This is my fist time writing a story hope it's enjoyable :D
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Death Note.
-YaoiFreak77
Death notes have been used since Shinigami and men could write. Ancient times worshipped the death gods. The first Shinigamis used what they called Death tablets. They were made out of stone and the humans used an archaic language unknown to the modern world.
Then the death notes were made out of papyrus. The Death Scrolls, so they were called, used hieroglyphics as their first main writing. The ancient Egyptian God of Death Anubis would have his faithful minions of the afterlife sometimes to install the reigning pharaoh with a death scroll to rule supreme and keep his subjects from disobeying him. With that power, the Egyptian civilians revered the pharaoh as a god and took caution to not have his wrath on their home. After the reign of the pharaoh's ended, the death scrolls didn't become obsolete.
The Greeks and the Romans had many experiences with death notes. Hades, or in Roman, Pluto, the then Lord of the underworld and God of Death, would cause mischief in the human world. A death god would place the death scroll into a home of an unfortunate. The family member who found it was cursed with making the death god pleased and thinking that he or she was making the divine ruler happy would kill innocents and thieves a like.
Many of the death note's rules came from this time period. The Death God King wished for things too not get too out of hand and made so that the poor soul who used the death note could neither go to heaven nor hell. Also, time became more of an importance to the death note. Before, right when the name was written down, the person would drop dead. The death gods wanted more pizzazz in their fun and added the six minute and forty seconds rule for creative details on an individual's death. Another rule that was added was when a person's name was written in the death note with a description, the maximum amount of days they could live before dying was 23.
It is implied that the death note had always needed a name and a face to kill a person; therefore, someone with the same name would not be affected. And all deaths caused by the note, without speculation, resulted in cardiac arrest.
Death notes became easier to carry once China found out how to make books. Instead of the original method of using calligraphy on scrolls or oracle bones or turtle shells, they figured out how to make tree pulp into paper. The Shinigamis like this idea and adopted it into their culture. The now called "Death Notes" were more organized and "fun" time had more killings since the death note were endless.
Shinigamis also learned how to "give" the new owners of the death notes the Shinigami Eyes. The human granted them could see the lifespan and names of all the people he or she came in contact with, helping them gain easy access to kill that person. This became a rule and was jotted down in all death notes along with price for the person who wanted the Shinigami eyes – half of their remaining lifespan!
The death note gradually changed as the human world prospered and became more advanced. The books became more durable with hardback and writing became easier with pens and pencils. The Shingamis life was a blast, but their fun soon came to an end.
They stopped messing with the new technological human world and stayed in the Shinigami Realm passing time by playing and gambling with bone dice. The world became boring and to continuously watch people and wait for them to die just so that they could write the human's name in the death note made the Shinigami laughing stock for working too hard. With new advances in medicine and health, humans didn't die as often as they had.
Shingamis were meant to be feared, not wasting time on empty boring games played over and over again. Where was the fun? Where were the killings? Some Shinigami were getting ready, planning, and thinking of their soon to be amusement……