Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, Pt 3 (Demons)

Our third part of the coverage of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes is going to revolve around the denizens of the lower planes -- the demons, devils and yugoloths. It's always a tradition in every edition of D&D that we have a huge expansion in the amount of random demons, devils and yugoloths, and for the 5th Edition, in lieu of a specific 'Demonominicon' style book, Mordenkainen features a whole load of stats for a lot of the demons and devils that don't form the 'core' members of the race that showed up in the Monster Manual... plus giving stats to a fair amount of the Demon Lords in D&D lore, which is always welcome. It's a bit of a lengthy one, though, so we're going a bit long today. The Tome of Foes does have a huge coverage of all the major characters that participate in the Blood War in the first half of the book, but that really doesn't work in my concept of 'reviewing monsters', so in the spirit of that, we'll only be covering the creatures that got a stat block in this book.

I've personally never been the biggest fan of there being such an insane variety of demons and evils because, in theory, each one of these enemies will end up subscribing to the typical rule of demons/devils/yugoloths reforming in their native plane if they're not killed there or whatever, but there's a huge market for these creatures, and I definitely appreciate that 5th Edition's expansion book for demons really ended up trying to give us a fair amount of diversity among the options.

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes split these up alphabetically, but I'm going to cover them all in a single page so I don't have all my Reviewing D&D Monsters pages be taken up by random huge chunks of demons and devils. It's more thematically appropriate anyway. Click here for a primer on D&D fiends when I first covered the 'basic' ones introduced in the 5th Edition Monster Manual!.

• Click here for the previous part of Mordenkainen's, covering Eladrin to Nightwalkers. 
• Click here for the next part of Mordenkainen's, covering devils and yugoloths.
• Click here for the index.

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Demons: Alkilith 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 11

We're starting off with demons first, and due to the far more chaotic and disorganized nature of demons, it's so much easier for the game creators to just publish multiple new demons and say "yep, these guys hang out in the Abyss, we just haven't seen them" whereas the devil's more organized structure usually means that the creators will need a bit more writing to explain why this specific breed of devil hasn't been seen. The Alkilith first appeared in 2E as this tenebrous sludge-shadow creature hanging out some poor woman's windowsill, before being turned into an admittedly cool-looking radioactive-sludge-blob-tumour-man in 3E. And sure, the artwork's cool and all, but I am glad that 5E reverted the Alkilith back to its original concept of this moss-like sludge with demon eyes hanging at someone's windowsill. I feel like this sheer different look compared to all the other demons which just tended to be huge monstrosities to beat down makes the Alkilith feel a fair bit more unique, because unlike most demons, Alkilith are basically demons that take the form of weird mossy fungal growths that grow on doorways and windows, explicitly taking the form of something innocuous and easily ignored. To put things into perspective, the Alkilith is a CR 11 creature, the same challenge rating given to creatures like Remorhazes and Efreeti. Despite otherwise being just freaking demon moss, apparently even demon cults think twice about summoning Alkiliths, which could go out of control if left unchecked too quickly.

See, the thing about Alkiliths is that when this demon-moss has taken root around a doorway, they weaken the fabric of reality and allow other demons to invade, which is such a fun concept! The idea of a demonic moss is great, the idea of a creature that is obsessed with turning real doorways into portals to summon even more demonic buddies even moreso. Despite not being particularly flashy, the Alkilith is easily one of my favourite things in Mordenkainen. Oh, and since Mordenkainen is kind of big on expanding the actual lore of the demon lords and whatnot, some of these fiend variants are a bit more specialized -- the Alkilith's unique nature is because it's the spawn of the demon lord Juiblex, who we'll cover in a bit down the line.


Demons: Armanite 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 7

The Armanite has shown up in basically every single D&D edition, but has never really been counted among the 'primary' demons. Apparently it's popular enough to show up every now and then, but not enough to hang out with the cool kids like the Barlgura or Glabrezu or Nalafhesheneeheehee. And... it's a pretty cool design, y'know? It's just not super exciting. Granted, you can say that about half of the primary demons, but they have the power of nostalgia on their side. The Armanite is just a demonic buff centaur-man with a whip-tail, which plays up all the savagery that regular D&D centaurs lack. I do love the spike-covered 2E artwork, as well as the mean-looking angled horns of the 5E artwork. But really, other than the novelty of having a rampaging demon with a slightly different look, the Armanite is basically just generic demon fare. Chaotic, bloodthirsty, wants to murder everything in their past. The Armanites are noted to roam in giant herds and easily controlled by powerful demons that can direct them against their enemies. Which I suppose is a necessary facet; not all demons can be crazy rampaging solo acts to compete with the organized devils. Still, there's nothing really wrong about the Armanite, it's honestly a fair bit more imposing than basically all of the lesser demons in 5E. It's a neat demon horseman.


Demons: Bulezau 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 3

Despite the sheer amount of demons and devils and everything in-between, we really don't have a lot of the 'basic' depictions of devils in media, huh? The Malebranche and maybe some of the demon lords are probably the only ones that count, since the Balor and Pit Fiends are more Tolkienic than biblical. The Bulezau here works well as a neat representation of the goat-headed gangly devil-man that shows up a lot in depictions of old Scratch, though, and I do really like the 5th Edition artwork with that half-decayed goat face stuck on top of a gangly, squatting body. Despite the pretty cool artwork the Bulezau got for 4E and 5E, they're basically just balls of mindless rage that lurk within the canyons and caves of the Abyss when they're not gang-pressed into larger demon hordes. There's not much to them, they're just generic angry crazy demons. The decay that surrounds them isn't just played up in the artwork either, because the 5E lore notes that disfiguring ailments will always plague Bulezaus and they really, really stink. I make it a point of not talking about my own D&D experience, but my DM used one of these as a recurring antagonist and called him a 'Pestilence Demon', and I feel like it fits with their M.O.

There's not a whole ton for me to say here, really, because demons like Bulezau and Armanite are just... kinda there, y'know? Cool, creepy designs that don't look too strong, and they have the copy-paste "vile, violent and chaotic" mentality that demons have. Although considering how a fair amount of demons in the original Monster Manual are noted to be subversions of what the sourcebooks insist that demons are (the Glabrezu, Nalfeshnee and Yochlol being the primary offenders), I guess it's neat to see a bunch more of the 'everyman' demon. Plus, these are weak enough to toss as the starter enemies of a fiend-heavy campaign instead of just resorting to the poor Chasme and Vrock all the time, y'know?


Demons: Dybbuk 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 4

The Dybbuk is, unlike most D&D lesser demons, based on a real mythological being, specifically the Dybbuks from Jewish folklore. I know this from Legends of Tomorrow! In D&D, Dybbuks are demons that, like its mythological basis, uses possession a its modus operandi. Dybbuks in particular possess corpses and use them as their bodies to "indulge in vices", but their true form are transparent, floating jellyfishes. While we don't get to see the form in 5E's artwork, 3E shows off the Dybbuk's true form in all its glory. And it's not a pretty ocean jellyfish, but a particularly nasty, tumour-looking one with the scrunched-up face of an old man. Dybbuks aren't just your average parasite-controlled zombie either, because it can plunder a corpse's memories to impersonate the corpse as it was in life... albeit, y'know, rotting. Dybbuks are noted to be unable to resist basically terrorizing the people around them, vomiting blood or contorting limbs or whatnot, making it more of a walking horror trope than anything. It's honestly not a monster I'm particularly fond of, surprisingly -- you'd think that a parasitic jellyfish demon would be up my alley, but this one is just ultimately kind of there? It sure is memorable. Maybe if it was a standalone monster instead of a demon? I dunno, I just feel like it doesn't quite fit as well with what we know from D&D demons. Still, I appreciate the effort of trying to make a demon slightly different in behaviour.


Demons: Maurezhi 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 7

I'm not too fond of this one. The artwork's cool, yes, but the concept and lore behind the Maurezhi is basically "ghouls, but now they're also demons". Because they're basically, well, ghoul-demons, and D&D ghouls already have their origins steeped in demonic lore with the Orcus stuff. The Maurezhi are basically just demons created by the King of Ghouls Doresain, corrupting a bunch of elves and turning them into super-ghouls. I don't remember reading about the Maurezhi in any of the previous editions, but 5E's version gives them a neat gimmick, where when they consume a person, they will take that dude's appearance... but this 'mask' basically sloughs off and rots over the course of days. It's kind of neat that we're getting a bunch of these 'infiltrating' demons, I suppose, which works wonderfully in a 'demons take over a town' storyline, but with both Dybbuks and Maurezhi having some huge limitations as to how long they can keep the jig up. And it's neat that Orcus gets a bunch more minions beyond just ghouls and ghasts.

Demons: Molydeus 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 21

Not all of the new demons that show up in Mordenkainen are lesser demons, and also included here is the Molydeus, another D&D demon that keeps showing up in most editions, but mostly only in supplementary material. It's basically a huge half-naked muscle-man warrior with a living snake-tail-scarf and a wolf head. It literally looks like a wolf's head stitched onto a beefy dude in 3E! 5E gives the Molydeus a less normal-looking snake and wolf head, but the spirit of the concept, a musclebound beast-man with a living snake buddy, is preserved. Design-wise, though, the Molydeus in all its incarnations is... it's neat, and I don't dislike it, but I keep forgetting it exists.

In most of its appearances, the Moly is a mighty demon that sort of acts like the 'elite guard' to demon lords, apparently more feared than even the Balor. It's neat to have a bunch more powerful demons, I guess? Apparently the Molydeus are created when a demon lord really likes one of its minions, then transforming it (through torture and painful spells, because demons) into a two-headed muscleman. Oh, and it also gets a weapon made from part of its soul, which has Bleach-esque powers. That's cool! The snake head is basically a communicator that the Molydeus's master can peer through and command the Molydeus, to really ensure that the Moly won't get any funny ideas -- which is important because one of the tasks that Moly is expected to do is to guard its master's amulet, which is like, a demon lord's phylactery that allows them to regenerate should they be destroyed. Anyway... not a bad design, just one that I never really found all that memorable.


Demons: Nabassu 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 15

This is another one that, design-wise, doesn't really feel all that. The artwork's neat with all of the nice texturing on the wings and the very cool shadow-like qualities, but ultimately it just kind of looks like a gangly gargoyle? I think I prefer the 3E version, which keeps the Nabassu's gangliness but also gives him a fair bit of bulk around the head and neck to make it look a bit more menacing. These buggers are just hungry, ravenous bastards who wants to consume the souls of anything they cross paths with, even other demons... which is a huge taboo, one of the few among demons. Killing is fine, but consuming souls is a huge no-no. Okay, so despite being demons these guys have a taboo. These causes the Nabassu to be cast out into the fringes of the Abyss, essentially living as demon cannibal-hobos. Even moreso than other demons, the Nabassu try to sneak and force their way in whenever some mortal cultist opens a gateway to hell, because they really, really want to dine in the all-you-can-eat soul buffet that is the material plane. Mordenkainen also describes the way that a mortal summoner can get a Nabassu to serve him/her by providing them with a supply of souls, but we all know the Nabassu's going to just murder its summoner. Anyway, this one is another one that falls into the 'not bad, but I don't really remember it a lot' category.


Demons: Rutterkin 

• 5.5E/5E: Medium Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 2 (Rutterkin), 1/4 (Abyssal Wretch)

Now, the Rutterkin is a fair bit more memorable to me. There's just something about these sort of grotesque body horror that makes a monster design just scream out 'this is wrong' to me. And while the 2E artwork with mismatched limb sizes and creepy malnourished ribcage is neat, and there's just something absolutely creepy with 3E's absolutely distorted humanoid corpse thing, 5E goes all in with expanding what's memorable about the 2E artwork... but instead of just being content with one huge leg, 5E Rutterkin has this gigantic elephantiasis leg with tumours. Instead of just a skinny long arm arm, you get this almost tentacle-like appendage with a mouth on the end and tiny useless fingers around it. And the other arm is just so atrophied, while the face is clearly screaming in anguish... yeah, this is a wretched-looking creature, and the design alone easily communicates that the Rutterkin are one of the lowest ranking demons in the Abyss. Perhaps not to the degree of the Dretch or Manes, but they're still pretty dang low on the totem pole, basically being employed in mobs that devour anything non-demonic that they pass through, acting sort of like security guards. Rutterkins are able to unleash debilitating fear waves, but the most important aspect of a Rutterkni is a neat zombie-like plague where a Rutterkin's bite will infect the afflicted with a disease that eventually corrupts the victim and disfiguring them into an Abyssal Wretch, basically with all of the pain and disfigurement that comes with being a Rutterkin, but without any of the cool abilities.


Demons: Sibriex 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 18

(Speaking of body horror...) One of my favourite monsters that genuinely made me go "what the fuuuuuck" when I first read about them in a 3E sourcebook, the Fiendish Codex, is the Sibriex. While 5E doesn't really go in-depth about their origins, in 3E (and I think 4E as well), the Sibriex are demons, but not really like most other demons. Other demons are technically part of the Tanar'ri race, but the Sibriex is classified as an 'Obyrith Demon'. Now such distinction doesn't really matter when you walk across the wastes and then meet a gigantic building-sized floating mutant demon mass of tumourous flesh, but the Obyriths to demons are what Cthulhu is to humans. They existed in the Abyss before the Abyss or any of these silly modern demons existed, and there's not a lot of them left, and the ones that are do are chained to the grounds of the Abyss. They are mighty and powerful, with the greatest asset being the eons and eons of information they've collected that even the demon lords of the Abyss sometimes go to them for a consultation, while, in turn, being manipulated by the Sibriexes themselves.

4E Sibriex

Of course, what made the Sibriex extra memorable is their artwork. 4E goes for a more modest, less gross-looking giant floating head thing that's still threatening, but it doesn't hold a candle to how 3E and 5E shows these things off. Look at the 3E Sibriex! That slobbering giant maw with a lower jaw that looks like it's going to fall off at any time, the barely-stitched-together green flesh on the forehead, and the lumps of pink flesh on top of it, those dead-yet-alive eyes, and the mass of vessels and organs dangling from the floating head... and the scale that the hapless human dude is to this floating head really helps to sell the image that this is just some ancient being of wrongness barely held in place with flimsy chains. 5E goes all ham on making this a mass of putrid body horror, though, barely resembling a head with the cranial part of the Sibriex now being far more malformed, but the change from the pinpoint eyes of 3E into disturbingly human-looking ones is one that makes this thing look a fair bit more creepier. You can just totally imagine the deep, mocking voice that comes from this thing, can't you? Particularly the 3E version?

The Sibriex will bleed rivers of blood and bile and while they are chained in place, they will use their blood and stuff to create more demons and horrors out of other creatures. 5E in particular credits the Sibriex as being responsible for the warped appearance of the Rutterkins, which they create a large amount of in order to spread their influence. Sibriex also provide the service of "Flesh Warping", which is something that some demons petition Sibriexes for, but it's also a weapon that the Sibriex uses in combat, with Mordenkainen providing a table for your DM to roll and decide what effect the Sibriex causes on you -- which may or may not be permanent depending on how badly you fuck up! Sometimes it's just as mundane as your character's hair becoming blue, or even something beneficial like growing wings or whiplike tails, or good ol' Cthulhu-fication of having limbs becoming tentacles. And then some of the flesh warping effects are hilariously horrifying. "The target's ears tear free from its head and scurry away, the target is deafened." or "The target's arms and legs switch places, preventing the target from moving unless it crawls." 5E highlights the flesh-warping aspects of the Sibriex a bit more, but I do like the idea of these bound, super-duper-ancient demons that even other demon lords respect.


Demons: Wastrilith 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 13

We don't really get a whole lot of aquatic-themed fiends, which I guess fits with the whole theme of the Abyss and Nine Hells being more fire-and-brimstone. The toad-like Hydroloth and Hezrou are probably the only ones I can think of on the top of my head, and the latter's probably not exclusively aquatic. The Wastrilith is an aquatic demon with a relatively... obvious design? It's a cool one, don't get me wrong, especially the 5E one with fins and random coral armour all up the wazoo and two gigantic sickle-hands. I guess it's meant to be related to the Marilith? I do really like the original 2E artwork too, which is just this haunting, dead-eyed serpent with tapering arms that's barely visible against its larger body. (In the 3E artwork, the Wastrilith is the purple one off the center). Wastriliths basically play up the whole "demons corrupt!" angle of things, with the lore noting that a Wastrilith basically causes all water in a radius around it to be fouled and corrupted, and be bent to its will. Drinking any water from a source inhabited by a Wastrilith risks you getting either turned into a husk or into a thrall of the Wastrilith. Which is interesting... D&D doesn't really deal too much in more practical adventuring logistics like hunger and thirst, with the most complex thing maybe being just marking off rations, but maybe there's a mechanic as your heroes have to course through a series of waterways to hunt down the Wastrilith, but can't risk a prolonged fight because you have to keep breaking away from the Wastrilith's influence to even drink? Otherwise, though, a pretty neat eel-demon.
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Demon Lord Baphomet 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 23

Throughout all D&D editions, we've hyped up characters like the demon lords and arch-devils and stuff, and, to quote the famous gamer credo: "If it has stats, it can be killed". And at some point, your adventuring party will get strong enough that you can go straight to these creatures' realms and challenge them, with demon lords being pretty suitably epic final dungeon boss type enemies. Even if your campaign doesn't quite get that far, giving demon lords stats would be interesting if for narrative reason or purpose your players end up meeting them, or, hell, even avatars of them. Even if the demon lords themselves don't appear, fighting their cultists is a neat way to involve them as a potential 'big bad' down the line. I don't tend to do 'named NPC's' in these reviewing-monsters segments, and if I ever get to the adventure modules I'll actually be skipping most of what are just NPC enemies, but the demon lords are varied enough in design and scope that they feel more monster-like.

Anyway, Baphomet. I don't think he really ends up doing a whole ton, but he's one of the few Demon Lords to get stats for 5th edition in Mordenkainen's. D&D's Baphomet is more of a bull-man than the traditional real-life depiction of Baphomet as a goat-man. I do like the 5th Edition artwork a lot better, communicating the fact that Baphomet is a hideous bull-man but also emphasizing that he's a demon with that face and horn arrangement. He's got a huge butcher knife called "Heartcleaver", which is a cool name. The 4E artwork is cool and all, but he's just literally a bigger minotaur in armour instead of being a demon lord. Baphomet's called the "Prince of Beasts", rules over minotaurs and people with savage hearts, and his followers are basically the type to want to break down civilization and turn everything into a bestial hellscape of savagery. It's the sort of given for villains in a fantasy setting to have a little different goal to set them apart from the other demon lords. Playing with the minotaur theme, Baphomet and his followers also like to create huge mazes, with his own realm in the Abyss being called the Endless Maze. Mordenkainen's write-up actually emphasizes the behaviour of Baphomet's followers as well, noting their crazy bull-demon-king worshiping quirks, and Baphomet's followers slowly get mutated into minotaurs. Oh, and of course, the Goristros, who are literal giant bull-demons, are heavily associated with Baphomet. Anyway... Baphomet is a neat one to start off with. Simple motivations, with a simple but effective design.


Demon Lord Demogorgon 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 26

1E Demogorgon

Unquestionably my favourite of all the Demon Lords even before Stranger Things borrowed his name for a completely unrelated monster, we've got the Demogorgon, who also happens to have one of the coolest names ever. Not bad for someone whose mythological basis is literally a typo. Demogorgon has been hanging out since the first edition and alongside Orcus, has been D&D's primary faces for fiends alike. And instead of being just a generic demon monster, Demogorgon takes the form of a kaiju-sized two-headed mandrill with tentacle arms and chicken legs. I love this design so much, particularly the 4E one with the vibrant colours and pose which became the cover page of 4th Edition's second Monster Manual. All the other artworks are great, but they tend to emphasize a grimier, grungier and scarier Demogorgon, which I like a bit less compared to the memorable look of 4E Demogorgon. Oh, and good ol' Demogorgon is also aquatic, despite being a fucking two-headed baboon, with his lair being in a plane called the Gaping Maw, in a half-submerged palace that represents madness, duality and shattered psyche. Mostly, though, he's a huge wacky-looking two-headed baboon, and I love just how differently the different editions have portrayed him. My favourite is still the 4E artwork used for the colourful cover of one of the Monster Manuals, there's just a fun contrast with him looking so bright despite him being a demon lord of hell.

2E Demogorgon (!!!)

With such self-congratulating titles like the "Prince of Demons" and "Master of the Spiraling Depths", Demogorgon's whole gimmick (his 'sphere of influence', to borrow an Elder Scrolls term) is chaos, duality and madness, becuase, hey, Demogorgon can't even agree with himself half the time. His two giant monkey heads bicker and fight, so despite his immense strength, Demogorgon's own indecision and insanity ends up contributing to the stalemate between the forces that plague the lower planes. His heads are called Aameul and Hathradiah, and Demogorgon and his followers basically aim to spread madness and corruption wherever they go. There's just something whimsical and fun about this scary demon lord who can break minds just by the sight of his Y-shaped sign (some Uzumaki style craziness) being a screeching two-headed baboon with chicken legs and whip arms that keeps arguing with itself. He's even more wacky in older editions, which went back and forth on giving him a huge ape-like body or making him this little noodle-snake with baboon heads and whip arms. And while I do adore 2E Demogorgon's utter daftness -- he looks like a villain in a children's fantasy book -- I have grown really accustomed to the standard giant demon-ape from 3E onwards, and that's something that I didn't think I would say about a primate-themed monster, since I really don't like monkeys a lot. But at the same time, that sheer bizarre whimsy is why I think I like Demogorgon the best out of all of D&D's named enemies. It's threatening as all hell, but it's also fun, y'know? Anyway, I like Demogorgon a lo, and I think we'll cover him more if/when we reach the adventure modules and talk about Out of the Abyss. 


Demon Lord Fraz-Urb'luu 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 23

Design-wise, Fraz-Urb'luu isn't really super creative, and he looks kind of just like a generic demon. Like what I've mentioned above while talking about the Nabassu and Bulezau, having a generic gargoyle-style body shape -- a humanoid with bat wings and maybe some horns or a tail -- sure is traditionally demonic, but it also sure is kind of boring. Fraz-Urb'luu, in addition to being the bane of spell-checkers, looks like a very bland bat-winged orc-man in 3E and 4E. 5th Edition gave him a far more memorable an cooler artwork with a mottled green skin and a weird tangled seaweed beard thing going on, but Fraz-Urb'luu is still kind of there. His whole deal is deception, illusions and tricks, resorting to huge dreamscapes of illusions when his sweet words (he apparently likes to masquerade as a benign god to his followers) won't work. He's basically Loki!

He is one of the more iconic villains from D&D's Greyhawk setting, I think, because Mordenkainen's references a very delightfully Legend-of-Zelda-esque backstory where Fraz-Urb'luu was imprisoned beneath a castle and it's a race between his followers and a bunch of adventurers in hunting pieces of a shattered staff across the land to free him. His lair is the demonic city of Zoragmelok in the realm of Hollow's Heart, which, unlike the wide dream-scapes and illusions he's known for, is just a featureless plain of white dust. Anyway, this is kind of an iconic villain, and I respect Fraz for that, but typing his name is a headache.


Demon Lord Graz'zt 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 24

Oh, hey, it's Darth Maul! It's kind of an obligation that in any gathering of supervillains, one of them must be the 'pretty boy' one, and among the demon lords, Graz'zt is that, looking the most humanoid out of his compatriots, being a dark-skinned muscular handsome man with little horns on top. And Graz'zt, of course, is the prince of "untamed desire", with the lore noting that Graz'zt is inhumanely beautiful, but anyone who meets him knows that there's just something wrong with him, something slightly off. He's handsome but his expression's just a bit off; his features are perfect but he's got the wrong number of fingers or something, and I think this whole mixture of beauty and wrongness is Graz'zt whole theme. Anyway, his whole theme is lust and obviously his cultists engage in like, non-kosher BDSM and orgies and whatnot. It's a sex-worshiping demon cult! And while Graz'zt prefers pleasure and manipulation, he's still a demon lord with a CR of 24, and he's going to murder anyone that defies him with his blade Angdrelve (or "Wave of Sorrow"). D&D can't really get away with describing anything too graphic, but we are all adults here, we know that Graz'zt's basically all about pain-and-pleasure BDSM orgies. Not much to say here design-wise, but I recognize that a more pleasure-oriented Demon Lord like Graz'zt is necessary to balance out the others.


Demon Lord Juiblex 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 23

Juiblex the Faceless Lord is another one that gives me a bit of a trouble in spelling -- I keep typing his name as the more natural-sounding Jubilex! Juiblex's visual design isn't super duper creative either, just a giant goopy jelly slime with eyeballs and fanged mouths dotting its entire body. It's a neat design, sure, because I like slime monsters and its a nice break from the horns-and-wings humanoids... but I kind of feel that his (pretty cool) artwork could've been a bit cooler for something that's supposed to be the big daddy of all slimes in the multiverse, yeah? Juiblex fills another supervillain niche, this time being the trope of the idiot, mindless being who just wants to end the world. Juiblex wants to end the world, not caring about plots, schemes or power plays, but that's because all it wants is to consume everything, to slake its hunger and turn the entire world into nothing but Juiblex, dissolving everything into slimes.

So this does raise some interesting questions about the slimes in D&D. While we do have explicit demonic slimes that serve Juiblex (the Alkilith we covered earlier) what about the other slimes of the world? The Gelatinous Cubes and Ochre Jellies and all those? Are they still part of Juiblex in some way? Are oozes technically, then, demons? Demon-spawn? Juiblex also has mortal followers, most of whom find themselves transformed into slime-people who end up slowly losing their individuality as Juiblex consumes them and turns them into literal slime... tragically, none of these slime-cultists get any artwork here. Come on. Juiblex, interestingly, has a roommate in the Abyss, hanging out in the realm of Shedaklah with fellow demon lord Zuggtmoy. They fight for territory, but it kind of comes off as the two of them being terrible roommates in a comedy sitcom. Anyway, I like Juiblex, but there really isn't a whole ton to talk about him.


Demon Lord Orcus 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 26

Another one that keeps showing up in every dang edition of D&D is the demon lord Orcus, arguably the definitive D&D villain to some. Portrayed relatively consistently as a heavily-built humanoid with the typical classic 'demon' look, Orcus is a design that we've seen so many times in other depictions of demonic entities -- red skin, horns, fangs, bat wings, tails, hooved feet... yet I suppose it's appropriate that one of the original examples of demon lords looks like the most common pop culture depiction of demons. Orcus is known as the Prince of Undeath, the Blood Lord, and is the being responsible for the presence of undead beings and especially the cannibalistic ghouls. He's your regular evil death-god. Orcus's whole modus operandi is to kill every single goddamn thing in the multiverse and turn them into undead, and his cults are filled with necromancers and warlocks that raise the dead in his name. I do like the little art evolution from the older depictions of Orcus -- particularly 5E's decision to give him a skull for a head, which is a lot more appropriate for the demon lord of undeath. 4E does give him a pretty damn cool art piece which became the cover for that edition's Monster Manual.

Orcus lives in the fortress of Naratyr, located on the layer of Thanotos, and while Mordenkainen's doesn't go into too much detail about his backstory, what I remember from previous editions indicate that Orcus wasn't born a demon lord, but was once a mortal spellcaster who died and was cast into the Abyss, and his soul slowly grew from a lowly Larva all the way up the ranks of demonkind into a Balor before eventually achieving godhood and becoming the only demon lord to challenge the throne of 'Demon Prince' from Demogorgon. Over the various editions of D&D, Orcus has been killed and resurrected multiple times, which I suppose is appropriate for a death-god demon. Without going into the specifics of Orcus's backstory or abilities (which will take us a while) there's really not a whole ton to talk about him, though.



Demon Lord Yeenoghu 

• 5.5E/5E: Huge Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 24

While he doesn't quite have as impressive a resume as the likes of Orcus, Demogorgon or Asmodeus, Yeenoghu kind of keeps being fairly prominent in D&D material for the simple reason that his favoured race, the gnolls, are themselves very prominent in D&D material. Yeenoghu isn't super interesting design-wise, just a bigger, more savage gnoll with a triple-tipped flail. 5E does give him an awesome artwork that truly embodies the "Beast of Butchery" and makes him look far more feral and demonic than most gnolls, but in previous editions he's kind of underwhelming. As a Demon Lord, Yeenoghu's just crazy, violent, and all about the senseless slaughter and destruction, and he shows up a lot in the backstories of gnolls and their ilk. Yeenoghu is neat, again, as a springboard of (admittedly simple) backstory for the gnolls, but otherwise I can't really think of much to say about it.


Demon Lord Zuggtmoy 

• 5.5E/5E: Large Fiend - Demon; Chaotic Evil; CR 23

I don't think Zuggtmoy has had much of a career outside of 5E, being name-dropped a couple of times in previous editions but never really getting much of a proper role until 5th Edition set her up as one of the primary antagonists of the Out of the Abyss adventure. Zuggtmoy is the Demon-Queen of Fungi and the Lady of Rot and Decay, and I am all about fungus-themed enemies. I guess we know why Zuggtmoy gets along pretty well with Juiblex so much that they're essentially roommates, because Zuggtmoy is detached and has such an alien mind that all she wants to do is to spread her spores to infect the living and turn them into her mushroom minions. It's a neat difference compared to the more brutal mentality of the other Demon Lords.

Despite Zuggtmoy's two artworks depicting her as a slender humanoid woman with a mushroom-themed dress and tendrils and whatnot, this is obviously not her true form, it's just what she chooses to appear as when she mooshes together her fungal form. Zuggtmoy's cultists are also basically slowly being mind-controlled by her fungal spores, after having been promised something relatively innocent like a boost of power after eating a mushroom. Pro tip in D&D, if a suspicious NPC offers you a very cheap Potion of Giant's Strength with a suspicious-looking toadstool floating inside... don't drink it! Your DM isn't that nice. Tragically, though, like Juiblex's slime-cultists, we don't get to see any of the fungi-faced cultists of Zuggtmoy represented in artwork, which I assume will look like those fungus-folk from Darkest Dungeons. I really do like Zuggtmoy, although part of it is admittedly thanks to me really liking fungi as the basis for monster concepts.

That's all the Demon Lords that are statted in Mordenkainen's, with the biggest omission being the Drow's Spider-Queen Lolth which I think is covered in another book, although we do get a chunk of her lore and origin in the 'elf' section. And... and I feel like I ended up not having as much to say about them, really. I do kind of feel like we probably could've had more lore about the Demon Lords themselves, although I'm pretty sure that those are covered in other books and whatnot.

The 5E stats for these creatures:

• Alkilith: Medium fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 11
• Armanite: Large fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 7
• Bulezau: Medium fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 3
• Dybbuk: Medium fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 4
• Maurezhi: Medium fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 7
• Molydeus: Huge fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 21
• Nabassu: Medium fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 15
• Rutterkin: Medium fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 2
• Abyssal Wretch: Medium fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 1/4
• Sibriex: Huge fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 18
• Wastrilith: Large fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 13
• Baphomet: Huge fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 23
• Demogorgon: Huge fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 26
• Fraz-Urb'luu: Large fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 23
• Graz'zt: Large fiend - demon shapechanger; chaotic evil; CR 24
• Juiblex: Huge fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 23
• Orcus: Huge fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 26
• Yeenoghu: Huge fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 24
• Zuggtmoy: Large fiend - demon; chaotic evil; CR 23