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.

In Turkic mythology, Erlik was involved in the creation of humanity. He slew the messenger-god, Maidere/Maydere, and is a teacher of sin. He is sometimes represented by a totemic bear.

In Turkic mythology, Erlik was the deity of evil, darkness, lord of the lower world and judge of the dead. Erlik is a brother of Ülgen, they both have been created from Kayra (Tengere Kayra Khan) the god of it. He wants to be equal to Ulgen, he makes his own land and was sent to the prison at the 9th layer of the earth and became opposed to the upper world, the realm of light. According to the Khakas, Erlik resides in the deepest underworld in a palace of copper with furniture made of gold.

According to an Altai legend, Erlik created the spirits (İye) while he was still in heaven. Erlik and his spirits were cast out and fell to earth together when he claimed divinity for himself. Another legend of the Altai people recorded states, God (Tengri) endowed Erlik with a hammer and an anvil, but took his power away when Erlik was creating evil with it.

According to another legend, recorded by Vasily Radlov, God ordered the first human to dive into the primordial water and remove a handful of soil from the bottom of the sea. The first human, however, desired to hide some soil in order to create his own world later. But the soil in his mouth grew and he spit it out. Kayra, who designs the world in this legend, cast the first human away from the heavenly realm as means of punishment and thus named him Erlik.

In yet another narrative, people have been immortal before the advent of Erlik. People and animals overpopulated the world, until a crow suggested to summon Death into the world. So people summoned Erlik, whereupon death enters. First, all people knew when they would die, and so they lived in fear, until Tengri hid their date of death.

The evil spirits created by Erlik cause misfortune, sickness and death to mankind. These spirits are imagined as Erlik's assistants. Besides these, his nine sons and daughters help their father in the way of evil. Erlik's daughters especially try to change a shaman's mind while he is attempting to reach Ulgen with their beauties. Erlik gives all kinds of sickness and wants sacrifices from the people. If they do not sacrifice to him, he catches the dead bodies of the people that he killed and takes them away to this lower world and then makes them his slaves. So, especially in the Altays, when sickness appears, people become scared of Erlik and make many animal sacrifices to him.

In the prayers of shamans, Erlik is described as a monster, having the face and teeth of a pig combined with a human body. Besides his face, he is an old man with a well-built body, black eyes, eyebrows and mustache.