History Main / ReligionOfEvil

* Most ''[[DungeonsAndDragons Dungeons & Dragons]]'' settings have one, if not dozens of these; the followers of Lolth from ''Forgotten Realms'' and ''Greyhawk'' and Takhisis from ''{{Dragonlance}}'' are only the most prominent examples.

** Evil faiths in {{Ravenloft}} tend more toward the PathOfInspiration model, but there are a number of minor cults dedicated to various Religions Of Evil imported from other gameworlds via the Mists. Of faiths native to the Land of Mists, that of the Wolf God (divine patron of werewolves) is the best example of an openly-bloodthirsty, destructive faith that looks to lay waste to civilization.

** ''{{Planescape}}'''s Factions throw a wrench into this. There are quite a few of them who follow a belief system most of us wouldn't hesitate to describe as "evil" if we came across it in reality, but ''Planescape'' does its best to portray them from a detached, non-judgmental standpoint, often with inspiration from real life. The ridiculously callous and selfish Fated justify themselves based on, essentially, the writings of Nietzsche and Ayn Rand. The Dustmen, who have all of the trappings of a Religion of Evil (decorating things with skulls and wearing black robes and using zombies and such) have a belief system that is Buddhism with the added twist that they believe they've already lived their life and are now trapped in an existence of rebirth into a state of "False Death" until their souls learn to let go of suffering and attachment. The Doomguard has a philosophy centered around the inevitability of entropy, which can range from OmnicidalManiac behavior to a simple acceptance that [[EquivalentExchange nothing can be accomplished without destroying something else]].

** ''{{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 centred 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]].

* 'TheFollowing features "Carrollism," a cult founded by SerialKiller Joseph Carroll. Loosely based on the works of EdgarAllanPoe and general Gothic sentiments, it depicts murder as an artistic/creative act, and encourages practitioners to "find their voice," by coming up with their own signature murder style.

* A small SecretCircleOfSecrets (known more generally as a mystery cult or mystery religion).

** There's also the Ministry of Paternoster, one fourth of the [[AncientConspiracy Seers of the Throne's]] major factions in ''TabletopGame/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 Deaders from ''Film/HellraiserDeader''.

* The Deaders from ''HellraiserDeader''.

* The established church in GeneWolfe's ''Literature/BookOfTheLongSun'' is this, since the gods being worshiped, with one or two exceptions, are deranged sociopaths whose idea of a commandment is "Overthrow your government and let me know when it's done; if you sacrifice enough children you'll probably get my attention." Interestingly, though, the church itself is closer to a SaintlyChurch: individual clergy may be corrupt or unpleasant, but the church as a whole is a force for good, providing education and charity to the poor of the city.

* 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 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 neither bother to make a difference between belivers 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.

*** In the writers' notes for ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'' (the series which introduced the Church of Crime), MarkWaid laments that they didn't pick a better name, noting that an evangelist saying, "Come and join the Church of Crime" probably won't get many converts.

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

* The Cult of the Pah-wraiths from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.

* Vince's cult in ''Webcomic/{{Jack}}'' is a weird example in that the cultists are all ''already'' in Hell, and are turning to the cult to try and get them out. Vince has a lot of fun manipulating them.

** At which point [[spoiler: an archangel comes down and starts laying the smite down on all of his followers.]] This only makes them even more dedicated to him.
* In Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}, the troll version of Juggalos are a legitimate religion on Alternia. They possess terrifying psychological powers known as "Chucklevoodoos" and use the blood of trolls that they slaughter as decorative paint. And the Mirthful Messiahs of the religion? They are actually the BigBad and [[TheDragon his Dragon]].

* The ''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.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

!Examples

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

** 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.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

!Examples:

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* From the ''LoneWolf'' series, the Acolytes of Vashna and the Cener Druids. The Acolytes wish to resurrect Vashna, the first and most powerful of the [[EvilOverlord Darklords]], so that he'd conquer the world with an army of [[TheUndead undeads]]. The Druids plan to kill about every living being beside themselves with biological warfare. And the two are allies.
* HollywoodSatanist cult members form the antagonists in the FightingFantasy book ''House of Hell''

* It's parodied on [[http://www.tumblr.com tumlbr]] of all places by the user [[http://www.beyonddesolation.tumblr.com beyonddesolation]], the leader of ''TheBlackLegionOfTheDarkLordSketchMelkor'', who presents herself as [[BigBad Melkor]] from the Tolkien-verse, commonly referred to by her followers as the [[CardCarryingVillain Dark Lord Sketch]]. It's complete with [[http://beyonddesolation.tumblr.com/post/67231630826/okay-so-if-u-are-in-my-cult-i-need-u-to-get-a requests to do strange things]], and some form of [[http://beyonddesolation.tumblr.com/post/67315500472/wait-no-can-i-be-your-foreign-affairs-balrog-i-live-in organized government]].

* It's parodied on [[http://www.tumblr.com tumlbr]] of all places by the user [[http://www.beyonddesolation.tumblr.com beyonddesolation]], the leader of ''Weboriginal/TheBlackLegionOfTheDarkLordSketchMelkor'', who presents herself as [[BigBad Melkor]] from the Tolkien-verse, commonly referred to by her followers as the [[CardCarryingVillain Dark Lord Sketch]]. It's complete with [[http://beyonddesolation.tumblr.com/post/67231630826/okay-so-if-u-are-in-my-cult-i-need-u-to-get-a requests to do strange things]], and some form of [[http://beyonddesolation.tumblr.com/post/67315500472/wait-no-can-i-be-your-foreign-affairs-balrog-i-live-in organized government]].

* It's parodied on [[http://www.tumblr.com tumlbr]] of all places by the user [[http://www.beyonddesolation.tumblr.com beyonddesolation]], who presents herself as [[BigBad Melkor]] from the Tolkien-verse, commonly referred to by her followers as the [[CardCarryingVillain Dark Lord Sketch]]. It's complete with [[http://beyonddesolation.tumblr.com/post/67231630826/okay-so-if-u-are-in-my-cult-i-need-u-to-get-a requests to do strange things]], and some form of [[http://beyonddesolation.tumblr.com/post/67315500472/wait-no-can-i-be-your-foreign-affairs-balrog-i-live-in organized government]].

[[/folder]]

* The Order of the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series worship a God that has promised to bring about the salvation of humanity and paradise on Earth. Given that their plans for helping God bring this about invariably involve physical and psychological torture and murder (''especially'' of children and childhood best friends) and that all of the Order members (with the possible exception of Claudia, who can be seen as just a ''WellIntentionedExtremist'') encountered in the series are amoral, vicious sadists, and/or outright insane, one can be forgiven for wondering what exactly their paradise would entail. It's telling that the main antagonist of ''SilentHill3'', the Order priestess Claudia Wolf, who orchestrates a brutal murder and has the protagonist put through Hell, would apparently be considered one of the Order's more ''liberal'' theologians.

* The OldWorldOfDarkness has a few of these as well, most notably the [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Black Spiral Dancers]] (werewolves who worship the Wyrm, the spirit of decay and destruction), and [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Vampires]] who follow the Path of Typhon, and a couple other Paths of Enlightenment that are ForTheEvulz. There are many other {{splat}}s that deal with demon worship, but those are more along the lines of ''[[DealWithTheDevil quid pro quo]]'' than true devotion.
** And then there's the Sabbat, who could be considered the predecessors of both the Lancea Sanctum ''and'' Belial's Brood. Many of them worship Caine, the first vampire, and believe that during [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Gehenna]], he will rise up and save his childer from [[EldritchAbomination the Antediluvians]] that mean to devour them. Their membership consists of the most amoral vampires (and ''that's'' saying something), who often have to pick up [[BlueAndOrangeMorality alternate Paths of Enlightenment]] to avoid falling to their Beasts and practice twisted rituals that often involve human sacrifice (Their interpretation of the rite of baptism, for instance, requires [[BloodBath immersion in a literal bath of blood]]). And the real kicker? They ''fucking hate'' infernalists.