The Cenobites are fictional extra-dimensional, seemingly demonic beings who appear in the works of Clive Barker. Introduced in Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart, they also appear in its sequel novel The Scarlet Gospels, the Hellraiser films, and in Hellraiser comic books published (intermittently) between 1987 and 2017. In the novel Weaveworld, they are mentioned in passing as "The Surgeons". The Cenobites appear in prose stories authorized but not written by Clive Barker, such as the anthology Hellbound Hearts edited by Paul Kane and Marie O'Regan, the novella Hellraiser: The Toll (plotted by Barker and written by Mark Alan Miller), and the novel Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell written by Paul Kane. The most popular of the Cenobites was nameless in the original novella but was then nicknamed "Pinhead" by the production crew and fans of the first Hellraiser movie. In The Scarlet Gospels, he was given the official name of "The Hell Priest" by Barker. Etymology Etymologically the definition of the term "cenobite" represents the member of a religious order, who lives in a monastic community. Cenobite in the Hellraiser franchise represents a member of a masochistic religious community, priest of Leviathan. Attributes The Hellbound Heart says the Cenobites are also known as "The Order of the Gash". Cenobites were once human, having transformed to their current state in their pursuit of gratification. Cenobites are so removed from their former humanity and so dedicated to exploring physical experience that they no longer distinguish between sensations of pleasure and pain. Humans who summon the Cenobites, either by accident or in hopes of experiencing pleasures unknown on Earth, are often taken to their home dimension and become "experiments" in discovering the limits of physical experience, resulting in torture for eternity. The Cenobites vary in number, appearance, and motivations depending on the medium (film, comic book, etc.) in which they appear. The involvement of multiple parties in the production of Hellraiser films and comics (many eschewing the creative supervision of Clive Barker) has led to varying levels of consistency with respect to their philosophies and abilities; for instance, their powers were much reduced in the 1992 film Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth compared with the first two films. The original novella and first two films indicate they are morally ambiguous ("demons to some, angels to others") but later films and comics depict them as often malicious and taking delight in