Throne Made of X

Skulls for the Skull Throne!

"You can build a throne with bayonets, but you can't sit on it for long."

— Boris Yeltsin

A throne is ultimately a symbol of wealth and power, like anything else used by royalty.

If you want to make an extra special point about what kind of ruler you are or what your kingdom is like, one way to do it is to use the Rule of Symbolism and make your throne out of some kind of notable material that shows everyone what you're made of by showing them what you sit on.

Does your land have great and coveted natural resources? Sit on a piece of it. Do you have countless beautiful slaves? Sit on a few of them. Are you a conqueror of many kingdoms? Sit on a throne made of your enemies' weapons or worse.

See Cool Chair for non-royal versions of this trope. Though understandably there's still some overlap.

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Example

Comic Books

• Thor: Vikings: When the Big Bad Harald Jaekelsson sets up shop at the top of the Empire State Building, he uses a throne made of bone.
• In the New 52's Wonder Woman, Hades' throne is actually his father, Cronus, who's chained in place◊.
• Judge Dredd: Judge Death has a throne made out of human bones on his homeworld.
• Marvel Universe vs. the Punisher features a single panel appearance of The Thing sitting atop a throne of skulls.

Fan Works

• Shinji And Warhammer 40 K: As befits the whole "Shinji steadily and unwillingly becoming an Expy of the God Emperor of Mankind" motif, those who follow him give him a throne made of the skull of the Third Angel. Those who made the thing kind of forgot to check if the Angel wasn't Not Quite Dead, though...
• In the D&D/Harry Potter fanfic Harry Potter and the Natural 20, the D&D wizard Milo looked into the Mirror of Erised and saw himself with power to dwarf the gods, on a throne composed of epic artifacts.
• The Harry Potter crack fic Seventh Horcrux has Lord Voldemort squat in Malfoy Manor, where he sits on a throne made out of the wailing portraits of Malfoy ancestors (portraits are animated and semi-sentient in the Potterverse).
• Based on the Iron Throne examples, Fan Art exists of Mario atop a throne made of handheld and TV game consoles.
• The Inquisitor's throne in Beyond Heroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium is made of white marble embellished with gold leaf. Varric observes that it's "rather larger than necessary" and looks extremely uncomfortable.

Film — Animated

• In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Merlock has a throne made of gigantic thorns.
• The King of the One-Eyes in The Thief and the Cobbler has a huge entourage of slave women (in the original/Recobbled cuts, anyway) that the King uses as living furniture. During his introduction, the King quite literally has them assemble into a throne for him to sit upon, breaking the formation of the couch they'd been in before.

Film — Live-Action

• Clash of the Titans (1981): Calibos has a throne made of bones in his encampment.
• Thor: Love and Thunder: Of the many gods seen in Omnipotence City, the god of the rock people the Kronans sits on a throne made of scissors (as a Stealth Pun on the game Rock–Paper–Scissors).

Literature

• In Heralds of Valdemar, the throne of the Eastern Empire was made from the personal weapons of many, many, lesser rulers conquered by the Empire.
• A Song of Ice and Fire
  • The Iron Throne. It's an unassuming name for a towering monstrosity made out of hundreds of unsheathed swords, the former property of defeated lords and knights, forged into a chair with the aid of dragonfire. It's uncomfortable, and because the swords were not necessarily blunted first, it's dangerous to sit on — which is entirely the point. Its creator, Aegon the Conqueror, believed a king should never sit easy on his throne and designed it as a constant reminder of that. The lesson was missed, however; both the last Targaryens and the usurper Robert Baratheon (especially the latter guy) managed to cosy themselves on that thing and forget all troubles. Which led to a pair of bloody civil wars and several regime changes in Westeros.
  • There are many other lesser thrones in the story. The Driftwood Throne (they live on an island) and the Seastone Chair (they live on a different island).
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, one of the changes the villains made when they took over the Ministry of Magic was to replace the statue in the lobby, formerly depicting the magical races living in harmony, to one of a wizard and witch sitting on thrones made of live Muggles.
• In the backstory of The Wheel of Time, a king of Cairhien named Laman decided to cut down the World Tree to make his throne. This proved a monumentally bad idea, as the race who had given the tree to his country were gravely insulted and invaded en masse to punish him. Practically the entire country was razed, and a lot of the surrounding nations as well. Seen in later books, the Forsaken Graendal is fond of decorations showing contorted in acts of carnal acrobatics. She is especially fond of a chair carved entirely with such figures.
• Frank Herbert's Dune series:
  • In Dune the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV has a throne made out of Hagal quartz ("blue-green translucency shot through with streaks of yellow fire").
  • In Dune Messiah, Emperor Paul Atriedes uses a throne made out of Hagar emerald. "Hagar" was probably Herbert misremembering "Hagal", and "emerald" could have been derived from "blue green quartz". In other words, this may have been the same throne Shaddam IV used—which would make sense, given that Paul married Shaddam's daughter Irulan and more or less took over Shaddam's position at swordpoint.
• There's also Tad Williams's series Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, the first entry of which, The Dragonbone Chair, refers to a throne made of... that's right, dragon bones.
• In the Warrior Cats series, when Tigerstar declares himself leader of both RiverClan and ShadowClan, he has his cats build him the "Bonehill" - a pile of prey bones to sit on so that when he's up there he can look down on everyone else. This is symbolic both of his villainy and his utter disregard for the warrior code- a tenet of which is about respecting prey.
• The Ruby Throne of Melnibone from The Elric Saga, which true to its name is carved from a single massive ruby.
• Discworld gives us a subversion, of course. Ankh-Morpork has a situation where the Patrician has a humble wooden desk while the great Golden Throne of Ankh-Morpork sits empty. In one novel Lord Vetinari lets Captain Carrot take a closer look at the throne he has decided not to claim - it's nothing but gold leaf over wood so rotten that it'd collapse if someone tried to sit on it. Not much of a chair, but a pretty handy metaphor for Ankh-Morpork herself.
  • The whole thing is a subversion of the throne-room of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings, where the throne of the King has remained empty for over a millenium, and the Ruling Steward, who humbly knows his place, occupies a very plain wooden chair at the foot of the steps to the Throne. Vetinari does exactly the same, but he would take the point of view that the location and the type of ruler's seat are irrelevant. So long as he is the one sitting in it.
• In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mr. Wonka builds a palace as well as a throne made of chocolate for the Indian prince.
• The Big Bad of Harry Harrison's Deathworld 3 has a throne made from rocket-burned recoilless rifles, acquired when he drove off a previous expedition to the planet.
• Older Than Steam: In Journey to the West, the boddhisatva Guanyin makes a throne out of swords and later halberds to imprison the Red Boy. In other words, the Chinese may have invented the Iron Throne first? It was actually her own lotus petal throne (a common symbol of enlightenment) which she left out in the open in order to lure Red Boy in. Once he sat on it to humiliate her, she turned it into a throne of weapons.
• The Throne of Man in the Prince Roger series is a subversion: An old, battered, antique command chair from a (space) warship.
• In the Vorkosigan Saga, the Imperial Throne of Barrayar is a standard issue military camp stool.
• The Deathstalker series' Empress Lionstone uses a throne with several esper brains built in. They provide a useful Psychic Block Defense, but it's an apt metaphor for the callous, institutionalized, and sometimes terribly foolish exploitation of espers in the galaxy.
• David Brin's short story "Thor Meets Captain America". When the captured Allied team is taken to meet the Norse Mythology deities who rule the Nazis, the god Odin is seated upon an ebony throne - the dark wood a Foreshadowing of the dark fate that awaits the team.
• The Tough Guide to Fantasyland mentions this trope, among many others. Beautiful young queens have silver thrones wrought with flora patterns; Evil Overlords have thrones of black iron.

Live-Action TV

• Unsurprisingly given its pedigree (and name), Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon have the Iron Throne from the novels on which it's based. However, it's comprised of dozens rather than the hundreds of swords the original text described, and the blades are sheathed. It would have have been ridiculously impractical and expensive to build a prop to that scale and detail, not to mention dangerous to film with, but the resulting Iron Throne is decidedly less terrifyingly awesome and just a really Cool Chair.
• The TBS game show King of the Nerds has the winner sit on the Throne of Games, a parody of the HBO series Game of Thrones. The throne is made up of various game components.

Music

• When Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters fractured his leg in a concert and had to keep it elevated in a cast, he played subsequent concerts on a custom throne made from guitar necks, an amp and stage lights.

Puppet Shows

• The Sesame Street parody skit of Game of Thrones, Game of Chairs has a game of musical chairs played with three thrones: one made of golf clubs, one made of table tennis bats, and one made of baseball bats. Yes, they can get away with that because it's Sesame Street (besides, parents watch the show, too!).

Religion and Mythology

• The Bible describes Solomon's awesome throne, which demonstrated just how wealthy and powerful he was.
  “Then he made a large throne. It was covered with ivory. And that was covered with fine gold. The throne had six steps. It had a rounded top. The throne had armrests on both sides of the seat. A statue of a lion stood on each side of the throne. Twelve lions stood on the six steps. There was one at each end of each step. Nothing like that had ever been made for any other kingdom.” (1 Kings 10:18-20)

Tabletop Games

• TSR's board game Divine Right: A Minarian Legends column in Dragon magazine #50 had a picture of the Goblin king Ockwig's throne, which was made of the horns of mountain goats.
• In Exalted, the Scarlet Empress commissioned a throne entirely out of the many types of jade, which is flanked by animate sculptures of dragons that snap at anyone she is displeased with. The throne is so intimidating that the feckless Regent "ruling" in the Empress' absence has never dared to sit on it.
• Emperors of the Third Imperium in Traveller sit on an Iridium Throne.
• Dungeons & Dragons
  • In Greyhawk The Malachite Throne of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy. The stone was pulled from a cavern called the Cauldron of Night. Also an Artifact of Doom.
  • The Forgotten Realms setting has the Wyrmskull Throne, forged from the bones of four blue dragons slain by the ancient dwarven king Taark Shanat. According to legend it was built by Dumathoin, the dwarven god of mining.
  • Supplement The Mother of All Treasure Tables. One of the treasures is a wooden throne from some kind of forest kingdom. The throne's legs are carved to look like tree roots, and a depiction of a trunk with many bare branches is carved into its back. The faces of defeated orc and giant chieftains (presumably those of the kingdom's enemies) are carved among the branches. The throne's arms are carved to look like the arms of a treant (an intelligent tree, based on the Ents in The Lord of the Rings.
  • AD&D 1st Edition
    • Kara-tur boxed set. The Emperor of the Shou Lung Empire sits on a throne made of twenty tons of jade. It is engraved with tiny scenes from the reign of each emperor. The scenes appear magically on the throne without outside intervention. It is said that when the throne is completely covered with the engravings, the Empire will end.
    • Module DA1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth. Va-Guulgh is the Priest-Prince of a colony of Kuo-Toa, humanoids with fish-like qualities. His throne was created using marine substances and using marine themes. It's carved of white coral, set with rare sea shells and sculptures of octopi, eels and fish. It also has figures of crabs made of rare red coral.
• Warhammer 40,000
  • In both this game and Warhammer, Khorne is a War God said to sit on a mighty brass throne atop a mountain of skulls provided by his champions - either from Worthy Opponents killed in Khorne's name, or from the champions themselves. Hence the Battle Cry "Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
  • The Golden Throne of the God-Emperor of Mankind is a subversion, as it’s a colossal mechanical nightmare made of a lot more than just gold.
• Magic: The Gathering: The Dragon Throne of Tarkir is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a throne made from the skull of the dragon Kolaghan, and has belonged to the Khan of the Mardu Clan for centuries. As dragons are extinct on Tarkir, it's one of the last reminders of their existence... at least until Sarkhan Vol traveled back in time and prevented the extinction of the dragons. In the resultant new timeline, Kolaghan is very much alive, and she rules over the Clan that would've used her head as a seat.

Video Games

• Artifact thrones in Dwarf Fortress can potentially be made out of anything, from bone to turtle shell to solid diamond.
• Saints Row IV parodies the Game of Thrones example in its Enter the Dominatrix DLC, which features an S&M club and a throne made of dildos.
• Enter the Gungeon also parodies the Game of Thrones example with the Bullet King boss, who sits on the "Lead Throne", a throne made of guns.
• In the Warcraft series, the Frozen Throne (the Lich King's throne) is made of ice.
• In one of his rare moments of genuine scariness, perpetual Monkey Island villain LeChuck plans in the second game to dip Guybrush in an Acid Pool and then fashion his still-living bones into a chair.
  LeChuck: I will call it my screaming chair. Every day I'll sit in it and listen to you scream.
• Fallout 4's Nuka World DLC has a faction known as The Pack, who keeps chairs in their base made of still living feral ghouls.
• A regular piece of official Kingdom Hearts artwork is Sora sitting on a throne made of Keyblades.
• The Inquisitor's throne in Dragon Age: Inquisition can be made from a number of materials, depending on which one the player decides to have in their keep. The base starting throne just looks like a Cool Chair with some nice padding and the Inquisition emblem. Other options include thrones made of stone, marble with gold leaf, wood, and the jaws of a dragon.
• Lord Fool, master of the Colosseum of Fools in Hollow Knight, sits on a throne built out of a huge fossilised bug. It's unclear how comfortable it is, but since he's dead, it seems unlikely that he's got many complaints.
• In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Sothis manifests on a throne of plain stone slabs, which are roughly hewn but have been smoothed by the many, many centuries she's been using it. It shows players how ancient and egalitarian she is, in keeping with the "fancy throne = evil" versions of the trope. It also foreshadows her Super-Toughness- she can sleep on the thing quite comfortably, and even bangs her hands against its armrests when she's trying to make a point.
• Discussed in Grim Fandango, where apparently the demon beavers will do this to intruders (the primary population of the Land of the Dead of course being skeleton people):
  They'll tear you apart, bone by bone...
  ...and build with you a human throne.
  Their buck-toothed king will sit upon
  What once was you but now is gone.

Webcomics

• Fire Emblem Heroes: A Day in the Life: Deconstructed in Chapter 86. Hel's skeleton throne is not very comfortable, as she ponders to herself about how it hurts after sitting in it for an extended period of time. She even thought of replacing it with a throne of soft things, though she worries that would mar her image.
• The Non-Adventures of Wonderella: After Wonderella beats the Devil at a Drinking Contest and takes over hell, she is annoyed that her throne is made of skulls.
  Wonderella: Do we have any thrones that aren’t made of skulls? My hair gets caught in their teeth and it bugs me.
  Demon: I get sodomized with the business end of a flaming rake twenty-seven times a day.
  Wonderella: Yeah but...skulls.

Western Animation

• In the Gravity Falls episode "Weirdmageddon 2: Escape from Reality", Bill Cipher sits on a throne made of townspeople he turned to stone.
• The Owl House: King mentions in "Echoes of the Past" that he used to have a throne made of the teeth of his enemies (which he also notes was incredibly uncomfortable to sit in) back when he was the King of Demons. Given the reveal later in the episode, said throne almost certainly never existed.
• In an episode of The Transformers, Blitzwing splits from the Decepticons and set off on his own, setting up shop in a football stadium. When several Autobots show up to fight him, he beats them all then stacks them into a throne.

Real Life

• Zhang Xianzhong was said to have had a throne made of the severed ears and feet of his enemies.
• Russia's Ivan the Terrible had a throne made of ivory.
• The Throne of Weapons at the British Museum, though this is a work of art rather than an actual throne.
• According to legend, the Throne Chair of Denmark is made from the horn of unicorns. In reality, it's made of narwhal ivory, but the legend is cooler.
• Another work of art, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nation's Millennium General Assembly, an ornate set of "thrones" currently displayed at Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian American Art Museum. The artist, James Hampton, was a night janitor for the General Services Administration (which maintains and manages federal public buildings and properties), and fittingly, the work is made entirely of scraps he found on the job and in junkyards.

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