World Origins: Creation of Ashirma

Our world did not begin in prosperity, it did not begin in peace nor with grand revelation. There was no fanfare or bang, no divine plan or care. There was nothing. Nothing...
This plane was once a desolate place ruled by fire and overlaps between the elemental planes. Brimstone against ice, wind against rising earth. A battleground and place of rejection for the things unwanted in the neighboring realms of existence. Among the beings that lived here were the first Wyrms, scaled creatures of mass proportion and power, seeking a place to claim and conquer as their own for their different coveted hoards to take seed. And the Giants too were here, having come from each of their homes to find a place to make their own and establish an empire to their greatness.
However, these two great kinds of entities did not come together in unity. Constantly they clashed over resources and territory, claw and fist raised to the other leaving only behind grief and carnage and more destruction to the already ruined land. There was no peace, and there was no grandness or greatness for either of them so long as this continued, for there was no time and no means to build monuments or safety. The two groups slowly dwindled, battle after battle thinning each other out until only a few remained. So few...barely a fraction of the numbers that had been there before, the remnants of dreams and aspirations of a new home and prosperity.
And so, with the grim reality of imminent extinction before them, there came a truce. Peace was to be had between the two kinds of creatures. Not only that but a unity as well. Without each other, without help, they would not survive. Differences, hate, and prejudice aside, all efforts turned to survival and hope.
With this, they came to a decision to reshape the world their fighting had turned to nothing but ash. To turn their universe, their Irma into something new.
So the Dragons and Giants worked together, forging 9 masks of power from the elements that surrounded them, each one being worked on by 1 Giant and 1 Dragon of equal power and measure. They spent a time undefined and unthinkable pouring all that they had and all they could get into these masks, knowing that in their completion and their use they would become strong enough to make their world as beautiful and bountiful as it had never been.
The masks were complete, 9 among the survivors were chosen to wield them and be the bearers of the power as well as the burden of the creation of a world to sustain both the Giants and the Dragons alike. These 9 were Iritsi the Skyweaver, Abetsun the Harmonious, Tatsume the Mighty, Dunsol the Wise, Mytyr the Sun Child, Broxnas the Swift, Jolfireh the Blessed, Phral the Virtue Seeker, Istiri the Earth Mender. These 9 were the first of the Council of IX, though it was not yet known by that name, and it was these 9 that turned from their ruined universe, their ashen Irma, into Ashirma.
By the power of the 9 masks and their 9 wielders, the world was reformed. The thin lines between this realm and the next were closed and mended. Razed land was made fertile, mountains rose and oceans were born. Stars appeared in skies freed of smoke and ash. As the world began to grow, powerful visitors from the other realms began to take notice and brought forth gifts, some in kind gesture and others in an effort to find themselves on the good side of the suddenly formidable clans that had come of the alliance between these Ashirmic drakes and giants, and especially the twins who were half of each -Iritsi & Istiri- who were of a kind that had not been seen before in any universe and made the other entities wary. But it was by these gifts that the land also became more diverse, blending the nature and power of many places together to create an ecosystem never before seen by any land.
Ashirma, the universe of new beginnings, had begun.
_{Art Credit: “Extraplanar Lens” by Noah Bradley on INPRNT}