In the beginning, there was Perfect Order. Leviathan looked out onto his Labyrinth and saw that it was good; light-less, devoid of the stench of Chaos. A perfect creation of pattern and logic, as was he.

Then it happened. Cracking the very boundaries of his reality, and seeping through the cracks, came the Chaos of our world. Ever growing, ever spreading. Bringing with it light and color. Our world, chaotic, fertile with seeds of life, grew exponentially and shattered the borders of our own dimensions.

At first Leviathan was able to hold back the assault; retaliating, as white cells would repel a foreign virus. For a time Leviathan was once again pleased. Chaos would not be so easily defeated. Like lichen on stone, it spread and took root. Making its way through the Labyrinth, giving color to its lusterless gray. Spreading, growing, corrupting.

Leviathan once again formed a strategy for battle. Searching for a weak link in its enemy, it found in the mud of a new world, Man. Man with his weakness, Man with his hungers and fears, longing and dreams; the perfect victim for his plans. In Man's dream would a soft voice be heard, whispering softly the secrets of Science, the riddles of Logic, and the flame of Prometheus

Man took this knowledge with open hands and hungry heart. He took this knowledge and used it to cut at his own world, to bring all around him to their knees and become Lord over all he saw. The world was no longer a world to be feared. The uncharted jungle of the mind no longer a place too dark to explore. This became an age of Reason, where doors would no longer remain closed for fear of what lies on the other side - they would be thrown open, explored and mapped. But some doors are not meant to be opened, and some puzzles should never be solved...

As the world bled from the attacks of Man, Leviathan's Order grew strong. In time, his world was cleansed from the growths of Chaos, but that was no longer enough. Never would Order be safe unless Chaos be destroyed. To destroy a weed, one must cut it off its roots.

He once again visited Man in his dreams. Chained by the laws of the Universe, and bound to remain in his Labyrinth, dreams and visions were his only entryway into our reality. He chose his prophets and acolytes. Men of Order and Reason; Newton, Adams, Edison, Einstein . . . Men of the Atom. He inspired Man to walk on the face of what he once thought were Gods. The moons and the planets, the stars and vastness of space, would no longer be safe from the will of Mankind.

Every war needs an army. This war upon Chaos was no different. A culmination of the flesh of Man and the dark spirits of Leviathan's world began; spirits that were ageless, heartless and immortal. They whom had walked the halls of the Labyrinth for eons would now hold the banner of his cause. The Cenobites of his religion would help to sway mankind from his world of Flesh and Chaos, to one of Purpose, Pattern and Order.

The Cenobites were not perfect however. Perhaps it was because they were an amalgam of the spirits of Leviathan's world and the flesh and soul of the children of Chaos. They bickered at times, held emotions and passions craved and yearned. Only one amongst them all showed a perfect understanding of the Path to Perfection and the Religion of Sorrows, and he soon became the favoured one.

He goes by many names, the "Dark Pontiff of Pain", "Prince of Pain" and "Black Pope of Hell". Some call him the "Favoured Son", or "Vasa Inquatitis", others have named him "Xipe Totec" after the Aztec god whose name means "Our God the Flayed one". There are those who are foolish or ignorant enough to dare to call him "Pinhead". He is the lord over the cenobites and carries the message of his dark god to those who would hear it, or those who would not. The purging of the Flesh is the will of Leviathan, to be subjected to the patterns of the Labyrinth, or hell.

"Short is the Pain, Long is the Ornament" is the foundation of this holy (or "unholy") cause. Hell too has its commandments however. The cenobites cannot, for instance, enter our "Plane Prime" without first being invited. The locks to the doors into their reality are on our side, and only we can open them.

The key is temptation. Leviathan has chosen to use as his weapons the weaknesses of Man, Flesh, Desire, and Obsession. Those whom crave pleasures beyond those of his world would surely break down the barriers and allow the Cenobites to bring their sermons. Throughout the cosmos they were spread. Forged from the very flesh of the Dark Diamond, the Perfect Shape that is Leviathan, thousands of Puzzles found their way into our world. Each brought their lulling song of "pleasures beyond the Flesh", of "dark wonders and black miracles". Each also brought with them a guardian. Not quite Cenobites, these creatures only purpose is to protect and spread the infernal puzzles.

These puzzles did not necessarily enter our world as objects, rather as ideas, inspirations, dreams and visions. One such vision came to a French artist and toy-maker by the name of Philip LeMarchand. A vision he was able to make reality when he mysteriously came upon a substance not of our world and specific instructions on how to use it.

LeMarchand's labor of love came to be known as "LeMarchand's Box" and its bastardized offspring as "Lament Configurations". These puzzle boxes have become the most widespread and well-known forms of Leviathans puzzles.

One such puzzle box fell into the hands of a veteran by the name of Elliott Spencer, survivor of the Great War, whose scars of battle were far more visible on the inside than on his flesh. He had grown numb to the few pleasures this world had left for him and searched through ancient lore for other alternatives. He came upon such and unlocked its secrets. The puzzle box now solved opened the door to hell and let in its most feared denizen. The spirit of Xipe Totec and the soul of Elliot Spencer became as one. Pure and raw power fused with human traits of compassion, and most of all, humility. The being we currently know as Pinhead came to being, but this was not the first, and surely not the last time, of its incarnation. There would also come a time when these two sentiences would be ripped apart and the mightier of the two escapes both the boundaries of hell, and its rules. Pinhead, free of the humility of Man, would wage war both upon the flesh, as well as on whom he once he called Master, Leviathan . . . But that is another story.

The souls that have fallen to the temptations of Leviathan are trapped within the Labyrinth. Some roam the halls forever; toys for the Cenobites to play with. Others live out personal hells, experiments in the furthest regions of torment and pain. Collectively they are the damned, victims of their own shortcomings - as the truly innocent are safe. From the damned sometimes a few are chosen, those dark and wise in the ways of Leviathan, to become Cenobites themselves. Others are chosen to simply feed the great Diamond - their flesh crushed and liquefied into a dark substance that smoothens the spin of Leviathan. A few, every so often, escape...

When a body is torn from this world, it leaves behind a seed. Small, unremarkable - it can be a drop of blood, or saliva, or sperm... That seed, if it is nurtured appropriately, is enough to bring back the soul of the damned. Flesh-less, they reach a new birth. Often enough, they come back with new talents acquired in the halls of hell. That is when the Hunters come. Once a soul escapes the Labyrinth, the laws of become void, and one of its own can come to our world freely. The animal-like Hunters enter our world to seek out its prey, and drag them back, bleeding and beaten, into its world.

Guarding oneself from the wrath of hell's denizens is no easy task. There are but three ways to rid oneself of their accursed haunting -- to banish them, to destroy the artifact that birthed them, and to destroy them. To banish a creature of the Labyrinth one must find a separate solution to the puzzle-artifact that summoned them. If solved appropriately the "demons" will be sent back to the Labyrinth to face the punishment for their failure. Destroying the puzzle-artifact that originally damned a creature of hell will tear the human soul from the demon-entity, so will helping the creature remember past identities. Leviathan does not look kindly at a follower who looks at his past with fondness, it is known as "the sin of remembrance" and its punishable by death. Destroying a puzzle-artifact will also cause great damage to Leviathan himself, as they are forged from his very flesh. Finally, to destroy the lower minions of hell, Guardians and Hunters, one must know that only that of Leviathan can truly hurt Leviathan's children. The blackened bones of the damned can be used for such purposes, as they have been tainted by the will of Leviathan.

This is all I know about the world of Hellraiser; about the dark god Leviathan, the Cenobites, the Lament Configurations and its ilk, of the Hunters and the Guardians. I am sure there is more to be learned, but I hope that I have at least shed some light into this great mythos.