Glaver
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The Glaver are a fictional extraterrestrial race from David Brin's Uplift Universe.
The Glavers are a small race, reptilian in appearance with opalescent skin, their bulbous eyes are independent of each other, and swivel in a way disconcerting to most binocular races. They are primarily quadrupedal with limited bipedal capacity.
The Glavers' primary organ of manipulation is their prehensile tail, using its forked end to tackle more subtle tasks. However, the tail is weak in musculature, and so a use remains for the strong forelegs function as rudimentary hands for gripping and manipulation. These are clumsy and unsuited for any task more complicated than grasping a stick or handle and are used to tackle any heavy task the Glaver requires done.
Glavers are capable of eating and digesting both plant matter and small insects, but are incapable of digesting meat. As this would indicate, Glavers have no canine teeth. They also lack incisors, relying entirely on crushing food matter between their large molars.
There can be considered to be two groups of Glavers at present, those who are still live on as a spacefaring culture and those who walk the path of redemption.
Glavers that are still a Spacefaring Culture
They have been amenable to technological and academic exchange, and have been supportive of growing Terragen involvement in the fields of linguistics and inter-order communication, negotiation and trade. They are a moderate people. Glavers are militarily neutral in the Alliance for Progress' troubles with militant Galactic conservatives. Their real talent of the Glaver race, however, lies in an aptitude for communicating with hydrogen-breathing entities, who are an enigma to most oxy-species of the Five Galaxies. For many years, Glavers earned their collective living and status as diplomats, negotiating between oxygen breathing and hydrogen breathing lifeforms which is most likely part of the cause for their decline. See History and origins for more information.
Glavers on the Path of Redemption (on Jijo)
This group of Glavers have devolved to a pre-sapient state, following the holy Path of Redemption outlined by the Scrolls of Jijo. The Glavers no longer take part in any of the affairs of the other races of Jijo, but are still capable of limited speech, in some Galactic tongues. The other races see the Glavers' devolution as a shining example to them all, and the orthodox belief of the Six Races of Jijo is that devolution of this kind is the eventual goal for all of them.
History and origins
The Glavers long name is Glavers ab-Tunnuctyur ab-Buyur indicating that they had been uplifted by the Tunnuctyur who in their turn had been uplifted by the Buyur, the last tenants of Jijo.
At some point in their past, the glaver species incurred a terrible debt with the Zang, the most powerful of the hydro-species, a debt far too great to pay off with property or service. The cause for the debt is unknown; but the magnitude is well reputed. In payment, the Zang took the only things the glavers had left to offer: themselves.
As result, some went the path of redemption and became exiles on the planet Jijo as part in their attempt to repay this debt. They were the third of the exile races to arrive on the planet, but due to their devolvement little of their history is known since this devolution occurred before the arrival of the humans on Jijo.
As for the Glavers that are still a spacefaring culture, they are waning in power as a race and are not what they were. They have fewer colonies than they used to.