The Chemists' Guild of Byforalla was according to their own records founded in 4456 s.y.v.p., and exercised a powerful influence on the Ctjnian economy for nearly eight centuries, until the destruction of their headquarters, the fabled Byforalla Chemical Works, in 5238 by a mob deranged by the side effects of Fangalexia. It took the Guild three years to rebuild the Works and develop the successor drug Fangalextrin, bringing the Lesser Stillness to an end, for which they were awarded the key to the city in 5242 (the seventy-third time they were awarded this honor).

The old Chemical Works were one of the Seven Wonders of Viridia Prime, famed for their sheer size as well as for the great reflecting mirror that powered their central furnace. The replacement building of 5241, still extant, is less impressive. But one would do well to remember that a mere fifty years after its construction, in the wake of the Third Nova Generator's destruction, this humble building is where the Guild's aerospace division developed many of the Ctjn Empire's most potent weapons.

—Thucydides Plutonium