Apparently Lathander was just a phase he was going through, probably when he was painting his nails and putting glitter on to go to raves. He now wants to be called Amanautor.
Summary of the Realms 4e setting changes here BTW. Also: gleemax is still a stupid name, even if it is going the way of the dodo.
Yeah, but Amanautor is frightening and strict, ant not a nice guy like Lathander is. So, it’s made me sad.
It’s just not appealing to me anymore. The magic is gone. The Forgotten Realms setting is, for my intents and purposes, dead. WotC won’t see a dime of my money for FR material unless they do a 180 and put it back the way it was, which won’t happen.
This is one of the stranger things, and I’ll go ahead and mention it specifically.
The problem with this is is that, well, Lathander is nothing at all like Amaunator. I mean, we’re not talking about a mild personality change (read: growth and teen uncertainty) like you get in puberty. Lathander is totally and completely different from Amaunator in just about every way. The Big L is easy-going, kind, not terribly reliable, but warm hearted all the way. He’s Neutral Good and not shy about it.
Amaunator is strict. I mean iron-clad strict. He’s the dude who claimed the dominion of time, should he ever need it, because of a grammatical mistake*. He was absolutely loyal and perfectly faithful, sort of like a nicer version of Helm. Heck, he was just plain more mature than Lathander.
*I Am Not Making This Up. The contract inadvertently left off a comma, so Amaunator wound up being “responsible for all time.” And so he was, although he generally left it to Mystral (the original form of Mystra).
Oh yeah, and Amaunator is dead. I mean, he’s dead as a doornail. His corpse, she izza floating in the Astral, yah? Yah! This doesn’t mean he’s totally helpless (he is a God, and has done things after his death, too), but he’s not hanging around in the form of Lathander. I mean, if they want to bring Amaunator back, fine, but as Lathander? Geez. Those two would be fighting for a millenium over who got to be the chief Sun God.
Didn’t they do this with the Greyhawk mythos back when 3rd ed began, too? Pelor (?) went from being a pretty benevolent god of light to being some sort of martial general of the light or something, complete with turning his laid-back domain into a military fortress.
Wow. That looks awesome.
Previously, I think TSR also changed St. Cuthbert from LG to LN. This actually pissed me off because I am Catholic and well, he’s a bloody Saint.
I’ve seen quite a few 2nd edition books at Half-Price Books.
I’m pretty sure that the St. Cuthbert in the D&D multiverse isn’t a Catholic saint, though…I’m not sure what the institutional church in Furyondy was, even if it was modeled on medieval Catholicism, but it’s not REAL Catholic.
As I understand it he was changed from LG with LN tendencies to LN with LG tendencies. The difference doesn’t seem significant enough to worry about.
By coincidence, I’m sure, there actually was a Catholic soldier/monk named St. Cuthbert.
The point is, I felt rather uncomfortable about them using actual people who were monotheists as Gods in their fantasy world… and then saying he wasn’t even Good (granted, DnD alingment is so flexible it’s menaingless, but still…)
I seem to recall a module in which the players had to recover the sacred Cudgel of St. Cuthbert. The adventure transported them from the Realms to modern-day Earth, and the Cudgel was on display in the British Museum. So apparently the Realms’ St. Cuthbert really was the same guy as the Catholic saint.
Wow. Internet discussions on 4e have completely put my sarcasmometer on the fritz. I totally cannot tell the difference between the some that want abortions, and the others that want miniature American flags, anymore. sheesh.
I wasn’t being sarcastic. I truly, honestly, unequivocally believe that the 4e FR looks cool.
I also love the changes 4e has done with the D&D cosmology. I mean, abandoning the Great Wheel after 20-odd years took guts, sure, but replacing the Ethereal Plane with Faerie (sorry - the Feywild) is neat, not to mention classical-minded; the Astral Sea is a throwback to the old Immortal Set cosmology, which I always liked; and merging the Elemental Planes with Limbo is sheer genius, one of those things that are so obvious I’m kicking myself for not thinking of them first. If the New Forgotten Realms has an actual narrative describing how one multiverse shifted into the other… that’s a story I HAVE to read.
I don’t like shadow creatures. Heroes shouldn’t be afraid of shadows.
Odesio
If they aren’t, you’re not using them right. 
Nothing freaks a hero out more than a properly used shadow creature. I don’t mind the cosmology so much… annoying, but not too bad. (I have to figure out some way to mash favorite bits back in. Sigil, f’r example, is necessary.)
I gained respect for shadow creatures - especially the more equine of them - after reading Roger Zelazny’s* Creatures of Light and Darkness*. It’s a good book, if you haven’t read it.
And Sigil’s still there - they mention it specifically.