Re-imaging Hell

[D.Shaffer]

I'm not familiar with either. Could you elaborate on that?

Wiki's got a pretty good article on them...but to summarise:

The Cenobites are an order of demons also known as the Theologians of the Order of the gash, or the Surgeons, in service to Leviathan, Lord of the Labrynth. They were all once human, hedonists so jaded with earthly pleasures they started looking for extradimensional satisfaction. Eventually they find a puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration that is a gateway to Hell. Upon solving the puzzle, they are taken by other Cenobites where they are tortured and twisted, with the 'worthy' turned into Cenobites themselves. They are essentially the personifications of sado-masochism - Pain and pleasure twisted until they're no longer distinguisable. Their bodies are still essentially human in form, but brutally disfigured and clad in black leather. They exist primarily to torture others, however they only go after those that have solved the puzzle. They are armed with a variety of hooks and knives which they use to torture victims and can summon/control chains tipped with barbed hooks to hold victims while they torture them, or to brutally tear a victim to pieces.

The most famous Cenobite is Pinhead, a grey skinned, bald humanoid who has a grid carved into the skin of his head, and dozens of nails driven into the intersections. His chest has multiple lacerations, with the wounds forcible held open by fishhooks attached to his black leather robe. He is thought to be the leader of the Cenobites, and was a British officer when he was still human.

 

[Rackhir]

They were all once human, hedonists so jaded with earthly pleasures they started looking for extradimensional satisfaction. Eventually they find a puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration that is a gateway to Hell. Upon solving the puzzle, they are taken by other Cenobites where they are tortured and twisted, with the 'worthy' turned into Cenobites themselves.

This is something from the movies not from the original short story. Though it was one of the more interesting additions from the movies. The origin of the cenobites in the original story is never explained AFAIK.

The Hellbound Web | Encyclopædia | "The Hellbound Heart"

There was also a series of comics that have TPB collections out IIRC. They add to and expand on the mythology, though I'm unclear on what if any input Barker had on them.

I highly recommend the first two films if you like horror movies. The ones after that are... not as good...

 

[Rackhir]

Oops. This might have been my first double post, but my web browser was crashing repeatedly for some reason this morning. I throw myself on the mercy of the boards.

 

[Krensky]

He also used Shaitan, like Frank Herbert, the Arab root word for Satan.

Considering that the major faith in Herbet's world is a syncretism of Zen Buddhism and Islam, that's not really surprising.

 

[Mallus]

It comes across better in the short story, but the Cenobites aren't so much evil, as so alien that their concept of pleasure is torture to humans.

The Cenobites/Hellraiser films were the inspiration for the Bad Hunger in the CITY campaign. The Lady Eve was my re-imagining of a Cenobite as a 1930's screwball comedy socialite with a shady past. She's Pinhead without the pins in a cocktail dress.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

Wiki's got a pretty good article on them...but to summarise:

The Cenobites are an order of demons also known as the Theologians of the Order of the gash, or the Surgeons, in service to Leviathan, Lord of the Labrynth. They were all once human, hedonists so jaded with earthly pleasures they started looking for extradimensional satisfaction. Eventually they find a puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration that is a gateway to Hell. Upon solving the puzzle, they are taken by other Cenobites where they are tortured and twisted, with the 'worthy' turned into Cenobites themselves. They are essentially the personifications of sado-masochism - Pain and pleasure twisted until they're no longer distinguisable. Their bodies are still essentially human in form, but brutally disfigured and clad in black leather. They exist primarily to torture others, however they only go after those that have solved the puzzle. They are armed with a variety of hooks and knives which they use to torture victims and can summon/control chains tipped with barbed hooks to hold victims while they torture them, or to brutally tear a victim to pieces.

The most famous Cenobite is Pinhead, a grey skinned, bald humanoid who has a grid carved into the skin of his head, and dozens of nails driven into the intersections. His chest has multiple lacerations, with the wounds forcible held open by fishhooks attached to his black leather robe. He is thought to be the leader of the Cenobites, and was a British officer when he was still human.

Makes me wish I knew HTML so I could fix the entry. They do not only go after people who have solved the box, they also go after those that have escaped, and in a couple cases, people who have gotten in the way. Some people they "showed pleasure" to were also traded to them by people who didn't want to experience it.

Also, Pinhead was a Nazi, not a british soldier.

 

[Rechan]

She's Pinhead without the pins in a cocktail dress.

Thank you for that awful mental image.

 

[Rackhir]

Makes me wish I knew HTML so I could fix the entry. They do not only go after people who have solved the box, they also go after those that have escaped, and in a couple cases, people who have gotten in the way. Some people they "showed pleasure" to were also traded to them by people who didn't want to experience it.

Also, Pinhead was a Nazi, not a british soldier.

It's accurate for the movie, not the short story.

Pinhead was not a nazi, he was clearly shown in the second movie in a british officer's uniform.

 

[Merlin's Shadow]

Makes me wish I knew HTML so I could fix the entry.

You really don't need to be an HTML expert to edit Wikipedia pages. Most of the formatting stuff is already taken care of, so you can just go in there and type what you need to. Besides, even if you somehow screwed up some tag, it would be fixed very quickly by someone else.