The Physhbowl

The Flesh

5 min read

Entity inspired Tarot by Grace Holsten

“Everything feels afraid sometimes. Sure, maybe it’s not as complicated or existential as our fear, but it’s real. And there’s what, twenty billion chickens in the world? A few billion pigs, cows. How many of them are dying of old age? All that terror, it has to go somewhere. So it does."
"And when something formed out of an animalistic fear of the slaughterhouse reaches out to people-"
"Things get weird. Yeah. It gets mixed all up with human neuroses. Bodies, gore, y’know, that nagging worry that deep down we’re just electrified meat squeezing air at each other.”
- Gerard Keay and Jonathan Sims, MAG 111

The Flesh is one of the Entities. It is the fear of mutilation and having your body changed or destroyed as well the animal fear of being slaughtered for meat. It is also connected to insecurity and self-hatred, specifically regarding one’s own body image.

It is thought to be the newest of the entities, born from the fear created by the increase in the industrial farming of animals for meat. In humans, it manifests as bodies, bones, muscles and flesh being twisted, reshaped, and butchered, it also employs the thought of being nothing more than meat. It often employs Christian imagery, such as a cannibalistic version of Eucharist and using a Gnostic church as a ritual site.

Aliases

  • Viscera

Fears

  • Body horror
  • Dysmorphia
  • Being killed for meat
  • Being eaten
  • Being nothing more than meat

Manifestations

  • Meat, corpses
  • Blood
  • Bones
  • Butchers
  • Meat-related industry
  • Cannibalism

Episodes

Statements

Other appearances

Characters

  • Jared Hopworth: The Boneturner. An avatar of the Flesh with the power to manipulate meat and bones, has a large body with extra limbs and organs taken from his victims.
  • Toby Carlisle: Covered his apartment with meat.
    • He has the same last name as Benjamin and his wife in MAG 58 - Trail Rations). It is unclear if they are related.
  • John Haan: Cannibalistic murderer who formerly owned a fast food restaurant, rumored to have used human meat in his food.
  • Tom Haan: Nephew of John Haan, found in the slaughterhouse where he was firing a bolt gun into his head.
  • Eustace Wick: Cannibal who posed as a guide on the Oregon Trail.
  • The Monster Pig: A manifestation of the Flesh in the form of a massive pig.
  • An unnamed avatar: Ruler of the Processing Line, a post-change domain of the Flesh.
  • Angela: A Flesh avatar who was mentioned in MAG 14 - Piecemeal. She is mentioned to have her own domain in MAG 199: Seeing it Through.
  • An unnamed tall woman who was described as having arms that bent backwards.

Artefacts

Locations

  • The Slaughterhouse: A seemingly endless maze of hallways, conveyor belts and industrial machinery related to the manufacture of meat products.
  • The Takeaway: Restaurant owned by John Haan, where he fed his wife’s body to his customers.
  • The Butcher’s Shop: A normal seeming butcher’s shop where Jared Hopworth kills and mutilates victims from the Ukrainian mafia, taking their body parts or feeding them to a meat “pit.”
  • The Gym: Owned by Jared Hopworth. Targeted toward body builders with feelings of inadequacy. Their bodies are changed beyond recognition in order to achieve “perfection.”
  • The Mortal Garden: Jared Hopworth’s domain in the post-Change world. A field of flesh and bones, with people planted as flowers that grow with their fear.
  • The Processing Line: A domain in the post-Change world ruled over by an unknown avatar.

Ritual

The Flesh’s ritual, The Last Feast, involved a pit of meat under a Gnostic church in Istanbul. It was thwarted by Gertrude Robinson, who used explosives to destroy the church and the pit. Gertrude had 8 years to stop the ritual, and it helped her understand that conventional explosives could disrupt some rituals.

Connections with other Entities

Trivia

  • At some point during development The Flesh’s name was going to be Viscera.

Graph View

Backlinks