History Main / TheAntiGod

* [[BigBad The Dark One]] of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', equal and opposite of [[{{God}} the Creator]], embodiment of evil, destruction, chaos, and paradox, who takes the form of an infinite void and a voice that speaks in ALL CAPS. [[spoiler:However, given that the Creator presumably both created and imprisoned the Dark One, they may not be equal in power]].

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyBattles'':

* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', Ao is from the Forgotten Realms and Tharizdun is from Greyhawk, but since Greyhawk lacks an ultimate good god (though Ao is more TrueNeutral) and Forgotten Realms lacks an ultimate evil god, Tharizdun could be read as an Anti-God to Ao's God.
** Bahamut/Paladine and Tiamat/Takhisis may also qualify, as the god of good dragons and goddess of evil dragons, respectively. In ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' in particular they are the most active deities in the fiction.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}:'' The [[BigGood Unconquered Sun]] to the [[GodOfEvil Ebon Dragon]]. As the incarnation of treachery, corruption, and general {{Jerkass}}-itude, the Ebon Dragon was forced to create the Unconquered Sun just so that he could have something to betray, corrupt, and be a {{Jerkass}} towards.
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' version of [[SatanicArchetype Asmodeus]] qualifies as this, as he and his brother [[BigGood Ihys]] were the first beings spawned from the enigmatic [[PrimordialChaos Seal]].
* ''[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Warhammer Fantasy Battles]]'' brings us the god called Malal. As the four major Chaos Gods and an indeterminate number of lesser Chaos Gods are in an eternal war with one another for the stuff of anti-creation that they were formed from (called, well, Chaos), Malal was a deity that formed from the Chaos gods constantly fighting each other. Basically, he's the Chaos god of Chaos ''fighting itself'', and attacks the forces of the other deities almost exclusively. He could make a huge, if mostly subtle, change to the flavor of Chaos, except that it was unclear [[GodDoesNotOwnThisWorld who owned the intellectual property over him]], and he was largely [[RetGone removed from the canon]].
** Taking it a step further, the same source introduced Necoho, [[OddJobGods god of Atheism]]. Chaos gods reflect the emotions and sentiments of mortals, ''including'' disbelief. Where the other gods [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly get stronger with more worshipers]], Necoho gets stronger with fewer people who believe he actually exists. He's described as wearing a permanent expression of comic amusement, since he knows he's a walking paradox; his ultimate goal would be to become the only deity in existence, but since that would require killing off all mortal creatures, he's sort of limited to undermining the worship and credibility of other deities for the time being.

Several [[NewerThanTheyThink modern depictions]] of {{Satan}} [[AdaptationalBadass elevate him]] from being merely the most powerful and/or influential of all demons/devils or {{Fallen Angel}}s to this trope. [[SatanicArchetype Characters based on Satan]] are also portrayed this way. On the other hand, the Anti-God is sometimes portrayed as a separate entity from Satan, usually as his master and/or the one who corrupted him in the first place.

* ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'': The Anti-Monitor originally took on the role to The Monitor, one wanted to [[TheWatcher observe the multiverse]], the other [[OmnicidalManiac wanted to destroy it.]] Their origin has since been retconned multiple times but he's still referred to as an "Anti-God".

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': Unicron got his origin as a god-like entity in the Marvel UK comic series. He tells Death's Head of his origin as a primal force of evil, leading an army of dark gods against Primus and a battalion of light. Over the years and retellings, the broad strokes of this origin have become his official origin.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'': Crayak effectively takes on this role in opposition to the Ellimist, who, for all intents and purposes, is a god. It's established that almost everything that occurs in the series is one big chess match between the Ellimist and Crayak. Even though Crayak's existence by itself is not purely in opposition to the Ellimist, his characterization through the entire series is basically one long game between the two.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': In the apocalyptic [[Literature/TheLastBattle final installment]], Tash is established as the EvilCounterpart of Aslan. Since Aslan is another form of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, this ''would'' make Tash TheAntichrist, especially since his summoning helps bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. That said, Tash is portrayed more as this trope than as an Antichrist (while the Antichrist role is occupied by Puzzle the donkey, Shift the ape playing the role of the False Prophet who tries to pass himself off as Aslan's mouthpiece). Whereas your typical Antichrist is a mortal or at least partly mortal DarkMessiah, Tash is a full-on GodOfEvil resembling a [[MesopotamianMonstrosity pre-Abrahamic Middle Eastern idol]] and, whereas your typical Antichrist is usually born around the time of Armageddon, Tash has apparently been around long before that -- he may even be as old as Aslan, since he's described as an equal opposite, the yin to Aslan's yang. Plus, since Christian theology traditionally views God and Jesus (and the Holy Spirit) as one and the same, the Antichrist/Anti-God distinction might be muddled the same way the Christ/God distinction is.

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': Hydra, the Destroyer, is a multi-headed dragon goddess symbolizing chaos, destruction, natural disasters, and water in general. She is opposed by a solar goddess called [[ThePhoenix Fenix.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' Treehouse of Horror episode "The Genesis Tub" has ''Bart'' of all characters as this, with Lisa as the titular world's CrystalDragonJesus, they originally saw Bart as [[SatanicArchetype "The Devil"]], imagine their shock when Lisa told her creations Bart was actually her brother.

* In his ''Literature/{{Confessions}}'', St. Augustine admits that he used to believe in a "a body of darkness." This "body" was a sentient force of physical evil that fights with the mildly stronger, spiritual force of good called "God." Eventually, Augustine realized that for this darkness to fight with God, God would need to be able to be injured and killed, meaning He couldn't be immortal or omniscient. Since those traits are essential to God, Augustine rejected the whole concept of an Anti-God for its nonsense.

* The BigBad of ''ComicBook/BlackHammer'' is even named Anti-God, as befitting an {{Expy}} of ComicBook/{{Darkseid}}.
* ''ComicBook/CliveBarkersNextTestament'' has two anti-gods. Of course, GodIsEvil, so this turns out to be a good thing.
* Decreator from ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'', also known as Anti-God, the first shadow cast by God's light. Once awakened, it will unmake all existence. [[spoiler: It awakens, but the Doom Patrol alongside Kipling manages to halt the unmaking of the universe to such a crawl that it becomes indistinguishable from entropy, essentially cancelling it out]].
* ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'' introduces the anti-thesis of [[TopGod the One Above All]] - the One ''Below'' All. [[spoiler:They are, as explained in the final issue, one and the same, with The One Below All being the One Above All's Hulk persona.]]
* ''ComicBook/ChaosWar'' reveals BigBad Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who was previously thought of as ''only'' the Japanese god of evil, as the personification of the PrimordialChaos that predated the universe. Eternity (the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the universe itself) explicitly calls the Chaos King this trope, and states he cannot help the heroes, as without Amatsu as the other side of the coin, he will cease to exist, despite the King's victory meaning he will be destroyed either way.
* The Great Evil Beast in ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' acts as the Anti-God, the darkness from before God declared "Let There Be Light" cast off and ultimately striking back; ComicBook/TheSpectre, God's right-hand man, extended to full size and larger than a continent, is barely the size of [[spoiler: its fingernail. Before it can destroy reality however, Swamp Thing convinces it that light and darkness must exist in a balance, and it and God join hands, implicitly unifying with one another and rectifying the order of good and evil in the universe to a greater degree than in the past.]]
* Unicron from the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' franchise got his origin as a god-like entity in the Marvel UK comic series. He tells Death's Head of his origin as a primal force of evil, leading an army of dark gods against Primus and a battalion of light. Over the years and retellings, the broad strokes of this origin have become his official origin.
* ''ComicBook/Defenders2021'' gave as Anti-All, a [[DraconicAbomination draconic]] [[AnthropomorphicPersonification personification of the Void that existed in the Third Cosmos]], predating science, magic and even arbitrary concepts and battled Lifebringer One for the fate of the nascent Multiverse. [[PredecessorVillain he was the first Devourer of Worlds before]] ComicBook/{{Galactus}}, Abraxas and [[ComicBook/Thor2020 The Black Winter]] and [[EternalRecurrence his fight with Lifebringer One would continue throughout all of existence]] in such forms as Chaos King's conflict with Eternity (see above), and [[ComicBook/KingInBlack Knull's with the God of Light]].
* The Anti-Monitor originally took on the role in ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' to The Monitor, one wanted to [[TheWatcher observe the multiverse]], the other [[OmnicidalManiac wanted to destroy it.]] Their origin has since been retconned multiple times but he's still referred to as an "Anti-God".
* Nekron the BigBad of ''ComicBook/BlackestNight'' is the [[GrimReaper The Personification of Death]] [[DecompositeCharacter (One of many)]] but before that he was the darkness that existed before the world began, then [[GodOfLight The Entity]] was born and the universe came into existence. His goal is to restore the world to how it was before the Entity showed up.

* In the ''Literature/ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant'', Lord Foul the Despiser is explicitly defined as the EvilCounterpart of the Creator, varyingly described as the Creator's son or twin brother (owing to being, according to the mythology, the Creator's EnemyWithout, it's kind of difficult to accurately sum up their relationship in human terms). [[note]] Other gods are implied to exist in the cosmology, and at least one- the Lover- figures into the backstory between the Creator and the Despiser. However, no divinity other than these two has an active role in the story. It's also implied that ''every'' god by definition has his or her Anti-God counterpart, with the Lover's being Indifference.[[/note]]

** There is however a being sparsely mentioned being called the "Leviathan" that unlike Lucifer is actually extremely powerful and is presented as somehow separate from creation and God. Instead of embodying evil, it is [[PrimordialChaos disorder]] in the face of God's order. As mentioned above, one of the reasons Satan can't be an "anti-God" is because he was created by and operates under God, just rogue. The Leviathan on the other hand was ''not'' made by God. [[note]]This is not the orthodox Abrahamic position though, the origin comes from Psalm 74 where is mentioned that God himself fought the Leviathan and made the universe of its corpse. This later went into Jewish folklore. The other parts of the Bible, like for example The Book of Job and other Psalms, say that God did in fact create Leviathan. But one can't blame some people for the idea that Leviathan was not created by God if he had to fight it.[[/note]]
*** In some Jewish folklore, Leviathan is the closest equivalent of the trope, infesting the primordial chaos before God created universal order. And if God above was already weird for being completely outside of time, without beginning or end, then think of an entity that ''preceded the beginning''. As [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv1l2SqLb7Q&ab_channel=TREYtheExplainer explained]] by WebVideo/TREYTheExplainer this most likely comes from influence of Canaanite and Mesopotamian religions where the Gods had to fight some sort of Chaos sea monster primordial deity like Tiamat.

* Touma from ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''. His Imagine Breaker absorbs literally every type of supernatural power, be it holy or otherwise, with it even being able to cancel out the grace of God, as Index puts it.