The Prince

In the Sands of Time Trilogy, the Prince is the son of Sharaman, king of the Persian empire. The three games follow the Prince and his adventures involving the magical Sands of Time. (See each game's main article for full synopsis.)

The Prince and Farah

The Sands of Time

The story begins with the Prince acquiring a magical dagger from a looted city. He is tricked by the traitorous Vizier into using the dagger to unleash the Sands of Time, which the Vizier desires to use to claim immortality.

The Prince journeys with an unlikely ally, the princess Farah, back to the source of the sands, and reseals them back into a magical hourglass. Doing so, however, causes time itself to reset, sending the Prince back to before the Sands were ever unleashed and before having met the princess. Only the Prince remembers all that happened on his adventure.

Warrior Within

Seven years later, the Prince finds himself pursued relentlessly by the Dahaka, guardian of the timeline. By using the Sands to rewind time, the Prince cheated death, something the Dahaka will not tolerate. Never truly safe, never able to rest, the Prince's good nature is eroded away until he becomes a shell of his former self. Nothing is left but the grim determination to survive.

Guided by the counsel of an old man, the Prince sails to the Island of Time, ruled by the Empress of Time, creator of the Sands of Time. There, he utilizes an ancient artifact to allow himself to exist in two places at once: he allows the Dahaka to claim his life, satisfying it, and the parallel duplicate of the Prince is at last free. He sails from the island with the empress Kaileena to his home in Babylon.

However, the Prince altered the timeline while cheating death. The Sands of Time's creation had been undone, spawning an alternate history that would confront the Prince only weeks later.

The Prince arrives to find his home under siege by the Vizier, alive and well in this new timeline. The Vizier captures and murders Kaileena, in the process creating the Sands of Time. Utilizing the Dagger of Time, the Vizier transforms himself into a sand creature with mastery over the sands, immortal and extremely powerful. The Prince does not leave the confrontation unscathed. Infected by the cursed sands, the Prince develops a vicious alter ego not unlike his hardened self from Warrior Within.

Battling the Vizier's minions, the city's traps, and his own internal corruption, the Prince eventually meets Farah, who has no memory of him in this altered timeline. They journey together toward the Vizier, but Farah is captured. On his own, the Prince is forced to make peace with his mistakes and in the process silences his internal corruption. After overcoming many more trials, the Prince manages to defeat and kill the Vizier. Kaileena, now the personification of the Sands, removes the curse from the Prince and dispels the Sands of Time once and for all.

Peace restored, Farah inquires of the Prince how he knows so much about her, despite their never having met. The Prince begins his story of the Sands of Time, reciting the opening lines of the original game:

"Most people think time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you, they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am and why I say this. Come, and I will tell you a tale like none you have ever heard..."

Trivia

• The Prince in the Sands of Time movie adaptation is named Dastan. Jordan Mechner says he chose the name because it is a Persian word for "trickster" and can also mean "story". Read here for more information concerning the Prince's name.