Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

(if you just want the puzzle, skip the bit between the squiggly lines)

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My first puzzle suffered somewhat from an almost predictable consequence of my lacking self-confidence; I underrated its difficulty, believing that it wouldn't put up much of a fight against solvers far cleverer than I. Well, I can't complain about being proven wrong, even if it was a weird mix of embarrassing and hilarious. One particularly fun response came courtesy of bigger, who wondered what I would consider a five-star puzzle to look like... and, uh, it just so happened that, before I'd even conceived of Locust, I'd been banging my head against an idea that I thought was both really cool and seriously vicious. Having now become a tad more practiced in head-banging, so to speak, I've been able to tweak the setup so that the resultant puzzle is actually, y'know, a puzzle. The solution is logically achievable, to the point where I'd argue that getting started is the hardest part... and hey, the puzzle itself looks pretty swish to boot! Although the ordered palindromes were the concept I was originally exploring, the actual puzzle all stemmed from the central palindrome and the cage it contains, so it only seemed fitting to name it after that arrangement as well...

Once again, your feedback would be much appreciated, be it praise or profanity, hints are absolutely available on request, and I hope you enjoy grappling with this puzzle! Good luck!

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Rules
Normal sudoku rules apply.
Digits in the outlined cages sum to the total given in the top left corner.
The three long, thin lines drawn in the grid are palindromes; that is, the sequence of digits that can be read along them is the same regardless of which end of the line you start at. Two of the palindromes are further constrained by thermometers, along which digits must increase from the bulb end; because of this, digits along the leftmost palindrome must strictly decrease towards its centre, while those on the rightmost must strictly increase.
The red palindrome has no additional constraint, and has been coloured in the above image simply to draw attention to the "sceptre" arrangement after which the puzzle is named.
(N.B. - you do not need to assume that this puzzle has a unique solution in order to solve it)

Penpa+ is still a form of dark magic as far as I'm concerned, but here's the puzzle set out using it. One benefit I have noticed is that you can easily add extra rows/columns for the purpose of making notes... just saying...