I find it difficult to come up with ideas for Ashan; my brain doesn't work well in that direction.
Added 20 hours 38 minutes ago
I suddenly realized a simple thing – the main advantage of the new world is that at the beginning, you can use the standard Heroes of Might and Magic factions, rewriting the details to fit the new lore (and then do a retcon if necessary). In principle, the elf, demon, and undead factions in Heroes of Might and Magic V are very stereotypical and will fit into any lore, and some units can even be left unchanged.