The Order of the Gash actually contained multiple Cenobite Incarnations
Taking both The Hellbound Heart and The Scarlet Gospels into consideration, Hell itself has always had an Order of the Gash but the members always follow the same/similar mutilations and positions. In the original novella the one in the "Buterball" position lead it. But by the time of The Scarlet Gospels, the one holding the "Pinhead" position had gone quite nuts and kills his current other incarnations during the plot.The process just messes with their memory, making them think they've always been doing what they do. There could always be legends of the specific Cenobites, but allowing multiple incarnations to exist within it.
- So has anyone who's read Hellraiser: The Toll want to tell us if this theory has been Jossed?
- Also perhaps we actually might get some weird way around this. We knew Barbie Wilde wrote a story for The Hellbound Hearts that could have fleshed out the Female, but now Nicholas Vince has given us a Chatterer origin. So hey... maybe Doug, Simon and dare I say Ashley too with Clive approval could work out some resolution to this in the future?
The Engineer is responsible for all the continuity confusion
The Engineer is just some Jerkass demon that was in charge of Hell after Lucifer died and has been screwing with everyone's heads over the years that they have no clue what is or isn't real any more. It's whatever way the Engineer wanted it at the time. Meta Alternative: The narrator messed up
Just in case we don't actually get any clever way around this in the future how about this. The narrator of The Hellbound Heart was so terrified in telling the story he got his facts wrong. He's now in Hell for his grave mistake in reporting on the Hell Priest.