Erlik is the ruler of the lower world in Shor religion, the sunless Aina-çer, and master of the malevolent aina spirits. Known also simply as Aina, he is the sender of sickness and misfortune and the receiver of the souls of the dead, and together with Ülgen he fixes the destinies of the people of the middle world. The tradition presents him as Ülgen's younger brother who assisted in raising the earth from the primal water but was cast down after seeking a domain of his own; his hoarded and spat-out soil is said to have produced the mountains of Shoria. Shamans were understood to journey to Erlik's realm to negotiate over the sick.