JauneArcLordOfHunger'', the Temple of Shadows was a religious sect of Valean monks who explicitly worshipped the Brother God of Darkness. They preached spreading death and destruction in their dark god's name, kidnapped innocent travelers that strayed too close to their monastery to use as [[HumanSacrifice human sacrifices]], and carried out countless assassinations during the Great War. They were eventually wiped out by Vale's army after word of their crimes reached King Osmund (one of Ozpin's former incarnations).