The Blessed Miracle of the Black Moth, a Temple

Hidden Valley is a thriving town whose name was derived from the fact that it is a valley that lies between two lesser known plateaus in the Rockhaven Mountains. Hidden Valley is a peaceful sort of place that enjoys fertile dark soil, clean water from nearby springs, and moderate temperatures. The seasons are moderate in change of temperature though the Autumn in Hidden Valley exhibits a startling change in the color of the local trees' leaves. They become vividly colored within about a week's time each Autumn.    Winters in Hidden Valley are mild comparatively speaking. Snow covers the ground a few times in a decade but tends to melt quickly as the temperatures only hover around the freezing point at the worst of times. In Spring, the skies are bright blue with cool and pleasant temperatures. Summer follows and is rarely hot enough to make farming uncomfortable.   The people of Hidden Valley know they are lucky to live in such a lovely place. Though the valley isn't really hidden, it's rather off the beaten path. There are people who make a point to stop there on their way somewhere else, however so there is a small but dedicated tourist industry. One of the attractions that travelers are interested in are the migrating moth population. The beautiful moths are known to migrate each season though nobody is aware of where they come and go. It is known, however, that the moths stop in Hidden Valley for about a week during each season. The moths have a lovely waxen sheen to their wings and are quite beautiful.    Nobody knows why, but the moths seem to be drawn to the town's church steeples. When they gather on the steeples of the churches, it has been described in tourist brochures as being as beautiful as suddenly blooming flowers. The moths' migration patterns are a beautiful mystery.   It has only been in the last couple of decades that coal Humboldt & Payne's Discovery of Coal has been used as an efficient source of fuel. Residents in Hidden Valley are geographically close to the source, and coal is plentiful and inexpensive. Instead of having to cut trees and burn wood for fuel, the residents of Hidden Valley have discovered that coal is efficient for both heating and cooking.   Called Steeple moths because of their propensity to congregate on the west side of church steeples, observers have noted over the years that occasionally a black moth would be part of the population. That the steeples are, or rather were white didn't seem to be an important factor to those who observe the moths each season. Their wings glisten in the morning sun and are a harbinger of the approaching seasons.   Then one year, something unusual happened. In the first season of the moths' appearance on Hidden Valley's church steeples, there were a good many of them that were black.   Over the next year, when the moths came to gather on the church steeples, more and more of them were black. One especially innovative young man, one who deemed himself a 'naturalist', one who recorded and sketched information about various native species of the area, noted that the steeple moths had changed colors to meet the color of the steeples. He thought this was rather clever of the moths. They were every bit as beautiful as they had been when they were white. He noted that it was rather a shame that there couldn't be an even mix of the black and the white.   One of the churches that hosted the migrating moths each season was closest to the town's center. The elders of the church noticed the change in the moths color and held a meeting to discuss what it might mean. They had always been very proud of the moth population that migrated every season. Their church's steeple seemed to harbor the greatest number of moths and had become somewhat of an attraction to people traveling through the valley.   The church was first built so that people could worship the Red Star of Fetterine. The red star was easily observible during the third season of Autauga's year. A group of like minded people had observed the red star a couple of centuries before. They had predicted that the red star was an approaching ship that would someday land and gather the faithful together to take them to the Utopia known as Fetterine.   The elders held several meetings to discuss this new turn of events. Though they would never say it out loud, they had begun to doubt their forefather's predictions of a red star Utopian future. The black moth was startling and beautiful. It had appeared almost overnight. It had, in fact, appeared in less than one year. After much discussion, the elders came to an agreement. The church would now be known as the Temple of the Black Moth.   The elder's decision to re-dedicate and re-name the church resulted in renewed interest in the temple by travelers and locals alike. The temple flourished. In time, the elders and priests of the temple concluded that the miracle of the moths illustrated a very beautiful truth; change happened for reasons unknowable and the gods sometimes tested peoples' assumptions. The temples' popularity grew, as did their congregation. The priest regularly explained that the black moths' beauty was a sign that Hidden Valley was reaching a prosperity and importance unseen before.