Except for the Hermitian buildings H(4,q2), up to a combination
of duality, translation duality or Payne integration, every known finite
building of type B2​ satisfies a set of general synthetic
properties, usually put together in the term "skew translation generalized
quadrangle" (STGQ). In this series of papers, we classify finite skew
translation generalized quadrangles. In the first installment of the series, as
corollaries of the machinery we develop in the present paper, (a) we obtain the
surprising result that any skew translation quadrangle of odd order (s,s) is
a symplectic quadrangle; (b) we determine all skew translation quadrangles with
distinct elation groups (a problem posed by Payne in a less general setting);
(c) we develop a structure theory for root-elations of skew translation
quadrangles which will also be used in further parts, and which essentially
tells us that a very general class of skew translation quadrangles admits the
theoretical maximal number of root-elations for each member, and hence all
members are "central" (the main property needed to control STGQs, as which will
be shown throughout); (d) we solve the Main Parameter Conjecture for a class of
STGQs containing the class of the previous item, and which conjecturally
coincides with the class of all STGQs.Comment: 66 pages; submitted (December 2013