Throne of Faustus Heterodyne

The Throne of Faustus Heterodyne is the gadget, deep in the bowels of Castle Heterodyne, used for communicating with the Castle's sentience. Faustus Heterodyne himself was responsible for its construction. It can be reasonably described as creepy, as goes almost without saying, given who created it. It's important to the story as the means whereby Agatha learns what she has to do to get the Castle back in operating condition and reassert herself as the head of House Heterodyne.

Carson von Mekkhan, Seneschal Emeritus of the Heterodynes, has the job of using this frightening device for communication -- or perhaps more accurately, being used by the Throne for communication via the special holes pre-drilled into his skull. (Agatha, ever willing to help and with power drill in hand, offers to modify Ardsley Wooster so that he can play the same role; Wooster declines, for some unimaginable reason.) When a human thus prepared sits on/in the Throne, it takes over the subject's body and starts talking (and occasionally listening). The "personality" of the Castle comes through loud and clear... When the contact is done, the human on the Throne disengages and eventually returns to some semblance of normalcy, while the Castle returns to its normal silent, malevolent state.

Carson's attitude toward being the occupant of the Throne is curiously mixed. On the one hand, being the Throne's mouthpiece "hurts -- a LOT." This probably shouldn't be too surprising given that Faustus and the other Heterodynes (pre- Bill and  Barry) were not exactly the kindest and most considerate of men. On the other hand, he seems to get a weird sort of rush from the experience, and gleefully breaks some news to Agatha (regarding the approaching Clank army under Rudolf Selnikov) that remains rattling around his head after he disengages from the Throne. He also gets some definite satisfaction from seeing Agatha assert herself so strongly that the Castle backs down and doesn't kill Wilhelm Diamant.

All told, the Throne is probably a particularly good illustration of the concept of a "Necessary Evil." We'll see whether it gets any more use as Agatha goes about repairing the Castle and getting its weird, mechanical head back together.