It's Widely Known
It’s widely known that upon the first sunrise, the gods got together to write the world into being by carving the elder runes onto a giant tablet. Finished, they laid the tablet flat, and the world sprung forth upon it. These elder runes define all of creation.
It’s less widely known that the night before that first sunrise, the gods Whimmerlain and Gulghast met to hash out the vocabulary that would be used to write the world. Since they had yet nothing to write on, Gulghast scribed the words onto Whimmerlain’s skin.
Many years later, while the gods rested and enjoyed the new world, a mortal thief crept up to Whimmerlain while he slept, stripped him naked, and copied the divine vocabulary on his skin into a book. This book was the first grimoire, and in its pages were written the magic words...
As punishment for humiliating Whimmerlain, the god Razghol cursed mortals with death.