Erlik is the ruler of the lower world, the realm of darkness, and master of the harmful spirits; the Altaians attribute to him disease, misfortune, and the gravest disasters. In the cosmogony he is the brother of Ülgen, both proceeding from the primordial sovereign, but where Ülgen embodies light and creation Erlik embodies darkness and death. He receives the souls of the dead and is propitiated through the descent of the black shaman, who bears offerings into the underworld on behalf of the afflicted. In the heroic epic Maadai-Kara he appears as the ultimate adversary in the depths, confronted and overcome by the hero Kögüdei-Mergen.