Yet even now, their shadow hangs over us — we cursed and exiled savages — reminding us that gods once ruled on Jijo.

Living here as illegal squatters — as sooners who must never dwell beyond this strip between the mountains and the sea — we of the Six Races can only look with superstitious awe at eroded Buyur ruins. Even after books and literacy returned to our Commons, we lacked the tools and skills to analyze the remains or to learn much about Jijos last lawful tenants. Some recent enthusiasts, styling themselves archaeologists, have begun borrowing techniques from dusty Earthling texts, but these devotees cannot even tell us what the Buyur looked like, let alone their habits, attitudes, or way of life.

Our best evidence comes from folklore.

Though glavers no longer speak — and so are not counted among the Six — we still have some of the tales they used to tell, passed on by the g’Keks, who knew glavers best, before they devolved.

Once, before their sneakship came to Jijo, when glavers roamed the stars as full citizens of the Five Galaxies, it is said that they were on intimate terms with a race called the Tunnuctyur, a great and noble clan. In their youth, these Tunnuctyur had been clients of another species — the patron that uplifted them, giving the Tunnuctyur mastery of speech, tools, and sapiency. Those patrons were called Buyur, and they came from Galaxy Four — from a world with a huge carbon star in its sky.

According to legend, these Buyur were known as clever designers of small living things.

They were also known to possess a rare and dangerous trait — a sense of humor.