Pair of stilettos

[   (pair of) stilettos
Appearance	high-heeled shoes
Slot	boots
Base size	medium
AC	0
DR	0
MC	0
Magical item?	no
Properties	+2 charisma cuts movement speed to 5⁄6 of normal value (unless flying or levitating)
Base price	60 zm
Default weight	10
Base material	metal

This article is about the type of boots. For the knife-like weapon, see stiletto.

A pair of stilettos, or simply stilettos, are a set of boots that appear in dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack. They have a base material of metal, and appear as high-heeled shoes when unidentified.

Generation

Heroes that are either hedrow Noblemen, or are Noblewomen of any race other than drow and elves, will start the game with a +1 pair of stilettos—elven Noblewomen start with +1 elven boots in place of the stilettos.

The pair of stilettos is not randomly generated, though they can be wished for or found in bones—due to a bug related to the presence of the stiletto weapon, a wish for the stiletto boots must be input as "stilettoss".

Two blessed +2 pairs of stilettos are generated on the Convict quest locate level, where they are placed in the chest within the warden's office during level creation. Another blessed +2 pair of stilettos is placed near the upstairs on the goal level during level creation.

Many monsters can be generated with a pair of stilettos:

• Glasya is always generated with a cursed golden +1 pair of stilettos.
• Servant women (who are part of the quest guardians for the default Noble quest) are always generated with a pair of stilettos.
• Parasitized gynoids have a ¹⁄₉ chance each of receiving a specific armor set, and three of those sets have a chance of a pair of stilettos being chosen as footwear—the first of those three has a ¹⁄₄ chance of a pair of stilettos, while the other two have a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of a pair of stilettos.
• Operators and parasitized operators have a ¹⁄₃ chance of receiving a specific armor set with a ¹⁄₄ chance of a pair of stilettos as footwear, and have a ¹⁄₆ chance of receiving an armor set with a ¹⁄₂ chance of a pair of stilettos.
• The commander on the Anachrononaut quest has a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with a silver +3 pair of stilettos that have the holy, axiomatic and reflective object properties, including the holy and axiomatic properties specific to weapons—the parasitized commander on the Android quest also has a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with a silver +3 pair of stilettos that are holy, axiomatic and reflective.
• Carcosan courtiers generated in the future (i.e. the Anachrononaut quest and Android quest) have an effective ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with an armor set that has a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of the footwear being a pair of stilettos. Carcosan courtiers generated elsewhere have an effective ⁷⁄₁₀ chance of generating with an armor set that has a roughly ¹⁄₂ chance of the footwear being a pair of stilettos.
• Dream-leech deminymphs will receive Noblewoman kits that include a golden pair of stilettos with an enchantment ranging from +0 to +3.
• Vampire women generated in the future are always generated with a pair of stilettos whose enchantment ranges from +1 to +7.
• Vampire ladies generated outside of the future have a roughly ¹⁄₂ of generating with a pair of stilettos.
• Mina Harker is always generated with a pair of stilettos.
• A female fallen angel that is generated in Gehennom or slated for good equipment has a ¹⁄₆ chance of receiving an armor set that includes a silver pair of stilettos.
• Nimune is always generated with a pair of stilettos.
• Malcanthet is always generated with a pair of stilettos.
• An erinys will always be generated with a golden pair of stilettos if she is generated in Gehennom, or else if she is slated for good equipment and is generated in the ford and the forest areas of the Mordor Ruins Quest, in the areas beyond the ford outside of level creation, or anywhere else in the dungeon.

Description

While worn, a pair of stilettos grants 0 base AC, 0 base DR and a +2 bonus to charisma, and wearing or removing stilettos takes one action. A worn pair of stilettos also cuts the wearer's movement speed, reducing it to ⁵⁄₆ of its normal value unless the wearer is flying or levitating.

Origin

A stiletto heel, or just stiletto, is a shoe with a long, thin, high heel that is named after the stiletto dagger. Stiletto heels sans platform soles vary in length from 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) to 25 cm (10 inches), and are sometimes defined as having a diameter at the ground of less than 1 cm (slightly less than half an inch); stiletto-style heels that are 5 cm (2.0 in) or shorter are sometimes called "kitten heels". The stiletto heel uses a supporting metal shaft or stem embedded into the heel. Like similar high-heeled shoes, they give the optical illusion of longer and slimmer legs, smaller feet, and greater height—they also run counter to the natural functionality of the foot, making them impractical for walking on soft ground or avoiding damage to floors, and can causes skeletal and muscular problems with excessive wear. This is the basis for the speed penalty applied to a grounded hero or monster wearing stilettos in dNetHack and its derivatives.

High-heeled shoes date back to Ancient Egypt, where butchers wore them to walk above the blood and viscera left on the floor. In Europe, high-heeled shoes were worn by courtiers until the French Revolution, and also served as an aid for horseback riding—were primarily worn by women upon coming back in style during the late 1800s. The invention of the steel arch by Italian shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo paved the way for stilettos to take off: some historians also credit him with inventing the stiletto heel, while others credit French fashion designer Charles Jourdan with their invention.

French designers such as Roger Vivier and André Perugia popularized the stiletto design in the 1950s, which quickly spread across Europe and the United States, and they reached their most refined shape in the early 1960s, when the toes of the shoes became as slender and elongated as the stiletto heels themselves—"stiletto" came to refer to the whole shoe rather than just the heel, due to the overall sharpness of its outline. Stilettos faded from the scene after the start of the Beatles era, but remained popular amongst women at the street level even after they were no longer readily available in mainstream shops.

A type of stiletto heel called the "Needle" was reintroduced in 1974 by Manolo Blahnik, and similar heels were stocked at the big Biba store in London, Russell & Bromley and smaller boutiques. Unsold stocks of pointed-toe stilettos and efforts to replicate them became popular with punks, street fashion markets and other fashion scenes of the late 1970s, up until supplies dwindled in the early 1980s. Round-toe shoes with slightly thicker (and sometimes cone-shaped) "semi-stiletto" heels were frequent office-wear through much of the 1980s, but almost completely disappeared during the 1990s in favor of block heels, though slender stiletto heels saw somewhat of a comeback in the 21st century.

Over the last century, the stiletto has become particularly associated with the image of the "femme fatale" in media and popular culture—"combat stilettos" are a commonplace feature in the clothing of superheroes and other characters that fight regularly, and such characters are usually (but not always) women. While much less commonplace in comparison, some depictions of stiletto heels also draw upon their historical unisex applications as wear by courtiers.

Messages

<The stilettos> are stylish, but not very practical to fight in.

You put on a pair of stilettos.

<The stilettos> are stylish, and, since you don't have to walk, quite practical to fight in.

As above, but you are levitating or flying.