In The Martian Invasion of Oz, we are introduced to Floyd, The Cthulhi of Oz. He is a pacifistic spawn of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu that wants to give up the life of bloody conquest and defilement for a peaceful existence in the Land of Oz. In honour of Floyd, here is a look at some of our favourite demons.
10. Pazuzu - This ancient Babylonian "king of the wind demons" is the god of the Southwest wind and the bringer of famine and locusts. He was such a nasty number that he was invoked to drive off all of the other evil beings out there. He would have faded into obscurity if it were not for William Peter Blatty's novel The Exorcist and its film adaptation.
9. Asmodeus - The son of the biblical King David and a succubus, he is the demon of lust and is one of the embodiments of the Seven Deadly Sins. He is documented in The Book of Tobit, Talmud and other sources as being a real jerk to anybody that gets in between him and any lady that he fancies. He's also wicked looking, with three heads (bull, ram and man), one rooster's leg, a serpent's tail and rides around on a lion with dragon wings. He cuts quite a figure.
8. Mara - This tempter demon tried to lure Buddha away from his meditation prior to reaching enlightenment. He turns the mundane into the irresistible, distracting us from the spiritual path.
7. Randall Flagg - AKA Walter O'Dim, Martin Broadcloak and numerous other aliases. He is the embodiment of evil spreading chaos and discord as he struts his way through Stephen King's multiverse as laid out in The Stand, Dark Tower Series and Eyes of the Dragon. He brings down civilizations for fun and is responsible for more dirty deeds than an army of NFL prospects.
6. The Crimson King - Stephen King's offspring of a demon and Arthurian-type hero Arthur Eld, seeks to destroy the order of the multiverse in order to rule in the chaos that would remain. He is Randall Flagg's boss and his malevolent influence is responsible for all of the evil supernatural doings in King's work.
5. Pinhead - The leader of Clive Barker's Cenobites in his novella The Hell Bound Heart and star of the Hell Raiser film series, Pinhead leads the S&M themed Cenobites on their mission to inflict suffering on anyone unlucky enough to solve one of the puzzle boxes that lead to the realm of their dark god, Leviathan.
4. It - The nameless, shape-changing demon that liked to go hunting kids in the guise of Pennywise the Clown in a small Maine town in Stephen King's novel, It. He is a sworn enemy of the Maturin the Turtle, a giant, benevolent being that barfed the universe into existence. This makes him one of King's most obvious "Devil" analogues.
3. Baphomet - Originally conceived as the icon worshipped by The Knight Templars in anti-Templar propaganda in the 14th Century, the goat-headed demon was adopted as a symbol by Anton LeVey for his Church of Satan in the 20th Century. This gives him some pretty good demonic street cred.
2. Moloch - According to The Old Testament, this ancient Canaanite god was the focus of sacrificial child sacrifice. While this may have been a misinterpretation of the Minotaur myth, the bull-headed Moloch has become associated with oppression and greed.
1. Lucifer - Hmmmmm . . . . Could it be Satan? Yes, yes it is. Old Scratch, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles and on and on. Western Civilization's greatest anti-hero/bogeyman. The one Milton had intone "Better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven" is the king numero-uno of demons, even more so than Ronnie James Dio or King Crimson!
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