Eli was born in the Dust Quarter of Rharne and has spent most of his life there. When he was younger, his father Ernest earned his living as a laborer on the shores of Lake Lovalus. His mother Margaret did her best to watch over Eli and his three siblings, one older and two younger than him, by taking in sewing and washing in an attempt to replace the wages her husband spent in the taverns or gambling halls at night. It was a meager existence, back before conditions in the Dust Quarter improved, and often they went without.
It was during those times that Eli took it upon himself to supplement the family's diet by picking pockets in the Glass Quarter, or lifting most edibles from local markets and shops. Somehow he managed, for the most part, to avoid becoming entangled with local authorities. Sometimes by avoiding being caught in the act, and other times, escaping relatively unscathed. Over time, it became a challenge that Eli quite enjoyed. Margaret almost certainly realized that the occasional windfall of bread, eggs or vegetables were ill gotten goods. But she never asked, and Eli never told.
The improvements in the Dust Quarter should have resulted in better fortune for the Lamoreaux family. But it seemed that the stars were aligned against them. First, Ernest lost his work at the docks. Never a very attentive husband and father, he began spending more of his time in the inns and taverns. Eventually he didn't come home and all, and disappeared. A short time later, a fever swept the quarter and Eli's youngest sister Lily died. Margaret, weakened by grief, wasn't far behind her. Eli's older brother Jon had sailed off a season earlier, having joined a whaling crew. It left Eli and his younger brother Edward alone, just the two of them. And it wasn't long before Edward was taken to live in an orphanage and work house. Eli, then nearly sixteen, was on his own, and eager to get out of the Dust Quarter for good.
He was an ambitious young man, and completely undaunted by an uncertain future ahead of him. It was always about the future, about change and progress and innovation for him. That was the path to success, so far as he was concerned. To be an innovator. For as long as he could remember, Eli had been fascinated with gadgetry. From wind up toys to tools for the kitchen to every sort of machinery imaginable, and then some. Any time he could get his hands on a pencil or piece of chalk and a scrap of paper, he was dreaming up gadgets that didn't exist and drawing them. But it wasn't enough, and he wanted and needed to know more.
He stumbled over the perfect opportunity one trial in the mercantile district of Rharne, inside of a curiosity shop filled with just the sorts of things that intrigued him the most. Music boxes, wind up toys, mechanical puzzles filled every shelf and counter top. He'd passed the place any number of times before. He'd slipped in and browsed through the offerings, handled them, made himself a general nuisance until the middle aged proprietor, Domnall Scott, eventually ran him off. That trial though, the man seemed more inclined to letting him stay.
Domnall Scott made his living by selling unique and often expensive curiosities to the locals and tourists. But it was in the backroom where all of the real magic happened. Domnall was a man of learning. Not of history or language or religion, but of physics, mathematics; and most interesting to Eli, engineering. The backroom of the curiosity shop was Domnall Scott's workshop, where things like music boxes and wind up toys were eclipsed by much more interesting creations. The sorts of things that Eli had only dreamed about until finally he saw them for himself.
Domnall saw something in Eli. Maybe it was only a willingness to learn and work hard. Or maybe he recognized that the young man had promise, and a natural understanding of how things worked and why. He was able to reliably solve basic equations, could easily grasp the basics of engineering, and understood the connection between physics and working gadgetry. That trial, he took Eli on as an apprentice. Someone who could work the front of the shop, run errands, and one who was able to learn on the job beside him, back in his workshop. It was a good living wage that he promised, and room and board above the shop in addition to that. Eli would have been a fool to turn down the offer, even if he'd had any other prospects. And so he accepted.
