A Tits polygon is a bipartite graph in which the neighborhood of every vertex is endowed with an “opposition relation” satisfying certain properties. Moufang polygons are precisely the Tits polygons in which these opposition relations are all trivial. There is a standard construction that produces a Tits polygon whose opposition relations are not all trivial from an arbitrary pair $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5},T)$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5}$ is a building of type $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}$ is a spherical, irreducible Coxeter diagram of rank at least $3$, and $T$ is a Tits index of absolute type $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6F1}$ and relative rank $2$. A Tits polygon is called $k$-plump if its opposition relations satisfy a mild condition that is satisfied by all Tits triangles coming from a pair $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5},T)$ such that every panel of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E5}$ has at least $k+1$ chambers. We show that a $5$-plump Tits triangle is parametrized and uniquely determined by a ring $R$ that is alternative and of stable rank $2$. We use the connection between Tits triangles and the theory of Veldkamp planes as developed by Veldkamp and Faulkner to show existence.

We give a short proof of the uniqueness of finite spherical buildings of rank at least 3 in terms of the structure of the rank 2 residues and use this result to prove a result making it possible to identify an arbitrary finite group of Lie type from knowledge of its “parabolic structure” alone. Our proof also involves a connection between loops, “Latin chamber systems” and buildings.