House of the Forked Tongue: the most powerful of the Great Houses, this is the House the Lizard King is always born into. Each time a seventh son is born of a seventh son in the House lineage — an even less common occurrence among lizards than humans — he is crowned King of Lizards. During the times there isn’t a king, the lizard people just get on with their lives as usual. The most recent Lizard King, ßkaalth, is the first king born in more than four thousand years.

House of the Severed Tail: the House of advisors to the Lizard King. A very influential House. The Lord or Lady of this House is always at the right hand of the Lord, Lady, or King of the House of the Forked Tongue, while lesser members are court jesters of widely varying qualities of humor.

House of Scales: invented the most popular lizard sport, carapace. Also made a fortune selling premium mustard.

House of Galápagos: originally just lizards, the House is very welcoming and opens its doors to all, including both sentient creatures and otherwise. Currently the House — both the familial organization, and the physical address in New Jersey — is home to lizard people, double-giant tortoises, frogs, merfolk, sentient autonomous left-brains and right-brains, etc — even humans. Crab Lord was declared an honorary member, in case Carb Lord cares.

House of the Wyvern Sons: traditional home to the Lizard King’s ventral-born wyvern sons, it is little more than a cave for the non-sentient, wild creatures to sleep in. Each Lizard King gives birth to 3 wyvern sons, which typically outlive him by several eons. There are currently 44 living wyvern sons, all considered members of the House of the Wyvern Sons.

House of Fangs: contrary to their vicious name, the House of Fangs are vegans.

House of Blood Tears: having sworn allegiance to the House of the Forked Tongue in ancient days, the daughters of this matriarchal house are trained to be the Lizard King’s elite military arm. “Blood tears” references the female line’s unique autohaemorrhaging defense mechanism, by which toxic blood is deliberately ejected from their eyes. Consequently, many Ladies of the House are anemic. The House of Blood Tears famously rebelled against the Lizard King from the very start of the Lizard Apocalypse, shocking the other houses.

House of the Protracted Dewlap: renowned entertainers within the lizard world, notable over the millennia for many famous lizard bards. Created the Lizard Sundance Film Festival. Slightly lesser known as proficient sailors. Yeah, they sail with their neck flaps. Yes, ha ha, that’s offensive of you to laugh.

House of Blindness: the most mysterious of the Great Houses, and traditionally known as the wisest. Every pureblood member of the House bloodline is born blind. They have always remained neutral and highly respected by all throughout historic lizard conflicts. The House has a long list of accomplished scholars, scientists, explorers, archeologists, and parcheesi players.

House of the Apple Giver: the hereditary House of Satan.

House of the Frog Friends: the nicest House. Somebody on Yelp gave them 5 stars and said, “They will cook for you and massage your heels.” Oddly specific.

The Hidden 12th House

In the year 3,821 Bß (Before ßkaalth), lizard archeologists discovered cave writing and hieroglyphs making many references to a 12th, previously unknown house. The cave writing called it the Hidden House. The writing prophesies that a sort of Lizard Christ will return and unite all the Houses, overthrowing the wickedness of the Lizard King. This figure is known as the Hissiah, unfortunately. He will be born from the Hidden House, and will be “in the lizard world, but not of it”. Archeologists confirmed this is not to be taken as reference to the common basilisk, colloquially nicknamed the Jesus Christ lizard for its ability to run on water.

The authenticity of the writings was initially disputed, but lizard archeologists from the House of Blindness confirmed it was legitimate: “It’s the kind of thing we would write.”

Each year in September (according to the human calendar), the Great Houses all gather for an annual film festival called Lizard Sundance. Notable films over the years include the acclaimed documentary about tail regeneration, Tails and Tears, the original lizard audio dub release for Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away, and the film portrayal of the Human Celebrity Gladiator Games.