Initially, the Early Slavs believed in only one Vyraj, connected to the deity known as Rod—it was apparently located far away beyond the sea, at the end of the Milky Way. It was often imagined as a garden beyond an iron gate that barred the living from entering, located in the crown of the cosmic tree. Whereas the branches were said to be nested by the birds, who were usually identified as human souls. According to folkloristic fables, the gates of Vyraj were guarded by Veles, who sometimes took the animal form of a raróg, grasping in its claws the keys to the otherworlds.