*laughs, almost surprised at how you seem to view him (and he's not a hero anymore)* My friends were kings and princes in the old days so, really, I'm not sure I'm at the top of any ladder at all. Gil-galad is in linguistics and Káni - Arakáno - is in some manner of science that I haven't even attempted to understand.
...how many Houses are there?
*grins (he really doesn't mind talking about Gondolin)* Well, there's the Palace, obviously. The next most senior Houses are the House of the Fountain, which is responsible for the utilities in the city and my House, the House of the Golden Flower, which has almost been rebuilt after a fire last autumn. My guys take a lot of responsibility for PA, tourism, that sort of stuff so maybe I am a travel brochure? There's the Heavenly Arch, the Harp, the Swallow, the Tower, the Pillar, the Tree, the Hammer. We don't have a Swan Wing anymore, or a Mole but we've got traffic and transport, sports, culture, education, everything really, split up between them. It's a busy place, though we've had our problems recently.