Esker
Archivist's Excerpt from: A Chiming Town Indeed: A Painstaking History of Pendulum & its People, Vol. I, CVI 42.5
The Esker family has roots in Orphan Heights from the beginning, back when the family's Germanic spelling rendered it as "Escher." They are among the last families in Orphan Towne to care about their heritage in this way, and still portray a welcome sign on their home in the old tongue.
The current head of the family is Hugo Esker, husband of Elise Esker. The family settled in Harchester, Algary several generations prior, and the modest Esker Brownstone has been their home ever since. A family of engineering men, for several generations now, the Eskers have worked as Tramrunners, Hugo Esker being one of the most renowned in the trade's storied history. Alphonse Esker has branched out into working as a Brazesmith and even Lensbender, while Alvin Esker ... well, he talks a lot, and seems to like light bulbs and telescopes.
Agnes Esker is the family's first academic, and was considered something of a prodigy prior to her death in 1894, though it should be noted that, though she did not follow an academic career, Elise Esker is fiercely intelligent, and well known up and down London Row as "nobody's bloody fool," with the one exception being that she "married that clod, Hugo."
It should be noted, for the sake of historical justice, that their marriage has been the envy of Harchester.
It is known around Orphan Heights, largely due to the unbridled mouth of one Alvin Esker, that the Eskers are apparently famous for a great many things, beyond the obvious mechanical prowess of the men of the family. The known list is as follows:
Eskers have never been seen to crack under pressure. Ever.
Their frankness is stuff of folklore. Minstrels have sang of their frankness.
Esker mothers are apparently known for their culinary mastery, though this is reportedly true of Elise Esker, and nobody is foolish enough to argue, double so within earshot of Hugo Esker, Alphonse Esker, or even Alvin Esker.
Eskers would never take advantage of a girl like some "motherless cad" from Wesbeldt apparently might
"Eskers are never crass. We're just pleasantly forthright, we are."
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