D&D (2024) D&D Marilith Is Far More Bestial In 2025

The new 2025 Monster Manual has all-new art, and one major change is the depiction of the marilith. Up until now, the marilith has been depicted as a six-armed humanish female from the waist up; while in the 2025 book, the picture is far more bestial in nature.

Not only is the imagery more demonic, it also features the creature in action, simultaneously beheading, stabbing, and entwining its foes with its six arms and snake-like tail.

Left 2025 Marilith / Right 2014 Marilith​

 

[Chaltab]

Less bright, less twee, less 'clean', more flesh and blood, more muscle, more grit, more dirt, and for the love of Asmodeus, less change from what is a decades old standard. Darker. More like BG3, less like Witchlight.

There's plenty of both in the Monster Manual. The undead in particular have some gnarly monsters.

 

[Scribe]

There's plenty of both in the Monster Manual. The undead in particular have some gnarly monsters.

Yeah, some of the art in the MM was good, shame about a lot of other small changes here or there, I really didnt expect it to be the book that would annoy me the most.

 

[billd91]

The 2024 version of the marilith's art isn't really working for me (I keep seeing the scaly skin like fur so it keeps reminding me of James P. Sullivan crossed with a monster muppet), but I think that's just the way art works in general. Some depictions are aesthetically appealing for you, some aren't. Sometimes you like an artist's interpretation, sometimes you don't. That's art working as normal. There are plenty of other marilith images I prefer and can use to crop and make tokens for in my D&D games and there are plenty of other images in the 2024 Monster Manual that I do like and can enjoy while paging through the book.

 

[Weiley31]

They will never take the hawt booba snake from us.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This stance makes me sad, I am glad WotC doesn't share it. I want as much new and different art and ideas as possible.

Look, I hated 2e planescape art, it actively turned me away from the game. So I get it, but some people loved it. It is planescape to them. So I would never want to stop WotC from taking risks and looking at things in a new way. I mean what would Darksun and Planescape be if TSR thought that way?

I loved the 2e Planescape art (just not the Type III).

 

[Kobold Avenger]

In one of Michael Moorcock's books (from the 70s or 80s) the protagonists ended up in a Plane of Law and it was a barren, featureless, lifeless grey field.

I think it's a problem that in the really old editions of D&D they used some of Moorcock's influence, but never completely got what Moorcock was trying to say the Law and Chaos, until the 3 alignments became the 9 alignments.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I also vehemently disagree with the concept that Chaos = Random = Disordered = Whatever.

The Law and Chaos breakdown is more along the lines of structure vs personal freedom and desire.

And part of personal freedom is determining your appearance. More homogenous, lawful societies encourage conformity in many ways, including visual appearance. Devils embody law so they’re more uniform in appearance, in my approach. Devils should look like legions and well organized armies, with “uniforms” that make them look fairly similar to one another. Not to the extent that all Devils of the same type are identical in the way Modrons are, but extreme lawful structure encourages conformity. Demons should be the opposite, IMO. No two demons should look exactly alike. This is part of why I dislike the Blood War art @Bae'zel posted earlier and do like the Descent into Avernus Demon art @dave2008 posted. The Bearded Devils are slightly more organized than the Dretches, but all of the Dretches look identical and are still mostly in order. But having Demons differ in appearance depending on which Demon Lord they serve is interesting, and even then the demonic horde looks properly chaotic.

And like @Ruin Explorer said, D&D’s Demons and Devils need more visual distinction. If you were to explain the differences between Demons, Devils, and Yugoloths to a new player and then show them the art for the types of fiends and ask them to sort them by category, I think they would get most of them wrong. Bearded Devils are just purple dudes with green tentacle beards. Spined Devils and Nupperibos look pretty demonic to me. On the other hand, Quasits and Nabassus look pretty infernal to me. What part of the Marilith’s classic visual appearance points to them being demons? The new art looks more demonic to me than the old one. I always thought the old Marilith looked like it fit in more with the Yuan-Ti.

Also, like why were Mariliths (mostly) topless women from the waist up before? What purpose did it serve? They weren’t even sexualized in a way that makes sense for demons, like Slaanesh’s Daemonettes in Warhammer.

 

[Scribe]

And part of personal freedom is determining your appearance. More homogenous, lawful societies encourage conformity in many ways, including visual appearance. Devils embody law so they’re more uniform in appearance, in my approach. Devils should look like legions and well organized armies, with “uniforms” that make them look fairly similar to one another. Not to the extent that all Devils of the same type are identical in the way Modrons are, but extreme lawful structure encourages conformity. Demons should be the opposite, IMO. No two demons should look exactly alike.

They are still entities of a type. Its just a random blob of energy. Sure, they can give themselves a bit of a haircut, maybe get some nice piercings and tattoos, some stylish chains with some skulls on them, quite fetching I'm sure...but its still a Marilith, which has an established appearance.

 

[Chaltab]

Also, like why were Mariliths (mostly) topless women from the waist up before? What purpose did it serve? They weren’t even sexualized in a way that makes sense for demons, like Slaanesh’s Daemonettes in Warhammer.

They don't have to be topless? The 2014 version wears a cuirass.

 

[Scribe]

Also, like why were Mariliths (mostly) topless women from the waist up before?

Oh, and this is probably due to the roots of the monster in Mythology, but I would have to look.