House Escher
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80s glam-rock techno-punk Amazons in Space!
But, seriously, House Escher is one of the six Hive City Houses of Necromunda, making it one of the six original playable factions for the game when it was debuted.
House Escher's "gimmick" is that it is a matriarchal House; some unknown, inexplicable genetic quirk results in the females of House Escher being born strong and hearty, but males are invariably stillborn, mentally handicapped or physically disabled, forcing the House to rely on its womenfolk to handle all of the various tasks of running a House. The Escher have risen to this task with pride and skill, and have held their place in the wars of the Houses for countless generations. Indeed, they have come to view the menfolk of other Houses with varying levels of pity, amusement or disdain, viewing them as often being little better than their own wastrel, sub-human male-spawn. This gives them a long-lasting and mutual enmity with House Goliath, whose entire culture is bound up in excessive displays of masculinity and machismo; House Escher thinks of them as ridiculous, swaggering, musclebound idiots.
In the 8th edition relaunch of Necromunda, House Escher got a few tweaks. They were now stated to specialize in exotic chemicals and bio-agents; tonics, drugs, elixirs, gene-mods and a vast array of other bio-pharmaceutical products. Their Space Amazon status was even directly attributed to some kind of genetic damage from dealing with these concoctions, and their menfolk are now completely out of the picture - they even use bio-pharmaceutical archeotech (with a little help from House Van Saar) to reproduce, with strange drugs that can induce parthenogenesis (asexual, perhaps even homosexual) pregnancy. This makes their eternal rivalry with House Goliath develop a layer of extra irony; Goliath depends on Escher-produced stimms, gene-tweaks, hormone mods and other bio-chemical products to create and sustain their unnaturally enhanced, augmented physiques.
This same edition also gave them a status boost; whereas the first issue of Necromunda had used House Orlock and House Goliath as its default/starter gangs, the relaunch instead uses Houses Goliath and Escher, to better provide a contrast in sides, per the developers' own words.
Unique Mechanics
1998 Edition
House Escher's speciality was Agility; it was the one skill table that all of its members could roll on. Escher Gang Leaders were the only ones in the gang who could take Ferocity skills, whilst Escher Heavers were the only ones who could have Muscle skills.