Origin

In life, Gehenna served a priest of Moloch sometime during the Medieval Era, tossing child sacrifices into a burning pit day after day to appease the deity. Although it was forbidden, Gehenna secretly used sleeping herbs on the children before tossing them into the pit in order to spare them the pain. One day however, he was shocked to see his own son led before him as the next sacrifice. The other worshipers didn't care about Gehenna's protests however, and they tossed his son into the pit before Gehenna could give him the sleeping herbs, subjecting him to the full agony of the flames. Gehenna then saw a diamond-like shape in the pit made of the bones of the children he'd thrown in over the years. Calling to him, he leaped into the pit to the diamond and burned away to the bone, subsequently being remade by Leviathan into a Cenobite, and gradually becoming content to allow the ungodly pain of his new existence help him forget the true suffering of never seeing his son again.

Creation

Gehenna first appeared in 1991's Hellraiser/Nightbreed: Jihad #1 and was created by writer D. G. Chichester and artist Paul Johnson, as part of Clive Barker's iconic Hellraiser series. He later resurfaced in the 1993 Pinhead mini-series.

"Gehenna" is generally defined as "a place or state of torment and suffering". In the New Testament of Judaism it is the name of Hell.

Powers & Abilities

Gehenna, like all Cenobites, possesses great strength, a heightened resistance to damage, proficiency in the dark arts, and is virtually immortal. He can emit scalding flames from his hands and can also use his bony fingers as claws. Despite his abilities, Gehenna is not fireproof, and can still be harmed by fire for the sake of pain and torment.