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​

 

[Alzrius]

2e Faces of evil says Demons can’t breed with each other cause female demons are infertile.

Edit: Sorry mixed it up, demons can breed according to that book, devils can’t.

It's worth noting that there's at least one Planescape product which contradicts this. In the Planes of Conflict boxed set, in the "Liber Benevolentiae" booklet, it mentions (in the "Labyrinth of Fiery Doom" entry in the section on Karasuthra, the third layer of the Beastlands) that the rumors about the red dragon and his succubus lover residing there are false: they're actually an agathinon aasimon (i.e. an angel) named Janarr and an erinyes devil named Nalura, with the last paragraph noting that the couple are expecting their first child. (And to be clear, Nalura is identified as female, and Janarr as male.)

 

[Maxperson]

Ah, I see how this thread became the way it is.

Given those two quotes and that response, I doubt that. It's more likely that your making an assumption that is incorrect.

 

[Incenjucar]

Yeah, to me, it's just one artists interpretation. We have dozens more we can use. It's such a shame that so many on the forums are so entrenched in the idea of a singular representation of a single monster.

I have noticed zero pushback on the idea of mariliths having a variety of forms. The conflict is around replacing one singular form with another.

 

[Azzy]

I know that, which is why I said fiend. Fiends are demons, devils, succubi, etc. You still didn't answer the questions, though.

Why would demons have the biology, both male and female, to have babies with mortals, but not each other? What sense does that make?

Because, it's about corrupting mortals not about procreation.

But this whole topic is dumb. There was not nearly this much thought put into the original creation of these monsters, and everything else has been accreted by subsequent and disparate authors over the decades most of whom never discussed things with the previous authors.

 

[Maxperson]

Because, it's about corrupting mortals not about procreation.

That still doesn't make sense. If they can make themselves able to impregnate and give birth in order to corrupt mortals, they can do so amongst themselves as well.

They may not do it often, but it can clearly be done.

There was not nearly this much thought put into the original creation of these monsters, and everything else has been accreted by subsequent and disparate authors over the decades most of whom never discussed things with the previous authors.

That much is certainly true.

 

[Azzy]

That still doesn't make sense. If they can make themselves able to impregnate and give birth in order to corrupt mortals, they can do so amongst themselves as well.

Unless it is the mortal (with its real biology) that is the necessary component for the process.

They may not do it often, but it can clearly be done.

You can do whatever you want in your games, but I don't find this conclusion necessary or necessarily the most likely case. But then, it doesn't matter in the slightest. To each their own.

 

[Parmandur]

Increasing amount of division & decay into collapse is what happens and we see that time & again in various settings, like Star Wars, to the TV shows like Wheel of Time.

...

What?

 

[Maxperson]

Unless it is the mortal (with its real biology) that is the necessary component for the process.

For what reason? You can make up a justification to explain it, but it still won't make much sense.

Demons can't procreate with other demons, because they need a mortal. Devils can't procreate with other devils, because they need a mortal. But a devil can procreate with a demon(lore that isn't contradicted anywhere in the core rules). How does that make any sense at all?

You might as well say that they can't procreate because they watch Spongebob.

 

[Charlaquin]

Me, I'm still mulling over the implications of the notion that demons have biology. Does that mean there are vast, infinite farms in the Abyss? What happens to demon armies? They must have MASSIVE supply trains. What happens to a demon that starves to death or gets dehydrated? Isn't that rather an easy out for pretty much every larvae and mane? Why undergo millenia of horrific torture when all you have to do is just not eat. It's not like other demons are going to feed you.

Funny how Descent into Avernus lacked anything even remotely resembling any source of food or water.

I know this wasn’t your point, but it’s an interesting thought. It could be that they don’t die from malnourishment or dehydration, but still experience hunger and thirst if they don’t eat or drink, and have those sensations sated when they do. It would certainly fit with the idea of the Abyss being a literal hell, if those who existed there were forced to endure the pain of starvation without the release of death, and could be driven to acts like cannibalism despite not actually needing to eat, just to get temporary relief from their hunger. Alternatively, maybe they can actually die from deprivation, and death just causes them to be reformed at the bottom of the hierarchy again. I mean, isn’t that what happens when they’re killed? Makes sense for it to happen if they expire for other reasons as well.

 

[Dire Bare]

Me, I'm still mulling over the implications of the notion that demons have biology. Does that mean there are vast, infinite farms in the Abyss? What happens to demon armies? They must have MASSIVE supply trains. What happens to a demon that starves to death or gets dehydrated? Isn't that rather an easy out for pretty much every larvae and mane? Why undergo millenia of horrific torture when all you have to do is just not eat. It's not like other demons are going to feed you.

Funny how Descent into Avernus lacked anything even remotely resembling any source of food or water.

Really?

Yes, all of that sounds like potential good storytelling. The idea of demonic farms, demonic armies needing supply chains . . . yes, all sounds interesting to me.

But in TTRPG stories about war . . . demonic or otherwise . . . those details are often overlooked. Which is okay, but calling them out as "missing" in Descent of Avernus is kinda ridiculous.