The Boss

* Sprite
* Talky

**The Boss** of The Tower and Lore's mother. Located in the Boss Room, waiting for him to arrive. She fights on her terms. Her combat style unlike other in-game battles begins with the fight box and healthbars however this is altered by The Boss and she instead engages in Psychological and Emotional warfare over physical where the player must pick the correct dialogue options to win.

## Appearance

The Boss has white hair and a dark, shadowed face. Accents of red and gold matching the colour scheme of The Tower are present throughout her design, with her earrings and wrist bangles being especially stark examples. The Boss wears gold high heels and pants with a striped design, as well as a large black-and-red overcoat going down past her knees. Her mouth appears to be in a perpetual grin.

## Personality

The Boss is deeply manipulative, casually abusive, and highly controlling. Her text changes from directly cruel to endearing (as opposed to Lore's Father's, which changes from endearing to cruel). Flashbacks shown to the player in The Tower (after collecting the necessary items) present us with a traumatic memory where we can overhear her emotionally abusing and degrading Lore and his Father, revealing a greater image of the 'broken home' mentioned by The Artifact.

Additionally, the box of empty beer cans reveals the dialogue, "They just keep piling up. Wish she would quit already." revealing his mother suffers from alcoholism on top of her already troublesome personality, resulting in a rough living situation for Lore and further abuse.

It is currently theorised that The Boss is not Lore's mother in the typical sense but a Darksider corruption of her that caricaturises her abusive nature to be more on the nose as emotional abuse is explored in battle to be about implicit meaning, gaslighting, manipulation and bad faith disguised as good faith and concern. The only representation of her in Homeworld currently is in the flashback where her sprite is shadowed.

## Combat

She fights on her terms. Her combat style unlike other in-game battles begins with the usual fight box and healthbars however is changed by her and she instead forces the player to engage in psychological and emotional warfare over physical, where the player must pick the correct dialogue options to win.

Instead of the combat seen with the Barghest or Rhode, the boss tests the player by replaying 4 of their choices on previous path changing acts. If you answer in a way which conflicts the narrative she attempts to shape, The Boss will be damaged, if not, you will be damaged. Her dialogue is different depending on what choices the player chose in Chapter 1 and 2, always implying you selected the opposite choices. Here is the Choice list given:

1."*Feeding the Poor thing garbage while he pleaded with you.*" or "You'll give me the love and affection I deserve? Just like you did for him?" (Flashback to feeding Baron in Lore's House)
Choice: Viking Feast or Garbage

2."*You stole from a poor old man." or* "You could have stolen from that poor old man. Yet you didn't" (Flashback to taking the apple in The Spine)
Choice: No or Yes

3."*You killed him. You murdered your best friend.*" or "*In his final moments. You let him live.*" (Flashback to finishing off the Barghest)
Choice: Attacked or Missed

4."*How about when you... murdered... Joe?*" (Flashback to behind Joe Regular in The Pool)
Choice: Absolutely not. or What's wrong with a little murder?

## Trivia

* It's unknown if this is Lore's actual mother or just a representation of her personality.
* Thor stated on Twitch that two Darksiders have appeared so far; it can be inferred that she is the second Darksider while the Barghest is the first one to be encountered.