Heroes VII

First, the symbol of life.

As far as I remember, they weren't particularly associated with that in Ashan.

Secondly, in the fourth game, they looked pretty good there (much better than some obscure dragons).

1) In the fourth game, they were giant fiery chicks, one of the most ridiculous incarnations of the phoenix, in my opinion.
2) In Ashan, they are blue and look different, anyway.

And regarding the difficulty of creating a beautiful and dangerous bird, while also making it unique... Well, it's possible.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but neither the previous installment nor the concepts for the seventh game could boast particularly interesting creatures. Moreover, a fairly large number of creatures looked quite ridiculous.

And it's not that difficult to mess up dragons either (ahem, the Dragons in Heroes 4, ahem).

In the fourth game, many creatures look pretty bad. Of course, there were also creatures with not the worst designs; I liked the ice demons, but otherwise...