Moloch (mythology)

Moloch was a demonic fertility-god turned false-god mentioned in varied theological writings, the most famous of which would be the Christian Bible - much like Baal and Mammon the figure of Moloch was likely based on pre-Christian deities that were altered into demons with the rise of a monothestic belief system.

What qualifies Moloch as a villain, in our modern use of the term, was the hefty price the entity demanded from its followers - namely a fiery sacrifice of human life, often children, which would be burnt alive in the long feared ritual of human sacrifice.

Moloch has also become a popular demon in fiction and many works dealing with the supernatural feature this creature or mention it.