First Priestess of the Wood

The First Priestess of the Wood was a member of the Cult of the Mothman who lived at the Lucky Hole Mine immediately following the Great War.

Background[]

The Lucky Hole Mine, once a lead mining operation in the mountains east of Watoga, was decommissioned and abandoned by security staff no later than 2061.^[1] On October 22, 2077, many members of the Cult of the Mothman abruptly fled from the Point Pleasant area across the state to the Lucky Hole, heeding an apocalyptic omen delivered by Brother Charles.^[2][3] They took shelter within, and death swept across Appalachia the following morning.^[3]

In the years following the War, the First Priestess was a leader among the cultists residing at the mine. Purportedly, "through" the First Priestess of the Wood, her followers "heard His voice" and "gained His strength."^[4] Her loyal disciples came to worship an abomination they named the Firstborn of the Wood, deep in the bowels of the mine.

The Priestess eventually died, and her coffin was displayed on an elevated podium behind the pulpit of the church hidden within the mine. The note His Priestess was placed on this coffin. Above this note rests a human skull, neatly arranged with radstag antlers, evoking the form of an antlered human.

Those loyal to the Priestess continued to address her and deliver blessings unto her posthumously.^[4]

Notes[]

• Brother Moncrief's note is addressed to a High Priestess, though it is unclear if this figure is the First Priestess.
• No later than March 2061,^[1] a woman of unknown affiliation requested entry to the inactive Lucky Hole Mine. The security staff suspected her to be an escapee from the nearby Allegheny Asylum, and politely turned her away.^[5] Shortly following her visit, the inactive mine was permanently decommissioned by its parent corporation.^[5] The woman returned with a group and requested entry again, and she was again turned away. Following this, the security staff began to see people lurking around at night, and grew so frightened that they abandoned the mine, explicitly surrendering it to this group in a message left on the security terminal.^[5]
  • The note "He agrees" is found immediately next to this terminal.
  • The note "His home," written by the post-War cult, alludes to a prophecy which stated that the cult would be denied entrance to their new home by the faithless three times, before "He would open the way." The terminal only explicitly mentions that the old woman was turned away twice.^[5]
• "His birth," another note within the mine, invokes the "Firstborn of the Wood." This is widely presumed to refer to the creature known more commonly as "the Interloper," though neither title is directly applied to the creature in the game.
• Brother Charles had his vision in Point Pleasant on October 22, 2077,^[6] which compelled his cult to seek high ground. The preacher of their hidden church proclaimed that they must wait out the disaster on the rooftops of Point Pleasant.^[7] After the apocalyptic sermon was delivered, the group abruptly travelled across the state to the safety of the Lucky Hole Mine, for reasons that went unrecorded. In Exodus, the Enlightened claim Charles was responsible for guiding the group to the mine.
  • Brother Charles eventually rejected the worship of the Firstborn of the Wood^[8] and left the mine with a group who became the Enlightened.
• The note His Priestess specifically says that the First Priestess allowed the cultists to gain His strength.^[4] The Cultist enemies who arrived in Appalachia in 2103 frequently pray aloud to be granted strength by the Holy Mothman.^[9]
• In one of the cultist's scrawlings, a set of notes found in a random encounter added in Wastelanders, a cultist uses the phrase "servants of the Wood" to address his fellow adherents. In the same set of notes, they also write of deepening their bond with "the Wood," by responding to its "beckoning" and receiving its "gifts." Further, they hope to hear the "voices of the Woods,"^[10] recalling how the cult originally "heard His voice" through the Priestess.^[4]
• Brother Scarberry aspires to become a "child of the wood."^[11]

Appearances[]

The First Priestess of the Wood is mentioned only in Fallout 76.

References[]