Can't help but feel that Brand and Xerath should have switch bodys
The guy that stole ascension a power granted by the sun become pure arcane/magic.
While the guy who want to control the source of magic become fire.
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just because ascension is granted by the power of the sun doesnt mean it has to be fire . look at 
and 
they are both ascended but they are not even remotely close to anything related to the sun it is simply a gift granted to the chosen ones that gift morphs them into something powerfull
ascension it self depends on the culture of who ever is going to ascend , for , and 
it seems that the shuriman culture revere certain animals and symbols , which why explains their animal like appearance ,someone like 
might be from some place else ( i dont remember his lore)
he also might ascended that way since he was a magician before his ascension
as for 
i think it has to do with the rune he interacted with , i think it might have been a fire / destruction type of magical rune
I think Xerath's body looks like that mostly due to the fact that he 1) Tampered with the Ascension ritual as a whole and 2) He was already a decently powerful mage even before Ascending.
Also funnily enough, theres a common theory that Brand's original form was the fire spirit held within the sarcophagus that now holds Xerath! Not sure how much that theory holds up now though.
I strongly believe the Sun itself is almost infinitely more powerful than world runes.
Only 0.1 second energy of the Sun would destroy Runeterra.
While world runes might be source of most magic in Runeterra, stars are the source of most magic in the entire cosmos. And the Sun is the reason Runeterra has life.