Hexen: Beyond Heretic is a dark fantasy first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software, published by id Software, and distributed by GT Interactive on October 30, 1995. It is the sequel to 1994's Heretic, and the second game in Raven Software's "Serpent Riders" series. The title comes from the German noun "Hexen", which means "witches" (in plural), or the verb "hexen", which means "to cast a spell". Game producer John Romero stated that a third game in this series which was never realized was to be called "Hecatomb".