Prince (Prince of Persia)

General CVG character
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name= The Prince


caption=The New Prince in "Prince of Persia (2008)"
series= "Prince of Persia"
firstgame= "Prince of Persia"
creator=
artist=
voiceactor= Yuri Lowenthal (', ')
Robin Atkin Downes ("")
Rick Miller (As the Dark Prince)
Nolan North ("Prince of Persia 2008")
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motionactor=
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The Prince is the main protagonist from the "Prince of Persia" series of computer and video games and film. Throughout the games' history, his name is never explicitly stated. However, he was given the name "Dastan" in the upcoming 2010 film, "".

Multiple Princes

Although the main character is always referred to as the Prince of Persia, there are actually at least four different Princes in the franchise. Only the Prince in the film is named.

The original Prince, designed by Jordan Mechner, appears in "Prince of Persia", "", and "Prince of Persia 3D". The remake of the original game, "Prince of Persia Classic", tells the original story, but shows the Prince as the character in the "Sands of Time" trilogy. It is unknown which Prince is depicted, as no official statement has been given.

A second Prince appears in the "Sands of Time" Trilogy (', ', and "") and in "Battles of Prince of Persia". Originally, when Jordan Mechner wrote the story for the first part of the trilogy, it was suggested the game was a prequel to the original series. [http://poplegacy.planets.gamespy.com/Interviews2.php My second Interview about Sands of Time with Mr. B] After the release of "Warrior Within" the developers stated they intended the new series to be a separate entity, because its players would be unlikely to be familiar with the storyline from the original games. [http://poplegacy.planets.gamespy.com/E32005Editorial.php Prince of Persia 3/6: Kindred Blades, Trip to E3 Experience]

A third Prince appears in the 2008 "Prince of Persia game". [cite web|title=Chris Easton on Prince of Persia|url=http://1191adb.com/readarticle.php?article_id=13] Ben Mattes, the game's producer said: "We never felt that it was "the" Prince of Persia. It's "a" Prince of Persia. There are many Princes of Persia within this fantasy universe that we call "Prince of Persia".". [cite web|title=Ubidays Interview|url=http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34580.html] This Prince also appears in "".

A fourth Prince appears in the "" film.cite web|title=IGN - SDCC 08: Mechner Talks Persia Movie|url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/893/893812p1.html] This character is named Prince Dastan (Persian for "trickster"). [cite news|author=Blake Wright|title=SDCC: Jordan Mechner on the Prince of Persia Movie|work=ComingSoon.net|date=2008-07-25|url=http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=47185|accessdate=2008-07-25] He will be portrayed by actor Jake Gyllenhaal. [ [http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/jake-gyllenhaal-crowned-prince-of-persia/?icid=aimDBDL3_image-a GameDaily: Jake Gyllenhaal Crowned 'Prince of Persia'] ]

Possible clarification

According to a 2008 interview by IGN, Jordan Mechner intends to clarify the relationship between the different Princes in "Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel":

"So are all the princes of Persia from the various incarnations the same character or different men? That's the idea that Mechner wants to explore in the graphic novel. The comic is set in both the 9th century and 13th centuries with a storyline that interweaves past and future. There is more than one potential prince in each storyline but it involves many of the same things as the games did and has lots of roots in Persian myths and legends."

Early "Prince of Persia" games

In the early "Prince of Persia" games, the background of the Prince is quite different from that of his story in the "Sands of Time" trilogy. While in the "Sands of Time" trilogy, he was the Prince of Persia from the beginning (of the story), in the original first game he is an adventurer from a foreign land. Being innocent of palace intrigues, he wins the heart of the Sultan's daughter. Further details of this story are rehashed briefly in "" at the very beginning. According to the story described in the second game, the first game's story is as such: The Sultan of Persia is away at war and his Vizier is planning to take over the kingdom by marrying the beautiful Princess of Persia. The Princess, meanwhile, falls in love with a young man from the streets of Persia, who climbs the Palace walls daily to see the Princess. The Vizier, on discovering this, has the young man thrown into the Palace dungeons, and gives the Princess an ultimatum to marry the Vizier or die within an hour. The Vizier is a sorcerer and conjures a magical hourglass which begins running in the Princess' chamber. The young man, however, escapes from the dungeons, and advances up through the palace. Eventually, he is forced to leap through a magic mirror creating a shadow prince. As he nears the Vizier, he and the shadow meet and become one again. He defeats the Vizier and saves the Princess, rushing to her embrace. When the Sultan returns from war, he finds out about the Vizier's treachery and how the young man has saved his daughter and his kingdom. The Sultan offers the young man anything he desires. The young man only wants one thing, the Princess's hand in marriage. They are thus married and the young man becomes the Prince of Persia. The second game then begins describing what happened afterwards.

As the second game, "", begins, the Prince approaches the Princess one morning, but something is wrong. Another Prince, who is actually the Vizier in disguise, is already there. The Vizier tries to have the Prince arrested, but he leaps through the window and stows away on a merchant ship. The Prince dreams of a mysterious woman who says, "Come to me." The Vizier destroys the ship with a conjured storm and the Prince arrives shipwrecked on an island. The Prince finds a magic carpet in a cave on the island and is brought to some old ruins, with black S-shaped runes covering the walls. When he attempts to pick up a sword, the woman from his dreams explains that this was once his father's kingdom, and he was the only one who survived. From there he gains a magical horse and rides it to a temple. In the temple there is an inscription on a wall near a large blue flame which says that whoever wants to obtain "the Flame", must die. Although this sounds threatening, it really is a clue as to how to obtain the flame. The Prince lets himself die in front of the flame, and although he appears to be dead, his shadow form rises up, gains the power of the Flame, and revives the Prince by reentering his body. With his new power, the inhabitants of the temple bow to him, and the Prince rides the flying horse once again and arrives on the roof of a tall tower. The tower is where Jaffar is holding The Princess, who has become very ill. The Prince defeats the Vizier once and for all, burned to ashes, and scattered to the winds. The game ends with a mysterious old woman, who has the same S-shaped rune tattooed on her forehead, watching the Prince and Princess on a flying horse in a crystal ball.

In "Prince of Persia 3D", the Sultan's younger brother, King Assan, secretly wants to take over Persia by making the Princess (already married to the Prince) marry his son Rugnor (a ferocious half-tiger, half-man). The Prince and his family are surprised and taken captive in Assan's palace, and the Prince is once again thrown into the dungeons, but he quickly escapes and finds a sword. He then travels and fights through many different places, to finally reach the mountain castle where Rugnor has locked up the Princess. In a climactic duel, he finally kills Rugnor, rescues the Princess from execution, and reclaims his title. The Prince and his wife kiss, and are last seen travelling together to an unknown location.

The Shadow

The Shadow Prince is created in the original "Prince of Persia". When the Prince leaps through a magic mirror, it comes out the other side. The Shadow hinders the player's progress several times in the game. In the end both princes merge, by putting down their swords, becoming one single person once again.

The Shadow returns in the second game if the player continually turns left and right after a certain point in the game. The Shadow receives the power of the Flame when the Prince is killed in "the Temple of the Flame" by a temple guard. The Shadow revives the Prince when he "absorbs" the "essence" of the Flame and goes back into his body. During the last sequence, the Shadow is required to defeat Jaffar. Once Jaffar is cornered, the Shadow must throw the Flame at Jaffar, burning him to ashes.

The "Sands of Time" Trilogy

The story of the Prince in the "Sands of Time" trilogy is much deeper than that of previous games. Creating the feel, through most of the trilogy, that the player is actually watching the actions of the Prince in a third-person perspective and seeing his story come full circle.

The trilogy is bookended by a speech the Prince delivers to his beloved Farah; it is what he says to her in the opening moments of the first game and the closing moments of the last:

There's some debate about whether or not the Prince is the same one from the original 1989 game series or a whole new character. Official sources have claimed the two are the same, but given the large differences in their given back-stories, the latter is more logical. The Prince of 1989 was not royal by blood, but married to the Princess, where the Sands Prince is the youngest son of King Sharaman of Persia.

Though these debates are present, one thing is sure: The Prince is much different in the "Sands of Time" series than the original series. In The "Sands of Time" series, the Prince is, as well as a skilled swordsman, an incredibly experienced acrobat. One with the skills to wall jump between parallel walls, expertly vault over his enemies, make long jumps, and walk up or across walls for short amounts of time. Another major difference between the two characters the later one's abilities to manipulate time, and the Dagger of Time, which is another detail not found in the original series. "The Sands of Time" series begins with the Prince, prepared to begin his first battle with his father.

""

Passing through India en route to Azad, a dying Vizier convinces King Sharaman of Persia to attack the powerful Maharajah of India with the promise of honour and glory. A lone flaming arrow in the sky would be the signal for King Sharaman and his son, the Prince of Persia, to attack the Maharajah's palace. After the ensuing battle, King Sharaman looted the city and seized an incredible hourglass full of mystical sand known as the Sands of Time, while the Prince embarked on an adventure of his own, attaining a mysterious dagger that allowed him to control time itself. The Vizier demanded to have the dagger as his reward, but the King refused to take the dagger from his son, who had captured it first.

During the celebrations at Azad, the Vizier, still bitter over the King's refusal, would stop at nothing to achieve possession of the dagger from the Prince. "Inside the hourglass is a marvel that no living man has seen", he said, tricking the Prince into releasing the Sands of Time and allowing them to spill forth and work unspeakable horrors upon the land. Only the Prince, the Vizier, and Farah, the kidnapped daughter of the Maharajah, remained unchanged due to their possessions; the Prince's dagger, the Vizier's staff, and Farah's medallion.

On a journey of redemption to repair the damage he had caused, the Prince teamed with Farah to return the sands to the hourglass. As his journey continued, the Prince often found himself drawing closer to his companion Farah, eventually forming a romance as they progressed closer to their destination. However, the Prince knew that Farah had every reason to hate him for conquering her people, and from the visions he received, he suspected that Farah planned to steal the dagger from him. Sure enough, after the Prince's paranoia got the better of him, Farah took the dagger as well as the Prince's sword and attempted to return the sands to the hourglass herself, leaving only her medallion with the Prince to protect him.

When the Prince eventually caught up with her, she was in a desperate situation, trying to fend off several Sand creatures. She was about to fall to her death just as the prince caught her by the blade of the Dagger of Time she is holding. While the bleeding prince desperately tried to hold on, Farah let go and fell. Mourning the death of Farah, the Prince verbally confronts the weakened Vizier and strikes the Hourglass with the dagger, reversing the flow of time to the point prior to the battle against the Maharajah. The Prince, still with the dagger in his possession, sets off to find Farah, to warn her of the Vizier's treachery before the sands are released. Finding Farah awake in her room, he shares with her his epic tale, only to be interrupted in the morning by the Vizier.

The Prince confronts the Vizier, and in doing so the Vizier admits his treacherous ways within Farah’s earshot, including his intentions to kill her. The Prince, however, manages to slay the Vizier and foil his plan. Placing the dagger safely in Farah’s possession, the Prince leaves her wondering who he is and if the story he told her was actually true.

"Battles of Prince of Persia"

Because the Prince has manipulated time, he is now being relentlessly chased by a mystical demon called the Dahaka, who is the guardian of the timeline. The Prince decides to search for a way to free himself of his doomed fate. To do this, he searches three different countries: Persia, India and Aresura. Unfortunately, as far as the Prince can tell, he only can do so by defeating them in war.

""

Still pursued by the Dahaka, The Prince, in a desperate move, sought council from the wise old man that had raised him. It is with him that the Prince learns of the existence of The Island of Time - birthplace of the Sands of Time, and governed by the Empress of Time. Thinking only of his survival, the Prince sets sail for the island to prevent the sands from ever being created. His belief is that if the sands are not created then there would be no reason for the Dahaka to chase him. However, many obstacles attempt to prevent the Prince from reaching the island and his goal. First, his ship is attacked by an army led by a mysterious woman in black named Shahdee. During the ensuing combat, she manages to throw him overboard, destroy his ship and kill his entire crew. Luckily, the Prince manages to survive and drifts ashore the Island.

Wandering along the massive cliffs, he encounters Shahdee once again, whom he chases deep into the fortress of the island. During his chase, he inadvertently follows her into one of the many time portals in the fortress, which connect the present with the past. Continuing his pursuit into the past, he finds Shahdee trying to murder an unknown woman in red named Kaileena. The Prince engages Shahdee once more in battle, kills her, and saves Kaileena. Denied an audience with the Empress of Time to state his case, the Prince is then faced with the task of activating the two island towers, which in time will open the doors to the Empress' throne room. The Prince eventually succeeds in reaching the throne room only to discover that Kaileena is the Empress of Time.

Kaileena, motivated by the Prince, also attempts to defy her fate. She has seen her doomed position in the timeline - to die at the hands of the Prince. Fulfilling the timeline, the Prince kills Kaileena, not understanding the consequences. Though the Prince believed it was all over, he could not have been more wrong: Kaileena's remains became the Sands of Time itself. Ironically, the Prince's quest was to prevent the Sands from coming to be, it was his own actions that created them, leading him along his destructive path. The Prince, still pursued by the Dahaka, stumbles across a mural which shows the impossible: The tale of the Mask of the Wraith. Using this artifact, the Prince becomes the Sandwraith, and is allowed one last chance to avoid his destiny. In his attempt to ensure that the Sands are never created, the Prince avoids killing Kaileena in the past, planning instead to take her into the present. By doing this, the Sands of Time would not be created in the past, the Maharajah would never find them, and thus the Prince would never open them. Instead, the Prince had resigned Kaileena to what was once his fate, dooming her to the same stalking menace who once chased the Prince. The Prince, in an effort to save Kaileena, then combats the Dahaka and defeats it by stabbing it through the skull with the mystical Water Sword and sends it to the sea below.

After the Dahaka's defeat, together, the Prince and Kaileena set sail for Babylon, finally at peace. However, during his journey home, he had a vision. The Prince saw his great home in flames, an unknown enemy attacking, and his father's crown fall. He had been warned by the old wise man that, "Your journey will not end well. You cannot change your fate. No man can.".

Unlike The Prince we are first introduced to in "The Sands of Time", The Prince has developed a more violent personality as a result of the events that have transpired. It should also be noted that, based upon examining his facial features, The Prince has suffered from lack of sleep, presumably from being continually hunted by the Dahaka.

""

The Prince starts this journey staring at his reflection in Farah's medallion, the very medallion that he had used to protect himself from death for seven years. Wary of the constant peril he has faced, he looks forward to a glorious return to Babylon with his beautiful companion, Kaileena. Sailing swift and sure to Babylon, his comfortable home was nearly in sight. Now sure he was free of the Dahaka, the Prince dropped the medallion into the sea. However, despite the relative peace the Prince was now experiencing he had caused a greater disturbance to the timeline than he had realised.

His sails unfurled in the light wind and the bow of his makeshift boat pitched gracefully over the soft waves that rolled into Babylon's port. Sailing between the massive cliffs that protected his city from the open sea, the stones as old as the world marked the entrance to his home. Babylon and its signature tower appeared before him, but something was wrong. Relief became shock and panic when his small vessel was met not by cheers and the embrace of family, but by fire and arrows. The walls of his homeland had seemingly stretched up against him, vicious and foreign. He was not safe, nor was Kaileena beside him.

He came home seeking comfort and found only war, but war with who? The Prince had little time to contemplate this as his ship was destroyed by a catapult. Both the Prince and Kaileena struggled for their lives, clinging to the ships wreckage. They both washed ashore, separated, but alive. When the Prince awakens, he sees soldiers dragging an unconscious Kaileena away. Remembering his vow to protect her, the Prince vigilantly gives chase.

Making his way through the palace, he learns that his enemies' leader is none other than the evil Vizier he believed long dead. He realises that because of his meddling with the timeline, the events of "The Sands of Time" never happened. The Vizier had never perished at the Prince's hand and he still had his reckless ambitions of immortality. The Prince finally finds Kaileena, she is held captive by the Vizier who plans on murdering her to unleash the Sands of Time. The Prince leaps forward to attack the Vizier but is attacked from behind and wounded by Mahasti, one of the Vizier's lieutenants. Now with the Daggertail Whip embedded in his arm restraining him the Prince is forced to watch as the Vizier, Dagger of Time in hand, murders Kaileena in front of him and unleashes the Sands of Time once more. The promise of power fulfilled, the Vizier stabs himself, gaining immortality and transforming his body into a giant winged creature. The sands, as they had before, sweep across the palace and infect all in their wake. As the terrace begins to collapse, the Prince grabs the dagger and falls into the darkness.

When the sands were unleashed the Prince was also infected. However, for a then-unknown reason, the infection progressed much more slowly than in the other victims, giving the Prince the opportunity to grab the Dagger in time to halt (but not turn back) the progression of the infection. Unlike the Vizier's army, whom have all been wholly tainted by the sands, the Prince is still himself; the only initial sign of his infection is his Daggertail wound glowing with the sands. Soon, though, the Prince begins to hear a disembodied voice in his mind. The nameless voice initially acts helpful and guides the Prince, but over the course of the game its criticism becomes less and less constructive. It (eventually) identifies itself as the manifestation of all of the Prince's most dark attributes. This "Dark Prince" constantly taunts as well as advises the Prince but it seems to have motives all its own. During extreme states of emotion, the Prince discovers that the Dark Prince has the power to force a transformation in the Prince's physical body, turning him completely into a sand monster. The Dark Prince implies heavily that, should the Prince's health be exhausted while in this form, then the Dark Prince will gain complete control of the body and Prince's identity. As the Dark Prince, Prince uses the Daggertail Whip in his arm as a weapon and is much stronger and faster. But the corruption of the sands constantly drains his life. It is only through contact with water that the Prince can revert to his normal state. The Prince also encounters Princess Farah, whose homeland was also destroyed by the Vizier. However, the Prince soon realises that Farah remembers nothing of their past together and he has to resort to merely claiming to have heard stories of her beauty (and hastily amending with her bravery as well). With his unlikely partner in tow, they both journey to put an end to the madness. However, conflicts increasingly arise between the unforgiving vengeance and ruthless violence of the Dark Prince and the more compassionate Farah.

As they enter the palace however, the Vizier captures Farah and casts the Prince into the palace's well system (now drained and totally dry). After being in the Dark Prince form for an extended period of time, the Prince finds his father's body. Finally, he realises the truth: he has been childishly running from conflict all this time, instead of dealing with his troubles like a man. Seven years of survival-oriented over-reliance on the sands' ability to turn back time cultivated the habit of erasing his mistakes rather than facing the consequences--the Prince had been hiding from his personal failures rather than accepting that they exist and moving forward. This inner denial, coupled with over exposure to the Sands of Time (and artifacts like the Mask of the Wraith) is what gave birth to the Dark Prince. Coming to grips with this, the Prince takes up his father's sword, which illuminates the darkness, and with his realisation and full acceptance of all his mistakes and their consequences, the Dark Prince's influence over the Prince's body is destroyed and he is able to revert permanently to his normal form at will. The Prince then goes forth to save Farah. After a long fight, the Prince manages to destroy the Vizier with the Dagger of Time. As he goes to recover his father's crown, however, the Prince sees the Dark Prince before him. What follows is a battle in the Prince's mind between himself and the Dark Prince. The fight drags on until Farah urges the Prince to let go of his anger. He leaves, banishing the Dark Prince forever from his mind and returning to the waking world. As they look out over Babylon, Farah asks the Prince how he really knew her name; he responds by telling her the tale from the very beginning, bringing the story full circle.

="Prince of Persia (2008)"=

Ubisoft's planned 2008 game, "Prince of Persia", will be a brand new introduction to the "Prince of Persia" franchise, with a new storyline and gameplay features.

A new prince will be depicted as a wanderer, dressed in red and blue. He is more muscular and apparently agile than the Prince from the "Sands of Time" trilogy. This wanderer has been on many adventures though no one knows his true past. He wields a long scimitar and a mysterious metal gauntlet, which is said to be one of the many treasured items on his left hand. This will enable him to run across and jump from walls slightly differently from that in The Sands of Time. The gauntlet has some extraordinary properties too. The time-controlling powers (from the 'Sands of Time' trilogy) will be replaced by some new abilities wielded by the Prince. According to the game producers, he will retain many of his gameplay features and acrobatic skills from 'The Sands of Time' trilogy, but they will be improved.

The Prince fights alongside a new AI-controlled support character named Elika, who aids him in fighting off the Corruption that has taken over the land. Elika possesses an assortment of mystical powers that have not yet been explained by the developers. These unique powers, while helping the Prince in combat and traveling across environments, are also used as an explanation for the player's in-game failure, an element seen in previous Ubisoft games such as the "Sands of Time" trilogy and [Assassin's Creed] . As seen in E3 2008 gameplay footage, if the Prince happens to be caught in a trap or falls, Elika will rescue him from death and deposit him safely at a checkpoint, allowing the player to continue uninterrupted.

More details about the game are awaited...

The Characterization of the Prince

"The Sands of Time" Trilogy

The Prince's manner and outlook change over the course of the trilogy: becoming grittier and more adult as the Prince matures. He hungers, at first, for glory and honor in his father's eyes, and when he discovers he actually has a distaste for bloody combat (although he can, and will, engage in it when he must), his resolution to gain it by being the first to the Maharaja's Treasure Vault, and subsequently claiming the Dagger of Time, is what set in motion the entire sequence of events over the three games. He attempts, tirelessly, to undo the mistakes he's made via time-travel, rather than live in the present with the consequences of those actions, and his attempts to set things right often make them worse.

The Prince is arrogant, posh, and a bit impulsive. His tendency to become blind to all except achieving his immediate goal is the cause of many of his missteps. Nevertheless, he's a kind-hearted soul who genuinely wants to be noble and good.

The Prince is also claustrophobic. When down in the tombs with Farah, she asks him why he's breathing so hard, and he admits he doesn't "like tight spaces."

Some of the Dark Prince's control over the body can be attributed to this fear. The Prince while on roof tops feels totally in control, but when forced into the streets and alley ways he becomes more nervous and edgy.

The Sandwraith

The Sandwraith appears in "" as a male, humanoid creature in some state of decay. It is wrapped in shreds of fabric that swirl in a supernatural wind, and its eyes glow a bright blue. The Prince sees it just as he enters the primary complex of the Fortress of Time, and for the first two-thirds of the game its nature is cloaked in shadow and mystery. It even appears to be hostile to the Prince, because it throws an axe at him, which he only narrowly avoids. It is later revealed that it did this to kill an enemy getting closer to the unaware Prince from behind. Just prior to his confrontation with the Empress of Time, the Prince witnesses the apparent demise of the Wraith at the hands, or rather, tentacles, of the Dahaka, which then curiously proceeds to ignore the Prince entirely.

Following his first and failed attempt to prevent the creation of the Sands of Time in the past, the Prince finds himself again on the run from the Dahaka in the present. Evading the creature, the despondent prince finds himself in a vast crypt. Wrought with the cruel irony of his situation, he brushes his hand over a wall covered with ancient markings. Perhaps reacting to his touch or simply coming to his attention (the cut scene doesn't make the cause clear), the markings tell a story of a member of the Maharajah's army in his raid for the Sands. While the raid appears to succeed, the man himself dies, but through an artifact called the Mask of the Wraith rewrote his Fate and escaped death. The game's manual makes reference to the Maharaja himself using the Mask to retrieve the sands, and is depicted in the ancient markings found in the crypt. A possible error to this tale is the fact that even though the man found death, he was still somehow able to find and use the mask and change his fate.

The Prince then hunts down the Mask and puts it on, becoming the Sandwraith, a creature not only able to shift time, but to take up another space in the Timeline, separate from the Prince. Thus the Wraith sets out to stop his past self from killing Kaileena. When he reaches the Prince at last, it is at the point where the Wraith was originally killed by the Dahaka. This time, he lets the Prince die, and the Dahaka, apparently satisfied, leaves. The Mask then loosens and the Prince returns to normal and continues his journey to change the expected events in the battle against the Empress of Time. It is possible that the Maharaja watched the Sandwraith die, then allowed his past self to perish in order to complete his quest.

Powers/AbilitiesWhile wearing the Mask of the Wraith, the Prince retains his personality, memories and his fighting skills, including his mastery of various weapons. This suggests that although the Mask has deformed his physical appearance, it is not possessed by another conscious being. As the sandwraith, the Prince can manipulate time without limit, as his sand tanks fill themselves up automatically. However, the Mask depletes the Prince's lifebar even when not struck or hurt in any way, however it will not kill him but reduce the lifebar to 25%. This implies that the Mask actually drains the essence of the person who wears it and transforms it into the Sands of Time, though this has never been confirmed.

The Dark Prince

The Dark Prince appears as a main character and antagonist in "". Not far into the story, the Prince becomes tainted by the newly unleashed Sands of Time, awakening in him a different entity, the Dark Prince, who can be assumed to be the tainted "soul" of the Prince in "Warrior Within". He embodies every negative aspect of the Prince; he's violent, selfish, and arrogant. He also shares all the fighting skills as the normal Prince (e.g. mastery of the sword, axe and more), and even shows newer skills that the Prince has not demonstrated previously. The Dark Prince is voiced by Rick Miller.

Early in the game, the Prince chases Kaileena's kidnappers into the palace, only to be stopped by one of the Vizier's Generals, with the Daggertail (a chain blade weapon) embedded deep into his left arm. The Prince is then forced to watch the Vizier slay Kaileena, releasing the Sands of Time again. As the Prince lacked any protection this time (he had thrown away the Medallion, and the Vizier was in the possession of the Dagger), he was infected by the Sands as well, albeit at a much slower rate than anyone else. However, he was able to grab the dagger before the sands caused him to mutate completely; instead, his left arm gained a glowing, golden spiral design, along with the Daggertail fused and melted into his arm. As time passes, the Prince hears a voice within his head (the Dark Prince), giving him advice and urging him along. The extent of the sands' taint eventually starts to grow as the game progresses, covering the Prince's entire left arm and part of his back. The exact reason for his mutation being resisted in the first place is ambiguous; the Dark Prince tells him later that he may have grown a resistance to the sands: perhaps from extended use of the sands or perhaps from the nights he spent with Kaileena. Eventually, he begins sporadically transforming into the Dark Prince, whose unique skills (including his apparent mastery of the Daggertail) allow the Prince to continue in his quest. Upon touching water, the Prince reverts to his normal form. At first the Prince accepts the voice's help without question, but with his increasing interaction with Princess Farah, it leads him to question his other side. Eventually, he realises that the Dark Prince is only looking out for his own selfish avarice, and that vengeance, conquest, and subjugation, rather than constructive goals, are topping his to-do list. The Prince rejects this malevolent presence and finishes his journey without the Dark Prince's help.

However, after slaying the Vizier and apparently losing the Sands' taint, the Prince encounters the Dark Prince once more, who pulls him into a strange dream-like realm. The Prince chases his dark counterpart down as the shifting landscape changes (shifting to various locations from the past games, such as the magic fountain room from ' and the ship from '). As the Prince chases him, the Dark Prince reveals indirectly that he is all of the Prince's darker elements brought to separate life by the Sands when he resisted direct infection, but that everything that the Dark Prince is was already a part of the Prince before the change--in effect, the prince had two souls inhabiting his body. The Dark Prince intends on distracting the Prince in this world, but he is thwarted again by Farah, who urges the Prince to let go of his hatred and turn away. The Prince ascends a staircase leading into a bright light and the Dark Prince is left behind once and for all, forever alone, afraid, and shouting into oblivion, as the Prince awakens.

The Dark Prince made his first appearance in the true ending of "Warrior Within" which echoes his appearance after the Vizier is killed. He is shown hooded, he picks up the crown and gives his exact line from "": "All that is yours is rightfully mine, and mine it will be!"

References

ee also