Erlik

Yellow Hand of Death

Erlik

Description

The Hyrkanian god Erlik is a figure shrouded in mystery and legend. Even though he is the supreme deity of the Hyrkanians and their younger kin, the Turanians, very little is known about him. According to Hyrkanian myth, Erlik was the first man on earth, but he was not given a soul by the Creator. When Erlik tried to create life by himself, he was banished into the depths of the earth, where he claims the dead ("those that lack breath") for his own.
Erlik would be a minor god were it not for the prophet known as Living Tarim. Tarim brought Erlik worship from a remote region known as Pathenia to a group of Hyrkanian tribes who, with the strength of their religious fervor, swept down and founded the Turanian empire.
Erlik is a harsh god, who believes in the tempering of the soul through trials and deprivation. His tenets, as revealed by Tarim, forbid fornication, the consumption of alcohol and usury. However, even most of his priests ignore these precepts.
Hyrkanians and Turanians, of course, love the kill, so perhaps it is not surprising that a god of death, fire and war became more popular than a creator god.

Rituals and Beliefs

Er-lik

• Erlik is a harsh god, who requires the tempering of the soul through trials and deprivation. His tenets, as revealed by Tarim, forbid fornication, the consumption of alcohol and usury. However, even most of his priests ignore these precepts.
• Lotus is considered a holy sacrament to the followers of Erlik and is reserved for those who reach Paradise. The followers of Erlik do not appreciate non-believers using lotus.
• Erlik’s most fanatic followers are cannibals with filed teeth.
• Erlik respects the noble warriors who wield life and death on the battlefield. Warriors are bound to send spirits of their fallen foes to Erlik in a proper way – that includes many rules, varying among the regions of Hyrkania and Turan.

Tarim

• Erlik would be a minor god were it not for the prophet known as Living Tarim. Tarim brought Erlik worship from a remote region known as Pathenia to a group of Hyrkanian tribes who, with the strength of their religious fervor, swept down and founded the Turanian empire.
• It is often supposedly safer for common people to address Tarim with everyday prayers and swearing, then his harsh patron god Erlik.
• Tarim appears as a human form whose face and features are cloaked by a hooded robe. It is said that he sits on a throne in the inner sanctum of Erlik's domed temple in Aghrapur.
• Idols of Tarim depict him as a one-armed male.

Priesthood

• Clerics of Erlik who follow the strict codes of the Revelations of Tarim are said to be able to master terrible necromancy. Rumors have it that among their powers is the ability to sink into the earth and command undead.
• Tarim’s high priests are all under the mental domination of the Master of Yimsha, it is possible that the religion is spurious, an invention of the Black Circle used to dominate the Hyrkanians. The priests of Tarim do, at least, seem to have some loyalty to Turan and its king. The Seers of Yimsha have probably posed the Tarim as an avatar of Erlik himself. This fact is not publicly known!
• Priests of Erlik must always be male.

Erlik

A Temple Statue to Erlik

ERLIK

(Intermiediate Deity)

Pantheon: Hyrkanian
Gender: Masculine
Regions: Hyrkania
Attributes:

• Fire
• Yellow Hand
• Bull Head

Representations: A Yellow Hand

Sphere of Power (Erlik):

• Death
• Necromancy
• Fire
• War

Sphere of Power (Tarim):

• Healing
• Mysticism
• Healing

Can Be Worshipped with Other Gods:

• Within Hyrkanian Pantheon

Conan Lore Archives
Hyboria.xoth.net
The People of the Black Circle, Robert E. Howard, Weird Tales, 1934
Faith and Fervour, Mongoose Publishing, 2006
Shem - Gateway to the South, Mongoose Publishing, 2006