Scepter of Darkness

The Scepter of Darkness (闇の帳) is a stafflike object from Sonic the Hedgehog. Developed during the Solaris Project as an emergency measure, its purpose is to seal Mephiles the Dark.

Some time before the events of the game, Mephiles the Dark was sealed by a time-traveling Shadow the Hedgehog inside the Scepter of Darkness, which was given to him by the dying Duke of Soleanna. However, he left it at Soleanna in the open, citing that he "knows what will happen to it anyways." It eventually came into the possession of Doctor Eggman, and Rouge the Bat was sent to steal it from him. Shadow (before he had traveled back in time) went to rescue Rouge, and during their escape, the Scepter was broken and Mephiles was released.

Some time later, Shadow and Rouge construct a new Scepter so that they can re-imprison Mephiles, but it no longer was effective in sealing him because he had grown too powerful from the Chaos Emeralds, combined with the present Mephiles absorbing Shadow's shadow. The new scepter was also shattered and rendered useless.

Trivia

 * Interestingly, when Rouge returns from the future, a G.U.N soldier over her intercom calls it the "Book of Darkness" but the in-game subtitles still call it a Scepter. This is likely a recording error.
 * When the Scepter was broken, it disabled all of Eggman's robots around it. This, along with Eggman's order to fall back when it was destroyed, implies that electromagnetism may have been part of the Scepter.