Erlik and Tarim

## Erlik, The Yellow hand God

**TARIM**

* Healing
* Mysticism
* Animal herding

Erlik was the first man, a creation of Ulgen, but he was not given a soul. He attempted to create a soul for himself but failed and was taken to the heavens and given the mantle of death.

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.

Tarim was the leader that leader that led the Lemurians off their sinking isles to the shores of the main continent. He lives on, century after century in the person of his descendants, for thousands of years later he led Lemurians, now known as Hyrkanians, to the eastern shore of the Vilayet Sea and founded Aghrapur. The living Tarim, Tarim Incarnate, is a holy person decedent from that original leader. He serves as a living embodiment a Avatar of Erlik.

**Regions of Worship:** Erlik is popular among all the Hyrkanian tribes, but the pinnacle of his popularity lies in Turan, where he is worshiped as the main deity. Also, the living Tarim, his manifestation, resides there.

## **Rituals and beliefs**

### **ERLIK& TARIM**

* 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.

## **OTHER HYRKANIAN GODS**

Old faith in the Hyrkanian pantheon and their shamanistic beliefs still persists in the less developed parts of the country.

### The 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.