In the beginning there was nothing. Then there were the gods. The gods claim they have been around forever, but there must have been a time without them, mustn't there?
For a long time (Or so they say) the gods floated around in the empty nothingness. But, as you might expect, before long they tired of each other's company, for gods are solitary creatures by nature, and they set out to create something. They weren't trying to make anything in particular, but they ended up creating the first of the realms. An empty, lifeless hunk that they called "rock".
And one of the gods saw the rock and immediately declared itself god of rocks, placing them under its dominion.
Naturally, the other gods now wanted their own domains to rule over. So they started to create more and more things: water, air, fire, and finally, life. The first life was all ruled over by a single god: tiny, useless organisms. But the other gods did not know what they could create as their subjects, so they started to evolve the life.
Gradually, those tiny creatures (If you could call them creatures) spilt and grew and soon the waters were full of little animals, and tiny fragments of life had started to spread onto the barren rock.
Before long the world was full of life, and the gods were entertained by the rivalries that kept them trying to make their own dominions more powerful. There was just one problem.
There was no death in that time. And one of the gods had programmed life to spread, hoping that its life would take over the world (And naturally, the other gods copied this idea). Which meant that the hunk of rock and water the gods called "world" was rapidly filling up.
For a little while, they created more worlds to fill the growing populations. But eventually they tired of this, and they wanted a way to allow the spread of their life without effort.
Which is when a silent god stepped forward. It had been hiding in the background, not claiming an area to rule over. In fact, the silent god had done so little of note that the other gods had nearly forgotten it existed.
It came accompanied by a human. Humans had not been around for long, but the human in question was already full of bitterness. She said that they needed to unmake the life they had made periodically, to keep the population in check.
But no god trusted its compatriots to fairness in the "unmaking", and each demanded to be the one responsible for the task.
The human had an idea. Gods never listened to humans, mind you, but the god of the humans suggested that they hear her out, and the other gods so no harm in it.
She requested from the gods nine realms. The first she called "Kelsir", or "The Under." It, she informed them, would be her home. Then on top of Kelsir she had the gods place seven of the remaining eight realms: Ris, Farron, Melhir, Briston, Tran, Gelfiria, and Jermil. The meanings of their names have been lost to the ages. And on top of them went the final realm, which she simply called Shield.
Then she asked for two additional things: a unique weapon, which she called "Scythe", and the power to "unmake" things herself and take them to her new realms. The gods agreed to her request, if only to put an end to their fighting over who the one to wield the power would be. But there was one more condition: no longer would the gods be immortal. They would not age, like the mortals did, but they could be killed. They refused this condition.
And she refused to solve their problem. So finally, after a long meeting in which they bickered and went to great lengths trying to earn the right to "unmake" the mortals themselves, they agreed. And so she became the only truly immortal being in the world.
And she went down to a human village in the human world, scythe in hand.
"Who are you?" the humans asked her. "What do you want?"
"I am Death," said she.