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​

 

[dave2008]

I honestly don’t see either of the banshee as male. They both look female to me, but perhaps beauty is I the eye of the beholder.

Really, let's compare:
Foreground Banshee

• very long hair
• slender arms
• skinny waist
• breasts
• long dress
• feminine facial features (IMO)

Background Banshee:

• long hair (but shorter than foreground)
• thick arms
• Thick waist
• no breast
• trench coat
• masculine facial features (IMO)

It seems clear to me the foreground one is code female and the background male (both elves it seems)

 

[Charlaquin]

Then it's also safe to assume that my sword detonates a nuclear explosion when I swing it. It's not written that it doesn't do that.

Well, no, because that’s not something swords normally do.

While it's pretty safe to assume they go to the bathroom, there can be settings where that doesn't happen.

Sure, and there can be settings where Mariliths aren’t female. But no reason to assume that’s the default, any more than there ever has been. As mentioned before, the presence or absence of human breasts is not a reliable indicator of a creature’s sex. It’s not even a reliable indicator of a human’s sex.

 

[Charlaquin]

Really, let's compare:
Foreground Banshee

• very long hair
• slender arms
• skinny waist
• breasts
• long dress
• feminine facial features (IMO)

Background Banshee:

• long hair (but shorter than foreground)
• thick arms
• Thick waist
• no breast
• trench coat
• masculine facial features (IMO)

It seems clear to me the foreground one is code female and the background male (both elves it seems)

To be fair, this is getting into prescriptive territory regarding gender expression. Like, I agree that the foreground banshee looks more feminine coded and the background banshee looks more masculine coded, but they’re both ambiguous enough it’s reasonable to interpret differently. Hence why I then refer to the designers’ explicitly stated intention to depict monsters that were previously depicted as always one gender as having multiple genders. Transvestigating the banshees in this specific artwork is an irrelevant diversion.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, no, because that’s not something swords normally do.

Sure, and there can be settings where Mariliths aren’t female. But no reason to assume that’s the default, any more than there ever has been. As mentioned before, the presence or absence of human breasts is not a reliable indicator of a creature’s sex. It’s not even a reliable indicator of a human’s sex.

I agreed several posts ago that there can be settings where Mariliths aren't female. Deviations like that, though, are typically in the setting books/boxed sets. Not the MM where the defaults dwell. By placing it in the MM, they've made the neutered version the default for all settings.

 

[Sorinth]

I agreed several posts ago that there can be settings where Mariliths aren't female. Deviations like that, though, are typically in the setting books/boxed sets. Not the MM where the defaults dwell.

The main goal of the MM art isn't to set "default" lore, it's about DM inspiration. It's obviously subjective but when the art speaks to you, you want to include that monster in your games and it inspires creativity. Personally I find the Marilith art pretty meh, but as an example the male Hag art does get me thinking and provides inspiration for including a male Green Hag in my campaign, namely a coven with two female and a subserviant but underappreciated male which opens up a way for the PCs to sow discord in the coven. It's something I maybe wouldn't have ever come up with if it wasn't for the male artwork being included.

 

[dave2008]

I agreed several posts ago that there can be settings where Mariliths aren't female. Deviations like that, though, are typically in the setting books/boxed sets. Not the MM where the defaults dwell. By placing it in the MM, they've made the neutered version the default for all settings.

I want to make sure we are clear: do you think Mariliths are "traditionally" female or simply that their have had a torso that looks like a 6-armed human or elf female (most expression have pointy ears IIRC)?

I have never thought they were female, just that their torso looked similar to a female elf.

 

[Charlaquin]

I agreed several posts ago that there can be settings where Mariliths aren't female. Deviations like that, though, are typically in the setting books/boxed sets. Not the MM where the defaults dwell. By placing it in the MM, they've made the neutered version the default for all settings.

But, again, there’s no indication that they’ve deviated from Mariliths being female in the monster manual.

 

[Seramus]

I want to make sure we are clear: do you think Mariliths are "traditionally" female or simply that their have had a torso that looks like a 6-armed human or elf female (most expression have pointy ears IIRC)?

I have never thought they were female, just that their torso looked similar to a female elf.

As someone who sees them as "traditionally Kali", I do tend to see them as female. I intellectually understand that demons have no particular need for sex beyond whatever their personal preference might be, nor do they need to have a set number of arms or skin tone (Shaktari has 8 arms and black skin). But I always grokked the Marilith as female since it was an important element of (what I always took to be) their inspiration, with the understanding that any individual Marilith might be different.

​

 

[Charlaquin]

Are we really going with “not having the torso of a naked human woman means this art doesn’t depict a female creature”? Do y’all have any idea how difficult it is to sex a snake?

 

[Seramus]

Are we really going with “not having the torso of a naked human woman means this art doesn’t depict a female creature”?

Probably not. It does make me take a really serious and introspective look into my own values in trying to decide what makes a "Kali-adjacent thing" into a Kali-adjacent thing. Like, WHAT specific elements of Kali really invoke Kali and should be put into the monster.

Naturally, "It shouldn't have anything to do with Kali" is a perfectly valid answer. But it's not my answer, since being a Kali-adjacent thing is such a huge cornerstone of why I like the monster.