Christian demons in popular culture

The demons of the Christian tradition have appeared many times in popular culture.

Adramelech

• In the video game Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Adrammelech is a dragon-like Lucavi with a goatlike appearance. It also appears as the Bangaa Totema in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and an Esper in Final Fantasy XII.
• In the video game Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Adramelech appears as a boss.
• In the horror book The Devils of D-Day by Graham Masterton Adranelech is summoned by his thirteen minions.

Demogorgon

In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Demogorgon is considered Prince of Demons, though this title doesn't grant him absolute authority. In the computer game NetHack, Demogorgon is considered the most difficult monster^[1]. Demogorgon also appears as the final enemy of the Commodore 64 game Forbidden Forest and its sequel, Beyond the Forbidden Forest.

Demogorgon is also shown in the game Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. He is found in the bottom floor in Watcher's Keep. He is considered the strongest monster in the game. Demogorgons appear as enemies in Progress Quest, though often with various prefixes and suffixes to denote how strong they are.

Demogorgon's name was earlier invoked by Faustus in Scene III of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1590) when the eponymous Doctor summons Mephistopheles with a Latin incantation.

Edmund Spenser mentioned him briefly in The Faerie Queene:

A bold bad man, that dar'd to call by name
Great Gorgon, Prince of darknesse and dead night,
At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight. (Canto I, stanza 37)

He is also the protagonist of an opera by Vincenzo Righini (1786) with a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte.

Demogorgon is the title of a poem by Álvaro de Campos, in which the writer is afraid of becoming mad by learning the true nature and unveiling the mystery of life.

Demogorgon also appears in the book Olympos by Dan Simmons, where it is also described as a dark and shapeless mass. It is portrayed as being neither good nor evil, but all-knowing.

Demogorgon is the title of a 1987 horror novel by English author Brian Lumley. In this it is a demon manifesting Satan's reproductive power and is used by the anti-christ on earth as a herald and weapon.

Demogorgon also appears in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Poem "Limbo" written in 1799.

Demogorgon is mentioned in Hunter S. Thompson's novel "The Rum Diary", by the character Moberg:

"'Lotterman thinks I'm a Demogorgon,' he would say. 'You know what that is? Look it up - no wonder he doesn't like me.'"

Gressil

In role-playing video game Golden Sun: The Lost Age gressils are demonic creatures, who live in the caves and protect the magic actifact.

A character named Gressil appeared in Ghost Rider as a fallen angel tied to the element of earth and an ally of Blackheart.

Leviathan

William Blake's painting The Spiritual Form of Nelson Guiding Leviathan, in which the monster is a symbol of military sea-power controlled by Nelson

Leviathan is the title of Thomas Hobbes' 1651 work on the social contract and the origins of creation of an ideal state, and his proper name for the Commonwealth.

In Paradise Lost, Milton uses the term Leviathan to describe the size and power of Satan, the ruler of many kingdoms.

The American progressive metal band Mastodon named their second album Leviathan in reference to the biblical sea beast.

George Oppen's seminal 1962 poem "Leviathan" addresses the leviathan of the all-consuming force of history, which Oppen felt posed a very real and immediate threat to human survival.

The Leviathan appears in the last book of the 1975 The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson as a colossal, intelligent sea creature in the shape of a tentacled pyramid.

In his book, In Search of Prehistoric Survivors, cryptozoologist Dr. Karl Shuker considers the Leviathan to be a myth inspired, at least in part, by sightings of a Mosasaur-type sea monster.

In the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the Leviathan is a gigantic and terrifying Atlantean war machine which looks like a mechanical lobster a hundred times the size of even the largest man-made sea vessel. It serves as the guardian of the entrance to Atlantis, which lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. In the opening scene it is revealed to be an aerial warship, but after Atlantis sunk it became aquatic.

In the Disgaea games, Leviathan is one of six levels of the Sea Serpent class, which is one of many creatable monster character classes.

In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Leviathan is the name of a Sith Interdictor-class cruiser and the flagship of the Sith fleet.

In the Dungeons and Dragons novel Darkwalker on Moonshae, set in the Forgotten Realms world, the author, Douglas Niles, presents the Leviathan as a giant sea creature that fights the forces of evil in his book.

In Steven Brust's novel To Reign in Hell, Leviathan (female in this case) is one of seven elder inhabitants of Hell who conspire to prevent Yahweh from creating the Earth as a sanctuary for himself and those loyal to him.

In both the manga and anime versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, Leviathan is the demon representation of Envy, one of the seven deadly sins.

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series, the Leviathan is an antagonistic force responsible for the destruction of Atlantis.

The Pokémon Kyogre is based on the Leviathan. Kyogre is depicted as a whale-like creature who would fight Groudon (who is based on the Behemoth), and their fighting can only be stopped by Rayquaza (who is based on Ziz)

The Digimon known as Leviamon is based upon the Leviathan. He is depicted as a giant red alligator, and is one of the Seven Great Demon Lords, amongst them representing the sin of envy.

In Devil May Cry 3, the Leviathan (a gigantic flying Whale-like creature) was released into the human world after Vergil and Arkham summoned the Temen-ni-gru tower into the human world to obtain Sparda's power for themselves. The demon is eventually killed by Dante after he destroyed it from the inside.

In the Hellraiser series by Clive Barker, the deity that rules Hell is named Leviathan.

Neal Morse, Progressive Rock composer, wrote a song called Leviathan for his 2008 album "Lifeline." The song is based on all biblical references to the creature.

Leviathan features as a water-based Summon spell throughout the Final Fantasy series of video games.

Leviathans are sentient spaceships in the Farscape universe. More details can be seen on the wiki page List of races in Farscape.

In a Warcraft 3 Custom Map Dota, an ocean-themed hero known as Tidehunter goes under the name Leviathan.

In DC continuity, Leviathan is an entity composed of feral children. Initially, it is an ambivalent entity, attacking people in the subway tunnels under Manhattan but aiding Klarion the Witch-Boy in his journey to the surface.^[2]

In the television series Supernatural, the Leviathans are an ancient race of monsters that were freed from Purgatory when the angel Castiel absorbed its entire population.

Mammon

Mozilla Firefox - In The Book of Mozilla easter egg found on the Mozilla Firefox browser, the term Mammon is used to refer metaphorically to Microsoft Internet Explorer

Spawn (comics)-In the comic book Spawn Mammon is depicted as a handsome gentleman, suave and sophisticated, who often assists Spawn in his quests. This demon is often seen making attractive deals with humans for their souls and is thought to be quite persuasive. While originally thought of as the Devil himself, he is later revealed to originally be one of a faction of angels who took no side in the struggle between Hell and Heaven and were thus shunned by both.

Constantine (film) - Mammon is the son of Satan himself who has a lust for power and no patience for his father and tries to gain control over earth.

In the RPG In Nomine, Mammon is the minor demon Prince of Greed.

Mammon is also portrayed as the son of Lucifer, and uses the model "Infested Kerrigan" in the well known Heaven's Last Defense map in the realm of StarCraft.

Final Crisis In Superman Beyond #2 Mammon is described as the Anti-Matter Universes god by Ultraman. This is as the reversal of the Judeo-Christian god following the Anti-Matter universes "reversed" history and morality.

Chrono Trigger - In this snes RPG game, a device known as the Mammon Machine was created by the Zealians to tap into the energy of Lavos, the game's main villain. The Mammon Machine was created under the orders of Queen Zeal. She was corrupted by Lavos and filled with a greedy desire for power and started to believe that the magical kingdom of Zeal would be the most wealthy and powerful if they relied on Lavos energy, which was drawn via the Mammon Machine.

In Quest 64, Mammon is the final boss, and the controller of the puppet Shannon.

Mammon is a character in The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth, where he is the god that the Phantom of the Opera worships.

Mammon is the name of Dawn's partner in Daemon Bride. He is a purple octopus attached to Dawn's right arm that he fights with.

Mammon is the alias of Viper, a character in Katekyō Hitman Reborn!.

Mammon in Paradise Lost is a fallen angel, described as being 'more interested in heaven's pavements,' then the leader. He tells the other Angels to be content in Hell.

Moloch

In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Moloch is one of the greatest warriors of the rebel angels, vengeful and militant,

"besmeared with blood,
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears."

He is listed among the chief of Satan's angels in Book I, and is given a speech at the parliament of Hell in Book 2:43 - 105, where he argues for immediate warfare against God. He later becomes revered as a pagan god on Earth.

In Bertrand Russell's A Free Man's Worship, Moloch is used to describe a particularly savage brand of religion.

Moloch is a Mercury-elemental summon in a form of a massive, white-furred, single-horned dog-like monster found the Golden Sun video game series.

In Allen Ginsberg's Howl, Moloch is used as a metaphor for the American city, thus aligning McCarthy-era America with the demon. The word is repeated many times throughout Part II of the poem, and begins (as an exclamation of "Moloch!") in all but the first and last five stanzas of the section.

In Fritz Lang's silent film Metropolis, Moloch appears during one scene. His face overlays machinery, and the hero (Freder) has a vision of workers being dragged by chains into the fires inside Moloch's mouth.

In Jeff Lindsay's Dexter in the Dark, Moloch attempts to frighten and kill the main character.

Moloch is also the name of a villain in Watchmen, and the name of a character in the Mortal Kombat video game series.

Moloch horridus is the scientific name of a kind of horned lizard also known as a Thorny Devil

"Moloch" is another name for part two of Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl

Moloch stole the Amulet of Yendor from Marduk the Creator and is the primary nemesis in the game NetHack.

The final boss in the PlayStation game Duke Nukem: Time to Kill is called Moloch. Moloch is a large alien armed with two laser Gatling guns.

Moloch the Corrupter is the name of a demon in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "I, Robot... You, Jane".

Samyaza

• Samyaza appears in the RPG Final Fantasy XII as the Esper Shemhazai. Shemhazai is a female horse-like being who controls the souls of the dead, created in opposition to Igeyorhm the Martyr. Though she once served the gods as a guardian, she plays a role similar to that of Samyaza in revealing to the rebellious Esper Ultima the weaknesses of the gods before attacking the people.

• Samyaza or 'Shemyaza' also appears in Storm Constantine's Grigori Trilogy, as the primary villain who finds redemption. He first appears as a Grigori pariah who terrorizes the underground Grigori society by leaving a trail of highly public murders in his wake. He eventually redeems himself and consequently regains the memory of his previous incarnations. He goes on to fight an epic battle with the serpent Tiamat.

• Samyaza also appeared as a prime antagonist in the book series Dragons In Our Midst as well as oracles of fire (which goes with dragons in our midst).

• Sam the Imperator is revealed to be Samyaza in Children of the Serpent by Mark Ellis, the thirty-eighth book in the Outlanders novel series.

• Semjaza appears as an imprisoned being in Hell in Wayne Barlowe's novel God's Demon.

• The name Shemhazai appears in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series.

• Samyaza appears in Heaven's Last Stand, Heaven's Last Defense, and Heaven's Final Hour, a set of well known StarCraft maps made by the StarCraft community. He appears as the Character unit "Tassadar".

• 'Semjase' (pronounced as 'Semyaza' in German) is the female alien claimed by Swiss UFO contactee Eduard 'Billy' Meier to have visited him on numerous occasions.^[3]

• 'Semyaza', and five other Grigori, may be summoned from imprisonment to fight for the player in Dominions 3: The Awakening.

• 'Semyaza', Also appears as the 7 fallen angels in El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.

Surgat

In Harlan Ellison's short story "Grail", Surgat is an important character, unlocking some of the barriers in the protagonist's path.

Notes

1. ^ http://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Demogorgon
2. ^ Seven Soldiers: Klarion #2
3. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Meier