Prince of Persia : Sands of time

12. Dark Prince

Wake up, prince.

I heard Someone near.

Whip on my hand came tighter.

The Dark Prince (also known as the Sand Prince) is one of the antagonists in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. The dark impulses of the Prince personified, the Dark Prince is born when the Prince is corrupted by the Sands of Time. Driven by pride and ambition, the Dark Prince seeks to overwhelm his lighter persona and claim all that he holds dear for his own.

The unexpected spreading of the Sands of Time as the Prince returns to Babylon has tainted the Prince and given rise to a deadly Dark Prince, whose spirit gradually possesses him. The Dark Prince is a corrupted version of the Prince: ruthless, reckless and s******c.

When Kaileena consummates her relationship with the Prince, she appears to experience a vision foreshadowing things that may come to pass in Babylon. In her vision, a hooded figure picks up Sharaman's crown and proclaims everything the Prince owns by birthright is his.

Birth of the Dark Prince

When the Prince and Kaileena's ship is attacked in the harbor of Babylon, Kaileena is abducted by two soldiers. The Prince pursue kidnappers into the palace and is attacked by one of the Vizier's generals, Mahasti, who embeds her serrated Daggertail into his left arm. The Prince is forced to watch the Vizier kill Kaileena, which releases the Sands of Time again.

Because the Prince discarded the Medallion of Time, he was vulnerable to the corruption of the Sands. His left arm was infected by the Sands during Mahasti's transformation. Though he was able to retrieve the Dagger of Time, his arm remained transformed by the Sands. The dagger appeared to slow the corruption of the Prince, his infected arm bore glowing, golden spiral designs and the Daggertail fused itself into his skin.

When he regains consciousness in the sewers below, the Prince hears a voice within his head, demanding that he come to grips with his situation and push forward if he wants to stop the Vizier. The extent of the Sands' corruption manifests, his body transforms entirely, the black skin and gold marks covering the Prince's arm cover his body. However, despite the physical transformation, the Dark Prince remains unable to operate beyond the Prince's mind.

The Prince demands to know how he came to be and the Dark Prince can only speculate that his time with Kaileena or in the presence of the Sands itself has made him only mildly resistant to the power of its magic. The Dark Prince assures the Prince that their transformation isn't permanent, but could be if he desires it. Though the Prince denounces the very idea, the Dark Prince is confident that he'll change his mind. The Dark Prince refers to himself as the Prince's "untapped potential", something that resided in him from the start and came to light through the Sands.

Eventually, the Prince learns he regains his original form by using water, however, the Dark Prince remains a constant regardless of his physical appearance. Reaching the surface, the Dark Prince observes that the Vizier (now Zurvan, after the god of time) is using sand portals to travel through the city and communicate with his now transformed army of Scythian warriors.