Marilith

A marilith is a fictional creature in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A marilith is depicted as a powerful, six-armed female demon with the lower body of a snake.

Publication history

Mariliths are inspired by Hindu mythology, where gods and demons frequently have multiple heads and arms.

In their first appearance, as part of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, mariliths were known as type V demons, with marilith being a sample name. From second edition AD&D and onwards they are listed as mariliths.

Dungeons & Dragons (1974-1976)

The type V demon appeared under the demon entry in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement (1976).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

The type V demon (marilith, etc.) appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977). A list of monster stats in the 1979 Dungeon Master Guide lists the names of type V demons as: Aishapra, Kevokulli, Marilith and Rehnaremme.

Dungeons & Dragons (1977-1999)

This edition of the D&D game included its own version of the type V demon, which is known as the hissing demon, first appearing in the Immortal Rules set, in the DM's Guide to Immortals (1986). The hissing lesser fiend appeared in the Wrath of the Immortals set, in "Book One: Codex of the Immortals" (1992).

Index of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition monsters

This is the Index of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition monsters, an important element of that role-playing game. This list only includes monsters from official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition supplements published by TSR, Inc. or Wizards of the Coast, not licensed or unlicensed third party products such as video games or unlicensed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition manuals.

TSR 2009 - Monster Manual (1977)

This was the initial monster book for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, published in 1977. Gary Gygax wrote much of the work himself, having included and expanded most of the monsters from the previous D&D supplements. Also included are monsters originally printed in The Strategic Review, as well as some originally found in early issues of The Dragon (such as the anhkheg and remorhaz), and other early game materials. This book also expanded on the original monster format, such as including the stat lines on the same page as the monsters' descriptions and introducing more stats, expanding the length of most monster descriptions, and featuring illustrations for most of the monsters. The book features an alphabetical table of contents of all the monsters on pages 3–4, explanatory notes for the statistics lines on pages 5–6, descriptions of the monsters on pages 6–103, a treasure chart on page 105, and an index of major listings on pages 106-109.