Flesh Thralls

* Rat thrall
* Biter
* Wound thrall

In 1985, the Mind Flayer created **an army of thralls**, embedding fragments of itself inside living creatures and possessing them. The host creatures would mutate and melt down, becoming strange beings made purely of bone and cartilage. The thralls were part of the Upside Down's hive mind, sharing a telepathic connection with one another. Eventually, all of the thralls amalgamated into one: the Spider Monster. Severed pieces of the Spider Monster could also operate as thralls.

## History

### 1984

The Mind Flayer, an entity from another dimension known as the Upside Down, possessed a young boy, Will Byers. After the piece of the Mind Flayer possessing Will was forced from his body, it fled to Brimborn Steel Works. When the "mothergate" to the Upside Down was closed, the Mind Flayer's psychic link was disrupted, and the piece at Brimborn Steel Works lay dormant.

### 1985

The Soviet Union conducted an operation in Hawkins, the same town the separated fragment was in, resulting in the formation of a new gate. Through this, the fragment once again regained consciousness and began possessing a large number of rodents. This process was later repeated with dozens of humans, collectively known as "the Flayed". The Mind Flayer melted down the bodies of the possessed people and creatures into sentient biomass, which was used to form new entities that the entity could control.

Most of the possessed rats gathered at Brimborn Steel Works, where their sentient biomass merged to form the Spider Monster, the primary proxy form of the Mind Flayer within the human world. However, a number of smaller proxy forms existed independently from the Spider Monster, though they were linked in thought by the Upside Down's hive mind.

A rat that Doris Driscoll trapped in a cage later reconstituted into a thrall, and was able to escape the cage thanks to its new form. This thrall was seemingly responsible for Doris becoming one of the Flayed.

After the bodies of Flayed humans Tom Holloway and Bruce Lowe were damaged beyond repair, they transformed into biomass and merged together to form the Hospital Monster. The Hospital Monster later escaped Eleven's attack and merged with the Spider Monster.

When the Spider Monster later attacked Eleven at the Hopper cabin, the creature grabbed her leg with one of its limbs. The limb was severed with an ax by Lucas, but the remnant of the limb bit Eleven’s leg before Mike pulled it off her. The limb remnant then acted as a thrall, scuttling away to presumably re-join the Spider Monster's body.

Later, while at Starcourt Mall, Eleven and her friends realised a piece of the Spider Monster was still embedded in her wound. Eleven used her powers to remove the piece from the wound, which again acted as a thrall. The thrall attempted to escape the mall, but was crushed underfoot by Jim Hopper.

Eventually, the Spider Monster was disconnected from the Upside Down’s hive mind and "killed" after the Soviet gate under Starcourt was closed. Though no other thralls seemed to exist by this point, the gate’s closure likely would have "killed" all that remained.

## Members

* Rat-flesh thralls
* Hospital Monster
* Spider Monster's severed limb
* Thrall embedded in Eleven's wound

## Trivia

* Concept art by Michael Maher, Jr. refers to the Flesh Thralls as ‘Mini Meat Flayers’.

## References

1. ↑ *"Monsters from the Upside Down"*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.michaelmaherjr.com/mini-meat-flayer-st3