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// Entry 6: Secrets 
// Story: Samudra's Journal 
// by vren55 
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I haven’t wanted to write in the diary for a while. A year in fact, but… I need to record some of the things Panthalussa told me before she passed her responsibilities to me.
 
About the Old Gods.
 
Long ago, before most of the surface worlder species, the Old Gods roamed Domus, our world. Seaponies and deep ponies existed, but they were primitive, not very smart. Creations of the Old Gods.
 
Well, slaves really. We lived at the whim of the Old Gods and in their thrall. Their mind control dominated our species as they fought and consumed one another
 
That was until the Great Creator. She uplifted the sea ponies and deep ponies, and then crafted the surface worlder species. The ponies, pegasi, earth pony and unicorn, the griffons, dragons, the zebras, donkeys, horses, all living things in the world. She raised the land, and seeded the sea with plant life and sealed the Old Gods deep into the ocean.
 
It helped that by the time the Great Creator arrived, there were only two old gods left. Shi-Nihalar and Yoth-Atal. They had consumed all the other smaller Old Gods and absorbed their strength.
 
Unfortunately, that meant the creator wasn’t strong enough to destroy them though. So the Creator, with the help of the species she had created sealed Shi-Nihalar in the Western Ocean and Yoth-Atal, in the depths of a trench in the Eastern ocean.
 
She then charged the first Empress, Panthalussa, to watch these Old Gods. To take whatever measures necessary if they awoke. 
 
And then she vanished. 
 
Empress Panthalussa heard that the Creator also left the surface worlders certain tools that would help them fight off chaos, but it was to the Empress and Aquestria that she charged with ensuring the Old Ones stayed sealed.
 
The Old Gods… I wholeheartedly agree with the Empress and the great Creator. They have to be destroyed, or if they can’t, they need to be sealed forever.
 
From what the Empress told me, the very sight of an Old One can drive ponies mad. They enslave ponies with their mind simply through their very presence, turning them into the most fanatical cultists.
 
That and there’s their sheer size and magical power. The Old Gods can mutate creatures, summon beasts from other dimensions. Perhaps even control the very currents, and weather themselves.
 
Moreover, Panthalussa told me one important thing. You cannot compromise with an Old God. Their corrupting influence is far too dangerous.
 
Shi-Nihalar wants to unite land and sea, controlling the entire world in his mental dominion.
 
As for Yoth-Atal… she’s more mysterious. She opposed the Great Creator and fought her. However, we’re not entirely sure of her motives even today. Panthalussa believed that Yoth-Atal had some kind of interest in the oceans of Domus, but what kind of interest, she’s not certain.
 
I… still don’t know what to think of these revelations, but by my mentor’s life, I will not fail in my duty.