Just in case any of you ever wondered at how or why I came up with my username, I thought I'd share a 'somewhat' brief history of Great Crater Valley.
Back when I was working in the corporate world of IT, I picked up the hobby of sculpting. The first "Chuit" I ever sculpted wasn't really a chuit, but sort of an upright standing alligator with large tusks, what I now consider to be a pre-historic chuit. It was also the first sculpture I ever "sold" to the drunk woman sitting behind me on the plane from Atlanta to Houston. This was well before 9/11, if you can imagine a time when I was actually able to bring a small tackle box full of sculpting tools and x-acto knives onto a plane.
I had brought my kit so I'd have something to do on the flight, and this lady, who was pretty drunk, kept leaning over the seat to watch me work and tell me how cute it was, and telling her husband to look at how cute it was, and telling the stewardess how cute it was every time she passed. When I was finished, the lady wanted to buy it for her niece, who "likes that sort of thing". I told her she was welcome to have it if she really wanted it that much, but she insisted on paying me, and eventually shoved $10 between the seats and into my shirt pocket.
After that I sculpted more upright standing alligators, and started naming them. Sidney I named because his stern expression reminded me of Sidney Poitier. Tyler was named after a guy I had worked with at a waste water treatment plant at the Jacksonville Naval Air Base. Eventually, I came up with the name Chuit because it sounded sort of native american and since they were alligators, the pronunciation 'chew it' appealed to me.
In coming up with a location for them to live, I liked the idea of it being a secluded valley, and when I saw a National Geographic special on the N'goro N'goro Crater, I had my story.
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A gigantic meteor wipes out the majority of life on Earth. The crust of the planet is disrupted, and there are major volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and constant storms. From this chaos, new geological formations are made. The once lush area around the impact site of the meteor becomes a desert. The meteor itself is covered with mud, water and volcanic ash. The continuing flow of water into the crater comes from an exposed underground river that was blocked by the impact. Eventually that water finds its way through the mud and ash to the other side of the river and flows on. As the water recedes, pathways are formed.
Eventually the storms subside, and plant seeds concealed in the mud begin to sprout and form vegitation. Slowly, the growing plant life attracts the attention of passing birds that survived the devastation. Other animals find their way there, including a pair of alligators who find a place to nest on a riverbank near the exposed top of the meteor.
Fast forward an uncertain amount of time and we find that the alligators have been very fruitful. Not only are there now several hundred of them, but it would appear that some form of radiation coming from the meteor has caused a greatly accelerated growth to the creatures' collected intelligence. They have built huts to shelter themselves and use simple tools to perform tasks.
Fast forward again and we see that they have spread out and have now formed several villages around the valley. They now stand upright and have discovered farming, and fire, and their tools are becoming less simple. This is when Tyler was born.
Tyler will eventually save his people from destruction by enlisting the help of the group of oxen men that take up camp just outside the valley. These men call themselves Goleks, and they are on a quest to save their own people from destruction from the very same force that will soon threaten the valley.
Unfortunately, when we first meet Tyler, the Goleks are just bogeymen being covered up by a group of Chuits called the Honey Monks. They are trying not to cause panic in the Chuits by letting the existence of these monster men become known. The Goleks meanwhile, also consider the Chuits as monsters that should be avoided while they look for the solution to their problem. The two groups don't get along because it never occurs to either side that the other group is capable of reason.
Enter the swarm of giant wasp things... They start tearing up the valley, feeding on whatever they find. These creatures are extremely fast and hard to kill, but the Goleks know that burning the leaves of a certain plant will fill the air with a smoke that puts the creatures to sleep, so they can be dealt with. However, the Goleks ran out of this plant in their own homeland, which is why they came to the valley to look for more.
When a Golek grabs one of these plants that just happens to be Tyler's 'notebush', the secret bush where he passes notes to his friend Myra, he has no chice but to follow when he sees the ribbon indicating a waiting message.
Once he gets back to the Golek's camp and sees them pour a liquid on the bush, set it on fire and use it to put the wasp creature thay had captured to sleep, Tyler realizes that the Goleks have the solution to the problem. Even though Tyler is very small, and Goleks are very big, he decides that he has to put aside his fear and enter the Golek camp. After a very tense scene involving the Goleks almost killing Tyler, they come to the realization that they can help each other and form a truce.
Tyler marches the Goleks into the center of the main town where all the Chuits had gathered to fend off the invading wasp creatures. After another very tense scene, a group of Chuits are dispatched into the jungle to gather up more of the plants. Fire... smoke... battle... victory... large rafts with giant, buzzing sacks sent over Egress Falls and out of the vally... huge party... the end.
That's pretty much it. Along the way, Tyler finds a lone capybara cub, which he adopts as his pet and names Shub. He has many adventures with his friends Myra and Jolan. My intent had been to do a series of illustrated children's books featuring photos of sculpted characters and settings. Sort of a picture book version of stop-motion animation. However, after I got divorced, I went through some serious depression, and stuff like this took a back seat.
I did try doing
"Tyler's Livejournal" before I moved down here, but only got through a few entries before running out of steam on the concept. You're welcome to read them if indeed you're even still reading this.
Once I get back to Atlanta, I will be setting up a work area in my apartment, and I plan to go back to work putting "Great Crater Valley" back in motion.
