We introduce a category O of modules over the elliptic quantum group of sl N with well-behaved q-character theory. We construct asymptotic modules as analytic continuation of a family of finite-dimensional modules, the Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules. In the Grothendieck ring of this category we prove two types of identities: generalized Baxter relations in the spirit of Frenkel-Hernandez between finite-dimensional modules and asymptotic modules; three-term Baxter TQ relations of infinite-dimensional modules.1 2 HUAFENG ZHANG Such R-matrices R(z; λ) appeared previously in face-type integrable models [20,38]; for instance, the R-matrix of the Andrews-Baxter-Forrester model comes from two-dimensional irreducible modules of E τ, (sl 2 ), as does the 6-vertex model from the affine quantum group U (Lsl 2 ). The definition of E τ, (sl N ) in [17], by RLL exchange relations, is in the spirit of Faddeev-Reshetikhin-Takhatajan, originated from Quantum Inverse Scattering Method. We mention that elliptic R-matrices describe the monodromy of the quantized Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equation associated with representations of affine quantum groups, e.g. [28,29,43,50].Recently Aganagic-Okounkov [1] proposed the elliptic stable envelope in equivariant elliptic cohomology, as a geometric framework to obtain elliptic R-matrices. This was made explicit [18] for cotangent bundles of Grassmannians, resulting in tensor products of two-dimensional irreducible representations of E τ, (sl 2 ). The higher rank case of sl N was studied later by H. Konno [46].Meanwhile, Nekrasov-Pestun-Shatashvili [49] from the 6d quiver gauge theory predicted the elliptic quantum group associated to an arbitrary Kac-Moody algebra, the precise definition of which (as an associative algebra) was proposed by . See also [52] in the context of quiver geometry.We are interested in the representation theory of E τ, (g) with ∈ C generic. The formal twist constructions [11,40] from U (Lg) might reduce the problem to the representation theory of affine quantum groups, which is a subject developed intensively in the last three decades from algebraic, geometric and combinatorial aspects. However loc.cit. involve formal power series of and infinite products in the comultiplication of E τ, (g). Some of these divergence issues was addressed [12] by Etingof-Moura, who defined a fully faithful tenor functor between representation categories of BGG type for U (Lsl N ) and E τ, (sl N ). Towards this functor not much is known: its image, the induced homomorphism of Grothendieck rings, etc.In this paper we study representations of E τ, (sl N ) via the RLL presentation [17] so as to bypass affine quantum groups, yet along the way we borrow ideas from the affine case. Compared to other works [7,12,19,32,44,45,51,52], our approach emphasizes more on the Grothendieck ring structure of representation category. It is a higher rank extension of a recent joint work with G. Felder [21].The presence of the dynamical parameter λ is one of the technical difficulties of elliptic quantum groups. ...