Erlik

Erlik, Erlig, Erlik Khan (Old Turkic: 𐰀𐰼𐰠𐰃𐰚; Turkish: Erlik Han) is the god of death and the underworld, sometimes referred to as Tamag (hell) in Turkic mythology. Er (or yer) means Earth, in the depths of which Erlik lives in. From the underworld, Erlik brings forth death, plague and evil spirits to torment humans and take their souls into his realm. Since Tengrism is not based on a written corpus but encompasses the experienced spiritual life of Turkic people, there are no unanimous beliefs among all Turkic people. Erlik has already been mentioned in the Orkhon writings and shows a consistent pattern as the lord of the underworld among Turkic belief systems. In Mongolian, Erlik is referred to as Erleg or Yerleg, and in Hungarian mythology he is equivalent to Ördög.