| “ | I mean, children are okay sacrifices, but why them in particular? Children play host to pure souls that have yet to live a life in a mortal body. These souls are harder to convert into demons than regular souls. Plus, I run the risk of that soul escaping and being eaten by another demon or something. I vastly prefer the souls of adults. Malleable like clay and easier to influence so they share my ideals. | „ |
| ~ Moloch. |
Moloch was a fallen angel and prince of Hell that masqueraded as a pagan fertility god. He is infamous for his appetite towards children of the faithful.
Overview[]
Moloch was the god of the Ammonites, portrayed as a bronze statue with a calf’s head adorned with a royal crown and seated on a throne. His arms were extended to receive the child victims sacrificed to him. Milton wrote that Moloch was a frightening and terrible demon covered with mothers’ tears and children’s blood.
He appears in the Old Testament as a god that Moses forbade the Israelites to worship. Moloch worship was practiced by the Canaanites, Phoenician and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant.
Description[]
He is depicted as a massive humanoid bull, with demonic features. Rabbis claim that in the famous statue of Moloch, there were seven kinds of cabinets. The first was for flour, the second for turtle doves, the third for an ewe, the fourth for a ram, the fifth for a calf, the sixth for a beef, and the seventh for a child. It is because of this, Moloch is associated with Mithras and his seven mysterious gates with seven chambers. When a child was sacrificed to Moloch, a fire was lit inside the statue. The priests would then beat loudly on drums and other objects so that the cries would not be heard.
History[]
Background[]
He is listed among the chief of Lucifer's angels, and is given a speech at the parliament of Hell, where he argues for immediate warfare against God. He later becomes revered as a pagan god on Earth. He was also the one to give the oath system in Hell, which later on, was called Moloch's Oath, and also went on to rule an abominable sector of Hell called Gehenna.
Activities on Earth[]
Moloch is presented as a foreign deity who was at times illegitimately given a place in Israel’s worship as a result of the syncretistic policies of certain apostate kings. The laws given to Moses by God expressly forbade the Jews to do what was done in Egypt or in Canaan. “You shall not give any of your children to devote them by fire to Moloch, and so profane the name of your God”.
Yet kings such as Ahaz and Manasseh, having been influenced by the Assyrians, are reported to have worshipped Moloch at the hilled site of Topheth, outside the walls of Jerusalem. This site flourished under Manasseh’s son King Amon but was destroyed during the reign of Josiah, the reformer. “And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Moloch”.
Anung Un Rama[]
According to the mystical prophecy "Anung Un Rama, Urush Un Rama", Moloch is one of named casualties in a civil war within the ranks Hell, which was started when the cambion Hellboy killed a weakened and crippled Satan using the legendary Twin Blade. With the highest leadership gone, the countless legions of lesser demons turn against the infernal nobles and brutally killed them. Moloch is one of many casualties, alongside Astaroth, Suriel, Uziel, Amdusias, Beelzebub, Behemoth and Leviathan. However, it is unknown if this prophecy was true or a false prophecy created by Nyarlathotep.
Personality[]
He is often described as a rash, irrational and murderous demon, who wants to continue to wage war against God and Heaven. Moloch is often disregardful of his own tumulous predicaments, which is evident when he deemed it imperative to take the fight to God even after they were banished and punished for their transgressions.
Although, this was likely because he himself enjoyed the thrill of war so much and was the reason why his suggestion was overruled, likely on the account that Satan recognized that Moloch was more brawn than he is brain and is a fallen angel attributed to warfare and lives for the thrill of combat.
Moloch also finds particular pleasure in making mothers weep; he specialises in stealing their children.
Power and Abilities[]
As a fallen angel he is naturally superior to the demons native to Hell and wears the title of King among the legions of the damned. Moloch is a demon of warfare, and thus is highly skilled in combat to where he was among the leading charges in Lucifer's faction of rebel angels during the War in Heaven.
Moloch's skill and power is shown when he fought against Dante and was noted to give the son of Sparda quite the enjoyable bout, only to be overwhelmed by the mighty devil slayer.
Trivia[]
- Moloch has been used figuratively in English literature from John Milton's Paradise Lost to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl", to refer to a person or thing demanding or requiring a very costly sacrifice.
- It is likely that the motif of stealing children was inspired by the traditional understanding that babies were sacrificed to Moloch.
- Moloch is still worshipped today by the Bohemian Club at the Bohemian Grove in the shape of a giant owl. His worship involves a ritual known as the "Cremation of Care".
