Cenobites | |
---|---|
Name | Cenobites |
Aliases | Demons Angels The Surgeons |
Professional Status | |
Affiliation | Hell's Army |
Occupation | Servants of Leviathan |
Personal Status | |
Status | Wiped out by Lucifer when the realm of Hell was destroyed. |
First Appearance | |
Debut | Hellraiser |
Portrayal | |
Portrayed By | Various Actors & Actresses |
“ | Explorers in the further regions of experience. Demons to some, angels to others. | ” |
—Pinhead, The Hell Priest, in Hellraiser |
The Cenobites are extra-dimensional beings who are mutilated and brainwashed into torturing humans for all eternity in the Labyrinth. All Cenobites were once human, with the exception of Angelique, the daughter of the demon god Leviathan.
The Cenobites can only be summoned upon the solving of one of the Lemarchand's Boxes, a type of puzzle box that promises pleasures.
When a person solves one of the many boxes (Carborro, the Lament Configuration, etc), a small group of Cenobites arrives. If Leviathan, god of Hell, believes the person is worthy to become a Cenobite, they are taken to Hell to be remade in a Transformation Chamber operated by the Engineer. The alteration is excruciatingly painful as the victim's body is excessively mutilated and their blood is siphoned out of their body, to be replaced with blue fluid. The procedure breaks the subject's mind completely to the point the transformed victim becomes completely devoid of their memories in their past life as human. When finished, what emerges is a twisted caricature of the original person, often tailored with perversions of aspects from their original persona (Dr. Channard's cenobite persona had surgical tools emerging from his hands and a giant lobotomy drill constantly vivisecting his brain, for example).
If the person is not deemed worthy, they will either still be taken into Hell, where they will spend all eternity in torment, or be destroyed on the spot. The destruction is not complete, however. On two separate occasions, destroying the human spirit left a "psychic tear" in the space and artifacts involved. It was proven during the events of the first two films that spilling blood upon this "tear" triggered a physical resurrection of the victim destroyed, who could then proceed to restore their humanity by consuming the blood and flesh of new victims, like a vampire.
Only by reversing the completion of a Lemarchand Box can a potential victim avoid being taken by the Cenobites, the most notable examples being Kirsty Cotton and Joey Sumerskill, who both were able to evade capture by the Cenobite Pinhead and complete the puzzle.
All Cenobites are bound to the Lemarchand boxes and subject to their rules: a box had to be opened for a Cenobite to attack, and only the one who had deliberately opened the box was a legitimate target (innocents tricked into opening the box, such as Tiffany, were not considered valid victims).
Despite being Leviathan's soldiers, they are not drones since some of them are capable of going rogue and even questioning Leviathan's authority. The prime example is the group of rebelling Cenobites led by Alastor or Doomsayer when he rallies his fellow Cenobites in questioning Leviathan's competency. Even Pinhead himself broke free of Hell at one point and began operating outside the rules until he was tricked into returning. However, these rebellions were short-lived since almost all the dissidents wound up being killed by their fellow Cenobites.
The Cenobites are immune to any kind of mortal weapon or attack used against them, unless the weapon is used by another Cenobite. The prime example is if humans try to shoot a Cenobite with a gun they are unfazed by the attack but the assault rifle used by the Cenobite Atkins can kill a Cenobite easily, in the case of Doomsayer. So far the only beings that can injure or kill a Cenobite are the Cenobites themselves, supernatural creatures, or a high-tier deity such as Leviathan's sister or Leviathan himself, in case any Cenobites upset him. In the movie version when a Cenobite dies, they return to their human form. Closing a puzzle box automatically forces all Cenobites summoned through it back into Hell.
Humans can actually kill and vanquish Cenobites if they possess holy, magical weapons or an artifact, like in the case of Dr Paul Merchant who permanently kills Pinhead and all his Cenobite cohorts using the Elysium Configuration.
List of Cenobites[]
Films[]
Comics[]
Cenobite Pets[]
Cenobite Pets are often grotesque beings created from the flesh of multiple souls, they are trained to be completely subserviant, but on occasion will express views harkening to their former identity.