What's exactly the Sceptre of God?

One of the most atmospheric thing in the SoG is probably the device that holds what seems to be Dominus original/former body (that sickly/comatose looking blue guy in the chair you can see on the edge of you screen if you go up the stairs on the top). Haven't read any lore ouside of the game yet and tried instead to understand the history simply by playing and listening to the dialoges.
From what i saw it looked like Dominus either had a weak body and/or was terminally ill so he searched for a way to gain immortality and finally more or less fused his mind with that big machine in the upper SoG with the help of some kind of demonic entity from another dimension. When you defeat his first apparition/projection, that entity takes over his machine body and you get to fight him/it in the second form. Or that was his new, true form all along and he just dispelled the illusion of a more humanoid body so he could go all out after you weakened him.

Well, that is what it seemed to me and it would be nice if anyone could confirm or invalidate my assumptions. Either way, i hope that things will get clearer with the release of A4 next year and hopefully there will also be a more dramatic build up to the fight and what comes after.

Piety had the build up, but her fight was not very impressive. Dominus was the opposite, he came out of practically no where but what an impressive battle!

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

Lunaris is a katabasis: a descent into depravity and madness. Into horror and abomination. It's Infernal in the Dante sense. At its very core, the Devil herself waits, reveling in the sickness of it all. Your confrontation of her, having seen all that she has done, step by step, in horrific detail should you stop to zoom in (and you SHOULD), is heroic. It's right. Even if the Exile isn't a hero, I believe there are some things not even he or she can stomach.

The two skill points sure as fuck don't hurt either.

In contrast, the Sceptre of God is an anabasis: an ascent towards divinity and glory. But it is not the Exile's apotheosis that awaits at the top. It is Dominus'. It's our job to stop that, obviously, but the trek you make from the Garden entrance up to the Upper levels isn't anywhere near as cleverly done as the sinking into sin that is Lunaris. It's just a slog. Even Dominus takes the elevator.

Very nice explanation!

Ever seen Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow?

Perhaps dominus is dead the entire time, but a demon has been impersonating him to continue his work?

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Well first I see a problem, why is there machinery in the scepter that I presume dominus put there, if he was afraid to go in.

Should you not assume it was Malachai and his staff's stuff? Since there is a statue of him and all that?

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And then I see a possible justification of it not being as bad as lunaris. Maybe he just wanted piety to think it was a horrible place? And/or grigor incorrectly assumed it was horrible.

The enemies in Sceptre of God are some of the deadliest enemies around. Croaking Chimerals and Undying Evangelist do so so much damage compared to Lunaris guys.

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From what i saw it looked like Dominus either had a weak body and/or was terminally ill so he searched for a way to gain immortality and finally more or less fused his mind with that big machine in the upper SoG with the help of some kind of demonic entity from another dimension.

I am guessing that is why Piety was spared in the first place. Dominus was desperate possibly because of health issues.

That'd save a lot of trouble. It'd be amusing to just ride the miscreation elevator up to the top and leap out to surprise Dominus.

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CliveHowlitzer wrote:

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Holocaustus wrote:

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

Like I said. This is where GGG fucked up. Lunaris should not be more awful or scary than the Sceptre, but since Lunaris was the end dungeon for so long, it had to serve that role.

Act 3x overall pales in comparison to act 3 up to Piety, to a point where even Dominus and his end area just seem...random. The whole thing was handled poorly.

Blasphemy! As a huge Dominus fan (see sig) I must strongly object to your assessment.

It doesn't take copious amounts of gore and corpses to evoke an atmosphere of dread, in fact one could argue that Lunaris is way over the top to the point of ridiculousness (endless pools of blood everywhere?)

SoG was more subtle but every bit as ominous, not least thanks to the excellent soundtrack. As soon as you entered you knew some serious shit is going down here. Coupled with the fact that it threw some the toughest mobs at you (until they were all nerfed) and the most complex boss encounter to date it made for a worthy final dungeon and conclusion to the game.

Whatever the SoG was originally, Dominus effectively turned it into one big lightning conductor to harness the "Wrath of God" (a metaphor, essentially) to grant him the one-shotting power he ultimately wields. Chances are, before his experiment he was a relatively weak freezing bond Templar and thus, quite sensibly, opted to avoid the chimera and other horrors that populate the tower.

I think the problem with Dominus is that there is all this build up to fighting Piety, multiple encounters with her and quite a bit more lore than Dominus. You kill Piety and then its like, "Oh, the game keeps going... Who is this Domino guy?" It feels a bit lackluster, like there isn't nearly enough build up to Dominus to give him the credit he deserves.

I get that Piety is the muscle and the one you are going to deal with most often but it would have been nice to see a little of Dominus before the battle with him at the top of the Sceptre of God.

The five floors of dying repeatedly my first time playing getting to Dom was plenty of build up for me. Granted I was new to the game then so maybe it was different for those who were experienced with the game already their first time getting to him. I hate the scepter and always will it's killed me more than any area in the game including all bosses combined. I thought the Dom fight was the best of them all even if it was about 12 FPS for me the entire time.

The entire Sceptre of God looks like one big logical fallacy to me. It feels tacked on because it was tacked on, and that's too bad. Granted, the top floor is cool but everyting else feels anticlimatic as f*ck for a guy who just took a stroll through Piety's Magical Meat Processing Plant (tm).

First of all, this was supposed to be Malachai's ivory tower yet it feels more like a generic monument. Large empty rooms with no specific purpose, a distinct lack of magical thingamajigs (excluding the large watchacallit in the top floors, however judging by the way it crashes through floors/ceilings it might have been built there by Dominus & co.)

Second: Why is it so unimpressive? The Vaal pyramid is just as big if not bigger, and it's an underground structure for Chris' sake. I get that the Vaal were just as advanced as the Imperials, maybe even more advanced in some areas, but still -- this is le epic storyline ending and it should be more awe inspiring than it currently is.

Third: Why is the Scion there and how did she get there? In the second-to-last floor we see a small barricade with some dead EL mooks -- they were instagibbed by the chimerals/whatever. Why did the Scion not share their fate? Did she rocketjump through a window and was trying to set up Dominus the bomb? Rescuing her feels more like a "hello, random non-aggressive NPC" moment than an actual rescue.

Fourth: Why can't we take the darn elevator, and why is there no sign of it existing on the top floor? No ladder, no barred entrance, no outreaching platform, no pulley system, nothing.

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CharanJaydemyr wrote:

Those tubes feeding miscreations up through the Sceptre and into the device on the roof? I'd be willing to bet they go down into Piety's expansive laboratory, since she's the one making the miscreations.

Perfectly reasonable explanation, I was thinking the exact same thing. Why is the infernal sausage factory still working after Piety's death I don't know, but it feels plausible if you look at all the creations that survived long after their respective creators' demise (Fidelitas, Dialla, the elementals, the Vaal construct etc).

Now onto OP's question:
- Why does Piety have the key to SoG?
It's a HR management gimmick. Give your preferred underling something meaningless to do, but act like it's the most important thing ever. S/he will thank you for the honour you've bestowed upon her/him, and you're not taking any chances regarding the company's future. Piety can be safely allowed to hold the entrace keys because:
(1) She'll never enter the lower levels. She's a weakling, the only place where she's strong is inside Lunaris.
(2) If she ever wants to come up she can use the elevator, like the rest of the cockroaches.
(3) She's busy 24/7 inside her research facility anyway.


I'd really like to see a redesigned SoG sometime in the future. Decrease the per-floor square footage and increase the number of floors (so it looks like an actual tower), add a player decision moment (either kill Piety and get the key, or fight an epic battle inside the moving elevator), do something interesting to the entrance area (use the dropbear and vomit pidgeon mechanics to send some miscreations flying off the roof and in your general direction -- some land on your head and do damage, some mangle themselves against the stone floor and bite you if you get too close, maybe a big strong one survives the fall unscathed and comes after you), that sort of stuff. Make a worthy ending for a worthy journey.

[edit] spelling

I'm of the opinion that the Sceptre would feel more proper with more of the Ebony Legion corpses scattered around.

The parts before the roof and immediately after the door give the right feeling of a hard-fought defence, but the construction within the Sceptre implies that the Legion had spent time inside of the building and I imagine that there should have been more bodies.

Considering the overturned tables and suchlike inside the Sceptre, I assume that the undying aristocrats and evangelists aren't particularly disposed towards cleaning up so it's not as if they'd cleared away the bodies.

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but the construction within the Sceptre implies that the Legion

not_the_Legion
the construction is one of the Eternal Empires, it weathered the ages.
the dead bodies that get lifted up are returned to life on lightning.
the living scion inside is actually ment to be roasted by piety through lightning.

i wouldn´t say it lacks lunaris´s cruelity, it has its own twisted ways.
one can count the claw´s scratches everywhere on the way to top, if bored enough.

personal impression is personal.

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Holocaustus wrote:

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There is a bit of lore in the audio files that I don't think is used anywhere in the game, a letter Dominus writes to the Empress that explains pretty much what he's doing there and why.

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Interesting. Any more info?