The Royal Sceptre (王笏, Oushaku)? is an important relic in Metaphor: ReFantazio
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The Royal Sceptre is the most important relic in the United Kingdom of Euchronia, itself a magla crystal formed from combining the weapons of the first Euchronian king and the heroes of Oceana and Montario, as well as the container for the Elegy of the Soul. It is also known as the Merciful King's Sceptre and the king held it before everyone. It allows its wielder to cast a form of magic known as "royal magic" capable of reality warping feats and bringing forth anything its user wishes. Royal Magic has been used in the kingdom's history several times for revolutionary aims or oppression. The presence of the Royal Sceptre alone is a powerful deterrent against any invading force or attempted throne-usurper, so all Euchronian kings must learn how to use it in order to defend themselves. It is not uncommon for an offshoot relative of the current king to be crowned simply because the king's firstborn is magically inept.
Because the Royal Sceptre draws power directly from absorbing anxiety from the masses, it also protects people from easily going insane and mutating into humans. However, it only suppresses the anxiety of the masses, and its protection towards anxiety comes in the price of suppressing these fears and preventing people from regulating them. This has shown to have a negative impact on the country over time, as the suppressed anxieties of the general public turned the once-lush grasslands near the capital into a monster-ridden desert. Furthermore, while it can contain extremely vast amounts of magla, it still has a limit, and if it is overloaded, it loses its protective purposes and the public can be in danger of going completely insane. Louis' plan to forcefully merge all tribes into one involved invoking this reaction from the scepter and using the royal magic to evolve all of mankind into humans, which he was able to easily achieve through clever use of intimidation and coercive tactics.
During the decade where Forden systematically alters the country for his own ends, an incident occurred in the Nord Mines which caused it to be shut down; the miners dug into the lair of a lesser fire dragon, which caused many deaths and forced the Sanctist Church under him to shut down the mines until the incident can be resolved. This became a pretext for the church to try usurping the royal magic; they found out the Royal Sceptre absorbs magla from the masses, so they ordered the igniter consortium to plant magla accumulators all over urban areas, supposedly as an alternate way to manufacture igniters. In actuality, they serve a double goal for the church to override royal authority and replicate their own version of the royal magic.
The Royal Sceptre is almost always stored inside the royal palace, although when the Regalith Grand Cathedral was built some time prior to the start of the game, it was moved inside it as a symbol of the church eclipsing the royal family in terms of power. Before his death, King Hythlodaeus V secretly used the Royal Sceptre to cast a spell that would organize a general election among the public. He then let Louis kill him on his bed, at which time the magic activated days after during his funeral. This rendered the royal palace completely out of reach unless someone has a flying gauntlet runner, and attempts to kill prominent figures with sufficient popular support will result in the royal magic restraining the assailant, usually resulting in their deaths. When Louis attempted to order Zorba to steal the sceptre shortly after the funeral, the king took it away from Zorba and put it back in the royal palace. This forces Forden and Louis to take roundabouts to achieve their goals.
Eventually, Louis manages to overload the scepter and prevent it from absorbing more magla through a planned stunt he pulled on the protagonist in front of the Regalith Grand Cathedral, where he uses his own magic to turn him into a human and tells the audience that the elda are actually human monsters in disguise (while omitting anyone else can become a human themselves.) This results in the public no longer being able to redirect their own anxieties towards the scepter and seemingly renders most of them completely insane overnight. People began to violently attack people around them, and anxiety-ridden Louis supporters incited violent incidents all over the country. Furthermore, humans are appearing near the royal capital being drawn by the sheer amount of magla exuded by its people, and the sky is painted blood-red with melancholia.
With enough public support, Louis is now able to go to the royal palace and claim the Royal Sceptre for himself. When the party goes in to stop him, initially to prevent him from becoming king, they discover his true plan to use the Royal Sceptre to forcefully evolve all of humanity, and Louis gives the protagonist a chance to join him in his new world. If he agrees, Louis will instantly use the royal magic to turn everyone into humans. If he refuses, Louis will retreat into the Tyrant's Star, bringing the Royal Sceptre with him.
When the party meets Louis again in the Tyrant's Star, he uses the scepter to transform himself into an Archetype-like form known as "Archdemon Louis Charadrius" who wields the scepter as a weapon. Once he is defeated in his form, he tries to escape aboard the Charadrius and sends a group of humans that seemingly kill the rest of the party while the protagonist goes to confront him alone. He then uses the scepter to cast his human transformation spell again, but unlike the previous time, the protagonist resists by committing suicide through ripping out his heart only to be saved by More in Akademeia. If he rejects More's offer to be sealed inside the Fantasy Novel and returns back to reality, he will find that his party members survived the attack and challenges Louis to one final battle. Louis responds by overflowing a huge portion of the Royal Sceptre's magic into himself, turning him into a massive, unstable human known as "Destroyer Charadrius," his sanity deteriorating slowly despite his immense willpower. Following Louis' death in the hands of the protagonist in his King Archetype form, the Royal Sceptre is destroyed as well, making it so people are free to regulate their own anxieties once again. A year later, the magla released off from destroying the Royal Sceptre reverted the Tradia Desert back to its former state as a lush grassland.