Haemonculus

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"I think it's only fair to tell you.I have no idea what i'm doing.."

A Haemonculus (from homunculus, Latin for "little man" and one of the usual buzzwords of alchemy in fantasy, and haemo-, the British spelling of hemo- [though they are pronounced the same way], from Greek for "blood" -- not that Haemonculi are little men made out of blood, but they are sort-of-alchemists and they work with flesh and blood) is a Dark Eldar mad scientist (in some ways, they're like the techpriests of the Adeptus Mechanicus -- though the Haemonculi would insist that their works are far more advanced than crude bionics of Mon-keigh technology, and the techpriests would be insulted by the comparison to filthy, deviant xenos). They are colloquially known as "flesh-sculptors" and "Lords of Pain" because that's exactly what their art is all about. They take great pleasure in modifying creatures, and the more bizarre and painful (to both the subject and whoever said subject gets turned loose upon) the better. They're not above self-experimentation, either.

Nobody is quite sure where they come from, since Haemonculi are all extremely old and heavily modified from whoever they once were, but the structure of their covens suggests that they start their careers as Wracks (or "Haemacolytes" if you want to be polite) apprenticed to a Haemonculus, doing the dirty work with scalpels and such (like BDSM grad students). If the Dark Eldar were Reasonable Dark Eldar, Wracks who impressed their masters would be given a chance to join the inner circle; as it is, Haemonculi are probably more likely to kill gifted students and take credit for their work, while said gifted students are busily plotting the downfall of their masters and maneuvering to take their places.

Tabletop

Haemonculi are an HQ choice for Dark Eldar armies, available in up to three per HQ slot (one of whom may be a Haemonculus Ancient, with some beefed-up stats). They allow Wrack squads to be taken as Troops (normally they are Elites).

Dungeons and Dragons

In 3.X they were some construct you could make. If it dies, its creator takes damage, if the creator dies the Haemonculus dies. Eberron adds some optional features to them, and they preform the role of "familiar"s for Artificers.