Wer (Wēr), also known as Mer, Ber and Iluwer was a weather god worshiped in parts of Mesopotamia and ancient Syria. It is presumed that he was originally one of the main deities of the northern parts of these areas, but his cult declined in the second half of the second millennium BCE. The nature of the relation between him and Itūr-Mēr, the tutelary god of Mari, is disputed by researchers. In an Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Wer is described as the master of the monster Humbaba, though in other versions of this narrative this role instead belongs to Enlil. Name Two forms of the name, Wēr and Mēr, were originally in use. A third version, Bēr, started to be commonly used in the Middle Assyrian period. Additionally, god lists attest the form Iluwēr, "the god Wēr." The spelling Mēr was consistently employed in texts from Mari and nearby areas, with the chronologically most recent example being the theophoric name Tukulti-Mēr (a contemporary of Ashur-bel-kala) from the late second millennium BCE, while Wer (Wēr) was the form used in southern Mesopotamia between the beginning of the period of the Third Dynasty of Ur end of the reign of the First Dynasty of Babylon, as well as in Old Assyrian sources contemporary with the texts from Kanesh. Bēr predominates only in Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian texts. Whether dME-RU, possibly to be read as Meru, attested in sources from the Early Dynastic period (including the Abu Salabikh god list) is the same deity as Wer is uncertain. While multiple Sumerian etymologies have been proposed for the name (including derivation from the terms IM-mer, "north wind;" me-er-me-er, "storm;" and emesal me-er, "wind"), none have been conclusively proven. Wilfred G. Lambert concluded that the name might have originated in a linguistic substrate due to the first consonant not following the usual phonetic rules of known languages of the region(suggesting unknown language lost through time). Whether a connection existed between the theonym Wer/Mer and place names such as Mari and Warum is uncertain too. Lambert considered the similarity to be accidental in the case of Mari, though he concluded that the matter cannot be conclusively settled. Character Wer was a weather god. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, available sources might indicate that he was originally one of the main gods worshiped in northern Mesopotamia, but eventually declined in the middle of