Sands of Time

In the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time video game trilogy, the Sands of Time are a substance capable of controlling time itself, and an important part of the plot in the trilogy.

Story

The Sands of Time are a strange magical substance resembling a glowing sand (hence the name) capable of controlling time itself when used in combination with certain magical objects (allowing time to be reversed, accelerated, slowed down or even paused). Without these objects, those exposed to the Sands are transformed into sand creatures: mockeries of their former selves whose only desire is to kill any living thing they see, much like zombies. The Sands first appear in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, as the game's title suggests. Their origins are never explained, but during the opening level it is possible to find a series of ancient murals in the Maharajah's treasure vaults that depict a mythological story, apparently based upon the Greek creation myth - after killing his father with a sickle, Kronos rampages across the world until he is killed by Zeus, who gathers the Sands from the demon's corpse and places them inside the Hourglass, presumably for safe-keeping. It is unknown how true this story is; it may just have been the product of Indian superstition. In the next game, however, Warrior Within, it is discovered that the Sands are made up of the remains of the Empress of Time on the Island of Time and captured in a huge Hourglass, built apparently for that purpose, that can only be opened or closed by the Dagger of Time.

The Hourglass was stolen from the deserted island by the Maharaja of India, only to be taken again by the Prince of Persia and his father, King Sharaman, when they attacked the Maharaja's palace in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The Hourglass was then given to the Sultan of Azad as a gift. The Sands of Time are unleashed from the Hourglass by the Prince of Persia, who inserts the Dagger of Time into the Hourglass after being tricked by the Maharajah's traitorous Vizier into doing so.

The Dagger of Time protects the Prince from transforming into a sand creature, and he sets out with help of Princess Farah to reclaim the sands and undo his mistake. At the end of The Sands of Time, the Sands are put back into the hourglass and the prince performs a "grand rewind", erasing all the events in Azad and preventing the sands for ever being opened or destruction of the Indian kingdom. The Vizier is killed by the Prince in self-defence preventing him from attempting to take the sands again.

In Warrior Within the Prince tries to stop the Empress from ever creating the Sands so that he can escape from the Dahaka, the guardian of the timeline, who is hunting him for the distruption to the timeline he caused in the previous game. On the Island of Time the prince tries to prevent the Empress from creating the sands and eventually kills her, only to find that it is this action that created the sands in the first place; the Prince was in effect the architect of his own destruction. However with the Mask of the Wraith he was able to undo his actions and either killed the Empress in the present (so the sands never ended up in the Hourglass) or defeated the Dahaka and saved her from her fate altogether. The two events are decided by the player's actions, however the latter is the canon ending.

In the third game in the series, The Two Thrones, the Sands are created again when the Empress is killed using the Dagger of Time by the Vizier. He then merges with the sands and assumes control of them, calling himself Zurvan "the God of Time". Eventually the prince killed him with the Dagger of Time and Kaileena's spirit was freed, allowing her to remove the dagger and the sands from the world, preventing their destructive effects from ever happening again.

Powers
Control of the Sands bestows its wielder with various powers, depending on the game:

The Sands of Time
*The Power of Revival: The power to rewind time up to ten seconds, undoing almost everything that happened during that time (death, injuries, movement, etc.) Rewinding time cannot undo killing an enemy created by the Sands of Time, as doing so resets the timer.
*The Power of Delay: Time is slowed down for everything, with the Prince moving slightly faster than his enemies, allows for finer control and making attacks unblockable. It costs one sand tank to use.
*The Power of Restraint: Provided they don't block, most enemies stabbed by the Dagger of Time are frozen in time. Once knocked off their feet in this state, they can be killed in a single hit (the Prince's backflip move can do so instantly), the downside of which being that the Sands they possess cannot be absorbed by the Dagger. If left alone, the enemy returns to normal after a few seconds. It costs one sand tank to use.
*The Power of Haste: A combination of Delay and Restraint, Haste freezes every enemy around the Prince and causes him to move instantly from one enemy to the next. Like with Restraint, enemies can be killed in a single hit if knocked off their feet. Use of this power consumes every sand tank.
*The Power of Destiny: Shows the Prince visions of possible futures by standing in Sand Storms. These provide clues to how to proceed. These visions also act as save points, and cost nothing to use.

Warrior Within
*Time Travel: Travel between two periods in time using Time Portals.
*Recall: Same as Revival in Sands of Time, but only eight seconds instead of ten.
*Eye of the Storm: Enhanced form of "Delay" in Sands of Time. Time slows down, but the Prince is unaffected, allowing for more effective attacks or more time to avoid traps.
*Breath of Fate: Strong 360 degree attack that blasts multiple enemies away from the Prince but does little harm to them.
*Wind of Fate: Stronger version of Breath of Fate, causes damage as well as throwing enemies off their feet.
*Cyclone of Fate: Strongest ground attack version, and kills most enemies.
*Ravages of Time: Allows the Prince to move at a faster rate through time, allowing him to attack at blinding speeds. Similar to Haste in Sands of Time, but enemies are not frozen.

The Two Thrones
*Recall: Same as Recall in Warrior Within.
*Eye of the Storm: Same as Eye of the Storm in Warrior Within.
*Winds of the Sands: Same as Breath of Fate in Warrior Within.
*Sand Storm Attack: Similar to Cyclone of Fate in Warrior Within, but guaranteed to work at the price of all the Prince's available Sand.

Corruption of The Sands

When exposed to the sands without some form of protection the sand corrupts the person (or animal) into a monstrous, mindless version of their former self. There are two ways the sands can corrupt:

Corruption by Sand
Corruption can occur from direct contact with the sand, mostly occurs when the Hourglass is unlocked (The Sands of Time) or by the death of Kaileena (Warrior Within & The Two Thrones). The corruption of the Sands is immediate and as a result creates more monstrous side-effects (the sand monsters in The Sands of Time and the generals in The Two Thrones). These creatures are harder to kill, are apparently immortal (according to the Viziers comments, though the Dagger of Time is most likely required to vanquish them as it was needed in The Sands of Time) and have almost animalistic behaviour.

Locations where this corruption occurred
* The Palace of Azad (Sands of Time)
* The Island of Time, when killing Kaileena (Warrior Within)
* On the Balcony of the Palace of Babylon (The Two Thrones)

Corruption by a Creator
This can occur when someone changes a person or animal using the Sands. The only Creators in the Prince of Persia series are Kaileena and the Vizier (after his transformation in The Two Thrones). Corruption by a Creator can be controlled and causes less errors in the creation, resulting in less zombielike appearance or (in the case of the Vizier) thoroughly inhuman changes. This explains the intelligence, visual difference, and talking ability of the monsters in both Warrior Within and The Two Thrones versus the more brute and simple-minded monsters in The Sands of Time. This corruption may explain why these corrupted individuals bleed when attacked. The Corruption by a Creator may also occur when killing a lesser Sand monster and the Sand is released, although the Corruption is slower. This is a characteristic of Creator Sand Corruption.

Event where this Corruption occurred
* Warrior Within
* The Two Thrones

Related objects and events
The Prince, Farah and the Vizier possess artifacts as old as the Sands, each of which grant them immunity to its corruption:
* The Prince: the Dagger of Time
* Farah: her Medallion
* The Vizier: his Staff

At the end of The Sands of Time, the Prince reverses time, erasing the events of the game from history by thrusting the Dagger into the dome at the top of the Hourglass. However, before the Prince's grand rewind, the player obtains a powerful new sword, the most powerful sword in the game. This sword was somehow able to dispatch Sand Creatures without the use of the dagger, enabling the Prince (and the player) to continue on without the Dagger, until it is recovered. No official information has been released about this particular sword, nor any connections in later games. However, the sword's bluish appearance has led fans to believe it may be enchanted with water, which is known to be able to kill sand-based creatures. Others believe that the gold markings on the blade are due to it being enhanced with the Sands of Time themselves, endowing it with power enough to fell sand creatures. Another popular theory is that the Medallion allows even mundane weapons to fell sand creatures. This is supported in Warrior Within by the fact that the Prince can fell sand creatures without the aid of the Dagger, and by Farah's ability to fell sand creatures in both the Sands of Time and The Two Thrones.

In Warrior Within the Prince learns that, in erasing his adventures, he has altered the Timeline. This invokes the Dahaka, the Guardian of the Timeline, who hunts the Prince wherever he goes with the goal of removing his existence. In the true ending, he obtains the powerful Water Sword, capable of injuring and defeating the Dahaka.

In The Two Thrones the Prince finds the King's Sword near his fallen father in the Underground Tombs. It is powerful enough to shatter walls, light the dark, and strike down enemies with little effort. The Dagger of Time, which was originally restored to the Maharaja, returns in the hands of the Vizier, who has slain the Maharaja and imprisoned Farah. After the Vizier's transformation, the Dagger falls in the hands of the Prince. At the story's end, the Dagger is given to the spirit Kaileena and removed from this world. The Medallion, however, was discarded earlier by the Prince in the waters prior to his arrival in Babylon. Only the Vizier's Staff is unaccounted for. It is unknown why the Prince no longer needs to impale his sand-based foes on the Dagger (as was required in Sands of Time to prevent their resurrection), although this may be due to the Prince's partial corruption.

It was never explained how the Vizier's staff came to be in his possession, though it can be assumed that the Maharaja stole all the artifacts along with the Hourglass during his trek to the Island of Time. Each artifact is shown to have a distinctive purpose as well, aside from protecting their bearer from the Sands corruption: the Dagger the only object capable of opening the Hourglass (as shown in the Sands of Time), the Staff is (as shown by the Vizier) capable of directly controlling the Sands of Time themselves (also shown in the Sands of Time), and the Medallion is shown to allow even mundane weapons to fell sand creatures (as displayed in Warrior Within and in Sands of Time).

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu