for transaction request to be performed, you need Ether and I cannot figure out this "chicken or egg was first?" style question - how first Ether was created in order to be able "do staff"?

I hope I was able to express myself. So my understanding is that, one needs to have Ether in order to request a transaction in Etherium network, this way miners get their cut, and this is essentially how things work on the network. When we convert USD to ETH, we are buying it from someone. But my question is, where this pool of Ethers are from? Is it like, someone(creator?) created an account with enough Ether so system can operate? or I am really confusing some of the core syntax of Etherium network