Is Amaunator Back in Faerûn!?

[ProfessorCirno]

I believe his point was not that one should go with an explanation for an unknown that does not make sense. His point was that speculative explanations and extrapolations by fans are not the explanations provided by the source. There could be five cool ways to explain it and a hundred not cool ways but the underlying fact is that the lack of explanation is in the source and jarring.

"Throwing in these speculations and extrapolations it could make sense" is different than "It makes sense as presented in the book I am reading."

Bingo. I was saying my incredibly bizarro method of explaining it was equally valid as any other method of explaining it. Giving a long detailed description on how you think Lathander changed, me saying "He did it because he likes doggies," the similarity there is that we're both equally valid, which is to say that we aren't valid at all.

 

[Scribble]

Thats sort of the point of Points of Lightafying the realms though.

Give you a basic overview of events, but leave the details to your personal games/tastes.

Seems like the basic adventure idea is: How did the Cult of Amaunator become the leading force in the religion? (Especially now if they use the 4e default that the gods don't communicate directly with their followers...)

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Thats sort of the point of Points of Lightafying the realms though.

Give you a basic overview of events, but leave the details to your personal games/tastes.

Seems like the basic adventure idea is: How did the Cult of Amaunator become the leading force in the religion? (Especially now if they use the 4e default that the gods don't communicate directly with their followers...)

...No, the point of Points of Lightafying a setting is to give it a grittier setting where your party is vastly more important. Not being incredibly lazy and going "Naw, it's cool, why write this up? The fans will do it for us."

That's why Cult of Amaunator doesn't work as an adventure idea. Because there's no mention of it in the book. It just tells you "Lathander became Amaunator." That's it. It doesn't mention it as a previous heresy or give any information on what things were like before. The only way this works as an adventure idea is if you already knew the previous Realms really well, at which point it doesn't matter, because this book and the eenw setting wasn't written for you.

 

[Scribble]

...No, the point of Points of Lightafying a setting is to give it a grittier setting where your party is vastly more important. Not being incredibly lazy and going "Naw, it's cool, why write this up? The fans will do it for us."

If you want to atribute it to laziness, that's your choice, but I personally don;t think that's what's happening at all.

White Wolf has had a similar style for a long time, and it never fails to excite me. They throw something out there, and it's not the things they say that really grab me, but the things they don't say.

In the Scarred Lands I remember reading a little blurb about the "ancients" it was just a smal blurb about some stone pillars with weird markings on them, but it got my mind racing thinkuing about what they were or who the ancients were. Inspired my whole scarred lands campaign.

Shrug. if it's not your style that sucks. I personally love it, and I think it feels more like the grey box to me.

That's why Cult of Amaunator doesn't work as an adventure idea. Because there's no mention of it in the book. It just tells you "Lathander became Amaunator." That's it.

Apparently people are questioning how and why... so it seems like it does work to me! There's a million BS reasons one god can become another god. (to butcher a line from Scream...) All the Dm has to do is pick one to base his adventures around.

If they gave me an "official" reason I'd think either "That's a neat story" and that would be it, or "Thats silly." and that would be it. Now I can make my own reason and think- "That's perfect."

It doesn't mention it as a previous heresy or give any information on what things were like before. The only way this works as an adventure idea is if you already knew the previous Realms really well, at which point it doesn't matter, because this book and the eenw setting wasn't written for you.

It wasn't? Then what's it matter?

 

[Fenes]

If they gave me an "official" reason I'd think either "That's a neat story" and that would be it, or "Thats silly." and that would be it. Now I can make my own reason and think- "That's perfect."

Nothing stopped you from doing this before. And it won't be perfect once they have a novel change it.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Thats sort of the point of Points of Lightafying the realms though.

Give you a basic overview of events, but leave the details to your personal games/tastes.

Seems like the basic adventure idea is: How did the Cult of Amaunator become the leading force in the religion? (Especially now if they use the 4e default that the gods don't communicate directly with their followers...)

See, my main issue here is that if I'm going to make stuff up, I don't need to buy their guide. What I liked about early FR was the modular nature, integrated settings also have their uses. Removing a piece in order to use it in your homebrew is saving time, for me.

The idea of buying a theme for your gameworld means you're still doing most of the work.

So, anyway, it's a balancing act really.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

So now her PC is a cleric of the "Lathanderite Heresy", which believes all that about Lathander being Amaunator all along is a bunch of malarkey spouted by the tightwads over in Elturgard. Fun times to come

When you say "tightwads over in Elturgard," are you saying that the people of Elturgard worship Amaunator? I only ask because, given most of the fluff about Elturgard in the FRCS (the mini sun, paladins with sun-blazoned armor), that makes a lot of sense. However, in the Elturgard entry of the FRCS it says that "Torm is revered in the temples that dot the landscape." I was wondering if that was a typo, or if something had changed in the FR world. So I was wondering if Amaunator-worshipping Elturgarders was just your campaign or if that's the way it's "supposed" to be.

Regardless, I plan on making Elturgard ruled by a Amanautorite Theocracy.

 

[EATherrian]

Unfortunately this mystery falls back to a common solution. A wizard did it, or maybe Mystralyllyylylylyl. See, makes sense now. As long as it wasn't Elminster, than it would be lame.

 

[Weregrognard]

When you say "tightwads over in Elturgard," are you saying that the people of Elturgard worship Amaunator? I only ask because, given most of the fluff about Elturgard in the FRCS (the mini sun, paladins with sun-blazoned armor), that makes a lot of sense. However, in the Elturgard entry of the FRCS it says that "Torm is revered in the temples that dot the landscape." I was wondering if that was a typo, or if something had changed in the FR world. So I was wondering if Amaunator-worshipping Elturgarders was just your campaign or if that's the way it's "supposed" to be.

Regardless, I plan on making Elturgard ruled by a Amanautorite Theocracy.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say "typo". While I could see a Torm/Amaunator alliance, a Tormish theocracy where a miniature sun called "Amunator's Gift" floats above the capital city and whose paladins are described as "sun-blazoned" doesn't really make sense to me.