The Firelizards

When the Bazaar bought Igen, a bizarre change occurred within the firelizards. It was slow at first. A few hatchlings mimicking the words of their masters. The occasional rude word during fancy dinners with the master of a craft. But within a few generations, firelizards began to speak!

They don't really have anything interesting to say and quite a few are rather rude, but they can indeed speak. They can even hold conversations, though they don't have very good manners and have a habit of getting distracted and Betweening away in the middle of it. Everyone knows that you shouldn't expect a firelizard to have good secrets and if they do have one, they've already told it to everyone they know. Telepathy and all that. But they make very good friends if you're the sort who likes making friends with vermin.

Surface firelizards do not have this ability and bringing an Igen firelizard to the surface often makes it lose its voice until it is returned to the Neath. In fact, most Neath 'lizards regard their surface cousins with a mixture of pity and amusement and all refuse to Chase them during Flights. Nonetheless, there are a good deal of their less intelligent cousins in the Neath and they are nearly impossible to tell apart from the speaking variety. Not that you should say this to a talking firelizard. They get quite offended by the notion that they look anything like those 'barbarians.'

It isn't uncommon for someone to attempt to pass off a surface firelizard as one of their more intelligent cousins. Such pretenders are usually publicly shamed for their deception until a more interesting scandal comes along.

Firelizards are strictly matriarchal with fairs being ruled primarily by golds with the occasional black.