Urien Rakarth Concepts and Pics

Dark Eldar background has been scarce for the last decade. One excerpt from our previous codex was my favorite. There is nothing more insanely evil than this.

"Deep under the cursed city of Commorragh, Urien Rakarth, master of Haemonculi entered his secret Laboratory. here, in total darkness and infernal heat Urien worked alone, gibbering and insane. The walls of the laboratory were lined with captives given to Urien for his experiments. Chained and gagged, some were dead, some were alive. Of some, he was no longer sure.


Urien studied his prisoners, and finally gestured to his huge Grotesque bodyguards to bring one of them to his inner sanctum. His choice was a muscular man, once a powerful space marine in the service of the Emperor of Mankind. Unable to struggle in the grip of the massive grotesques and gagged with a snake-like organism, the man fixed Urien with hate filled eyes. Urien ordered him to be tied to the operating table and then reached for his tools. As one of Urien's razor-sharp claws drew blood the captive groaned. The luminous eyes of the mad experimenter lightened with a green glow as he felt pleasure at the man's pain. As he continued to work the Master Haemonculus talked to himself in a rasping voice. "You should be grateful. Once I remove your skin you will feel so much cooler. And when I have finished with you, you shall serve a much greater purpose".

Urien stopped and strained his mind to remember. Perhaps once there had indeed been a purpose, but it was all washed away now under an ocean of pain, cruelty, torture, and insanity. Urien shrugged, and turned his attention to his experiment.

A cry of agony pierced the darkness."

Urien Rakarth was one of those special characters that I just loved to read and re-read in our old Dark Eldar Codex. I loved his rules back in the day, although he rarely was included in my lists. Haemonculi are going to be cool these coming days. I used to put them on reaver jetbikes, and I guess these are going away. (I have pics of my haemonculi jetbike here, Haemonculi Jetbike pic.) Here is what went into the new Urien Rakarth.

Jes: Urien Rakarth was the first depiction of a Haemonculus in the new range. The Haemonculi Covens had been expanded as a group and had their own design elements; Rakarth had to use those elements, but still have things that made him a special character. Grafted limbs and reconstructed anatomy were two of the Coven themes, but Rakarth took them further: a huge 'hump' with multiple spines and multiple vestigial arms, and a legacy of countless resurrections. Again, the figure needed height and presence; we had imagined the Haemonculi to float above the ground on suspensors or be held aloft by spinal 'tails'. It is Rakarth's conceit that he is supported by suspensors, but appears to be moving forward on a writhing mass of Haemovores - far more dramatic.

This was one concept that included a definite pose; in fact I had the pose in my head before the detail and I wanted Juan (who would be on sculpting duty) to give it a go as I thought it would give the impression that Rakarth was floating. The tied-on face was retained from the previous model and several design elements from a certain Chaos champion were adopted, for reasons that will become clear. Most people who saw it declared the drawing to be 'disturbing' or 'wrong', so I took that to mean we were on the right track

Urien's 'hump' developed a personality of its own and needed a concept to itself; I think Juan was having bad dreams at this point.

Juan's final sculpture exceeded everyone's expectations; the face in particular was really malevolent, and the vestigial limbs were even more disturbing in 3D. 'Eavy Metal supplied another fantastic - if gross - paintjob, and the master Haemonculus was complete.