ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

What follows are ideas for incorporating Leviathan and the Cenobites into a World of Darkness chronicle. This is not the first time the topic has been addressed over the InterNet, but I found other articles unsuitable due to their complexity, and the fact that they added yet another independent power to the WoD which has more than enough cosmic horrors already.

Since, in practice, you will probably be forced to extensively modify the statistics I used in my game, I have decided to save bandwidth and restricted myself to a simple paragraph or two on each separate entity composing the grand Labyrinth. What follows is not quite true to the Pinhead of fiction, but I hope it will be a useful guide to the Storyteller who wants to add the High Priest of Pain and his servants as another facet of the incomprehensibly monstrous glob of absolute corruption and decay made whole that is the Wyrm.

Introduction

The Umbral entity known as Leviathan is the legacy of an ancient sorcerous experiment of the most malignant kind carried out in Malfeas, the lair of the Wyrm.

Long before the reign of Aliara, another Maeljin known as Count Theed sat on the Throne of Pleasure, serving Karnala, Urge-Wyrm of Desire, with unswerving loyalty and boundless creativity. As the eons passed, he expanded his foul wisdom as far as he was able, ever seeking new ways to please his depraved master.

It was in the ascendant season of the elventy-seventieth moon of the fifth month after the destruction of all creation when Theed's seers came to him with a master plan, a gift beyond all compare that would mark him forever as the grandest Count of Desire ever to live. His minions had discovered the Rune of the Flesh, a mystic pattern that had the property of amplifying and conducting the baser emotions of living creatures. The potential for this application was immense, but Theed had a simple use for it. Using the power of the Rune, he planned to allow Karnala to eventually feel all the pain and pleasure in the Tellurian.

When the Rune was worked into the pattern of certain Fomori, they gained the ability to transmit their emotions and experiences into the Labyrinth, a stone construction in the Umbra designed in exact replica of the rune. This energy would be transferred to Leviathan, a spirit created at the site to oversee the network, and then transmitted to an enormous gothic tower in Malfeas; a literal cathedral of sensation, where the various servants of the Wyrm or even Karnala itself could come to enjoy the endless rapture.

These special Fomori, known as Cenobites, would be sent forth into the Tellurian to collect victims and inflict suffering, thereby feeding the Labyrinth. Mortals who desired the gift of pain could be taken directly into to the Umbra and delivered to Leviathan. There, embraced by one of the Gilded Pillars, their exquisite agony would continue to feed the Malfean court. Finally, what remained, shaped in the image of the Wyrm, could walk the world as yet another Cenobite, which in turn would collect more fresh bodies for Leviathan.

The most attractive part of the plan was its self perpetuating nature. All that was required to get things started was a few portal-boxes scattered around the Tellurian, along with the promise (true, by the standards of Karnala) that infinite pleasure awaited those who solved the puzzle box and opened the portal. If a mortal's desires were strong, they would inevitably complete the puzzle and then the Fomori would come.

Pleased beyond all words by the gift, Karnala allowed Theed the rare ecstasy of being devoured alive. And so passed the greatest Count of Desire ever to reign into the comforting coils of the Wyrm.

Leviathan

Leviathan is a spirit entity created in the distant past by Theed as an overseer of the Labyrinth and a living focus for the pain energy that flows from all the pillars in the system. Leviathan's spiritual body manifests as a great steel diamond, floating suspended above the center of the Labyrinth. From each of its poles flows the concentrated power of corrupting evil. Everything it touches is subtly debased. Living creatures relive their most unpleasant memories and vilest deeds, while inanimate objects will become tainted after sufficient exposure.

Leviathan has no mind as it were. More a great computer than a thinking being, it is completely consumed with focusing pain and transmitting it to Malfeas. It cannot attack or defend itself, but is capable of summoning all the Cenobites in the Labyrinth to come to its aid — more than enough to ward off any but the greatest threats. If this proves insufficient, Leviathan can summon the very armies of Malfeas itself to protect it within hours. Damage to Leviathan's physically form is largely irrelevant (not to mention impossible) in the Labyrinth, which it never leaves.

Cenobites

The fist Cenobites were a few lucky slaves in Malfeas who were tossed into the Gilded Pillars simply to test the system. Since that far-off time their ranks have swelled with the lustful and depraved, as well as more than enough of the foolish and unwary. Most Cenobites look relatively human for Fomori. Theed postulated that a human-like Cenobite would inspire more terror in the potential victims than a completely alien form. All of them bear the marks of their horrible transformations: mutilation, scarring, unhealing wounds that constantly drip gore or some fouler substance. Most of them are pale blue, a side effect of the Wyrm-tainted ichor that replaces their blood. What once passed for their minds has been systematically destroyed by the etching process. They now manifest only a cold, mechanical cunning and a few nervous habits left in their ravaged subconscious.

All Cenobites have only one desire: to cause suffering and pain to living creatures. This isn't out of cruelty, but to help those creatures see the truth that Leviathan has helped the Cenobites to see: that suffering is the purest and most potent form of pleasure that can be experienced. Of course no human being could possibly understand this with their limited mortal perspective. That is why the Cenobites must "initiate" them into unending pleasure. After a few centuries, they too will understand...

Cenobites are immune to normal (non-Aggravated) damage in their home realm, but outside it they can be incinerated, blown to bits or cut to pieces, all of which the creature would love dearly — after taking a few mortals back to the Labyrinth to "enjoy". A Cenobite killed in the Labyrinth is truly destroyed and must be replaced with a captive being from the Pillars. Such a replacement arrives immediately. Destruction of a Cenobite's corporal form does no harm to the spirit, although they may be attacked in the Umbra, where they manifest as a poisonous cloud of negativity and almost incomprehensible suffering, trailing a "tail" to the far off Labyrinth. In my game, the Cenobites were not only relatively powerful in hand to hand combat, but masters of diabolic lust and pain magic.

The Gilded Pillars

Within the heart of the Labyrinth, the bodies and souls of Cenobite prisoners are trapped within obelisk-like pillars almost seven feet in height, covered with blades, flayed skins, scenes of torture and depravity and eerie gold-inlaid runes that allow the suffering of the unfortunate creature within to be transmitted into the network and eventually to Malfeas. The edges of these pillars fold open like some kind of demented flower. The Cenobites, once they have sated their desire to torment a victim, hurl the nearly lifeless body into the center of the pillar, which promptly closes up around it and descends into the Labyrinth.

What occurs within is largely unknown and likely so horrific as to boggle the imagination. Recalling their experiences later, a new Cenobite's ravaged mind will only be able to recall centuries of the most intense pleasure imaginable. No other creature has ever been retrieved from a pillar before the transformation is complete.

Within the pillars, which may be much larger on the inside than out, time slows to nothingness and the physical body of the tormented creature never dies or ages. Some creatures have yet to emerge from their pillars. If the creature does emerge, it does so as a Cenobite under Leviathan's power. For some reason, there are never more than 100 Cenobites active at a time. This is more than sufficient to maintain the network and collect new converts.

The Box

There are one hundred of these boxes in existence, one for each Cenobite. Each box is a gold-encrusted onyx construction, etched with a tiny fragment of the Rune's hideous totality. The boxes each open differently, through pressure on their panels or along certain seams that become apparent as the puzzle comes closer and closer to being solved.

Solving the puzzle is extremely difficult, but those who truly desire to know the dark secrets of the other side, or have been seduced by the legend of the box will always seem to discover the way to open it. Once the puzzle is complete, the box opens and the Cenobite assigned to it appears in static reality. A vital element is the desires of the creature opening the box or one in the immediate area, without which the Cenobite cannot penetrate the Gauntlet.

Once within reality, the Cenobite only has a few minutes to act before reality shades (nebulous spirits that are possibly Paradox spirits) descend on it. Therefore a Cenobite does its best to grab the victim (a touch is all that is necessary) and carry them back to the Labyrinth to be tormented at leisure.

The Labyrinth

Inside the Labyrinth itself perceptions constantly change, often summoning up grotesque images from the mind of the victim. Those entering the place for the first time will wander down seemingly endless corridors leading to nowhere, filled with horrible scenes of torture and whirling pillars. The air is completely still and dead. Even the horrible shrieks of the damned do not carry more than thirty feet, a deceptive statistic since the Labyrinth has different spatial laws than mortal travelers are used to. All roads lead eventually to the Labyrinth's heart — an infinite plain, with only Leviathan hanging in the center of the sky like a black diamond. The travelers stand on the top of a series of incredibly complicated walkways, which seem to reach down an infinite distance.

When visitors appear, Leviathan closely examines the intruders, and bombards them with horrific memories and visions from their own subconscious, just to see how they will react. At the same time, it summons horrible guardian Cenobites who will attempt to place travelers forcibly into a gilded pillar which will conveniently rise from the ground for the occasion.

Leaving the realm, if one is not a prisoner of one of the Pillars, is no more difficult than leaving any other shard realm. There is no Paradox there, although altering reality immediately summons forth Cenobites and Leviathan's attention. Leviathan in theory completely controls static reality in the Labyrinth, but its programing will allow it to do nothing but maintain the status quo.

Ideas

In my Mage/Werewolf Chronicle, a renegade Cultist of Ecstasy discovered the legend of the box and was taken by the Cenobites. The remainder of the group was forced to enter the Labyrinth and retrieve him, or at least put an end to his misery. In the end, they succeeded by bargaining with the Cenobite who had taken their friend. They offered a powerful Talisman in exchange for their companion, but stipulated that the trade must take place on Earth. The Cenobite, hoping to go on a rampage once summoned, readily agreed. Once the creature appeared, the group used powerful magic to prevent it from leaving, while a werewolf in the group attacked it. Although it could have killed the entire party, the Cenobite was kept distracted until reality shades arrived and tore its warped spirit to shreds.