throne

Also a joking nickname for a toilet.

• Bad Occurrences
  • You lose 3 to 5 points (d4+1) from a random attribute, and 1 to 10 (d10) hit points.
  • An electric shock shoots through your body, causing 1 to 6 points of damage if you are shock resistant, and 1 to 30 points otherwise.
  • All your gold vanishes completely. (Nothing happens if you have no gold, of course.)
  • 1 to 10 throne room monsters appear around you.
  • If your luck is positive, you are blinded for 249 to 349 turns, and breathe a sigh of relief, because if your luck is negative your inventory is randomly cursed!
  • If your luck is negative, you wake up every monster on the level. Otherwise, you are teleported to another spot in the level.
  • You are confused for 15 to 22 turns. (Not necessarily bad, but usually not helpful.)
• Good Occurrences
  • You gain 1 point to a random attribute.
  • All blindness, sickness, and wounded legs are cured, hit points are restored to maximum, and if you're already within five points of the maximum, the maximum is increased by four points.
  • If you have a luck rating of 0 to -5, it is increased by one. If your luck is positive, you get to make a wish! (Time to ask for that gray dragon scale mail!)
  • You get to genocide one species of monster. (Might I recommend wiping out liches or trolls first?)
  • If your luck is positive, and you can't already see invisible things, now you can. If you can already see invisible things, the level is mapped for you... unless you can't map the current level, in which case you are confused for 1 to 30 turns (which isn't necessarily bad, especially if you want to rustproof or fireproof something).
  • You get to identify items in your inventory -- there is a 20% chance each of being able to identify one, two, three, four, or every item.

After that, there's a one in three chance that the throne will vanish in a "puff of logic", unless you were teleported away by it. (If it doesn't vanish, you can try your luck again!)

Confused yet? But wait, there's more! You can also kick a throne, which has the following results:

• If your luck is negative (have you noticed how important luck is in this game?), or the throne has been looted before, there's a one in three chance it will be destroyed and leave behind 1 to 200 gold pieces.
• If the throne has not been looted and you have positive luck, there's another one in three chance that 200 to 500 gold pieces and a number of gems will fall out of it.
• If neither of those happens, there's a one in four chance a trap door will open under you, and seal closed after you fall through.
• Finally, if none of the above occur, you get a hurt foot, and lose five hit points.

This means that, if your luck is positive and you have never kicked the throne before, upon kicking it there is a 33 percent chance of destroying the throne, 22 percent chance of successfully looting it, 11 percent chance you will trigger a trap door, and 33 percent chance you will hurt your foot. On the other hand, sitting in it gives you a 53.8 percent chance of a bad effect, and a 46.2 percent chance of a good effect, and your luck does not significantly affect those odds (it only affects the "goodness" or "badness" of the effect). Given these odds, you generally have a better chance of a favorable payoff by sitting on the throne until it vanishes, rather than kicking it, unless you are really desperate for money.

Now that you've seen the possibilities present in just a throne, imagine how complex the rest of the game is!

Sources: Dylan O'Donnell's Nethack 3.4 throne spoiler, along with personal gameplay experience

Throne (?), n. [OE. trone, F. trone, L. thronus, Gr. ; cf. a bench, a footstool, to set one's self, to sit, Skr. dhara&nsdot;a supporting, dh&rsdot; to hold fast, carry, and E. firm, a.]

1.

A chair of state, commonly a royal seat, but sometimes the seat of a prince, bishop, or other high dignitary.

The noble king is set up in his throne. Chaucer.

High on a throne of royal state. Milton.

2.

Hence, sovereign power and dignity; also, the one who occupies a throne, or is invested with sovereign authority; an exalted or dignified personage.

Only in the throne will I be greater than thou. Gen. xli. 40.

To mold a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne. Tennyson.

3. pl.

A high order of angels in the celestial hierarchy; -- a meaning given by the schoolmen.

Milton.

Great Sire! whom thrones celestial ceaseless sing. Young.

© Webster 1913.

Throne, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Throned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Throning.]

1.

To place on a royal seat; to enthrone.

Shak.

2.

To place in an elevated position; to give sovereignty or dominion to; to exalt.

True image of the Father, whether throned In the bosom of bliss, and light of light. Milton.

© Webster 1913.

Throne (?), v. i.

To be in, or sit upon, a throne; to be placed as if upon a throne.

Shak.

© Webster 1913.