Dagger of Time

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The Dagger of Time is a special magical weapon in the video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It serves as a secondary weapon for the Prince. It also appears in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones as the Prince's main weapon.

[edit] History

The exact origin of The Dagger of Time is unknown, however, since the Sands of Time were created on the Island of Time from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, it's likely the dagger was too, though for unknown reasons; in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones the vizier reports finding it. It was later stolen from the Island of Time by the Maharajah along with the Sands of Time and the Medallion. Because of its time controlling powers (probably known only to the Vizier at the time) the Vizier manipulated King Sharaman into conquering the Maharajah, to take the magical hourglass that contained the sands and let him take the dagger as a reward. After the Prince finds the dagger, his father lets him keep it as a souvenir from his first fight and allows the Vizier to take another treasure, much to his frustration.

Since he could not unleash the sand himself the Vizier manipulated the Prince into releasing, claiming that there lay a marvel within. When the Sands are released, the dagger prevents the Prince from being mutated by them; according to the game's manual, only people carrying artifacts of Time are able to avoid being transformed (however several people in the audience room and a guard survive the initial release). The dagger allows the prince to actually kill the sand creatures since they are immune to any other weapons. The Sands of Time is the only game in the series that requires the Prince to do this, since in Warrior Within they could be killed with normal weapons.

At the end of The Sands of Time the Prince gives the dagger back to the Maharaja's daughter, Princess Farah, telling her to lock it back in the Maharajah'a treasure vaults.

Throughout the course of Warrior Within, the fate of the dagger is unknown: presumably, in the present it is still secure in India, while in the past it is locked away somewhere on the Island for the Maharajah to find, or had not been created yet. Whatever the case it plays no role in the game.

However, it is revealed in the Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones that the Vizier is still alive, since the princes manipulation of the timelines undid all his actions in Sands of Time. Motivated by dreams he had from the dagger of the Empress's return (presumably when she entered the timestream in the present day), the Vizier kills the Maharajah and steals the dagger for his own. He then uses its powers to become immortal, as he had planned to do in the first game.

By killing Kaileena with the dagger, he recreates the sands of time and absorbs them into the dagger (though not before they transform his generals and the partially the prince himself). He then impales himself through the chest, transfering the sands to his body and rendering himself immortal. During the transformation, however, he drops the dagger and the Prince reclaims it and flees. At the end of the game the Prince uses its powers to kill the Vizier (apparently it was the one thing that could undo his immortality) and then returns the dagger back to the spirit of Kaileena and it is removed from the world to prevent anyone else from using its powers.

[edit] Powers

The Dagger of Time is a powerful magical weapon. If the dagger is filled with the Sands of Time and then plunged into the heart of its bearer, the bearer will become immortal. That is why the Vizier wanted it so badly. The dagger will also allow its owner to control time in four different ways using:

• The Power of Revival – Allows the bearer to turn back time, even undoing his own death.
• The Power of Delay – Allows the bearer slow time for everyone around himself while moving slightly faster.
• The Power of Restraint – Freezes whoever is stabbed by the dagger for a short period of time.
• The Power of Haste – Allows the bearer to freeze every enemy and move much faster than normal (essentially a far superior version of Delay)

There are some additional things the dagger can do. It is the only item that can open the Hourglass with the Sands of Time and release them. It can also put the sands back; however the sands will need to be stored inside the dagger first. The Dagger of Time is the only weapon that can reabsorb the sands from sand-possessed humans. Normal weapons, such as the Prince's first three swords or Farah's arrows, cannot kill sand-possessed humans. Smaller creatures, such as birds, are an exception to this rule.

[edit] Behind The Scenes

In Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones the dagger changes shape. The reason is not officially known, yet the most logical explanation would be since the Dagger is the player's primary weapon in The Two Thrones, unlike Sands of Time, the developers likely thought that the main weapon being as small as it was in Sands of Time would be offputting, so they lengthened it to its newer size.

• In The Sands of Time, the Dagger of Time is the size of a normal dagger.
• In The Two Thrones, the Dagger of Time is longer and is more like a shorter version of a short sword but longer than a dagger, somewhat like a middle eastern version of a kodachi

Prince of Persia series
Original series	Prince of Persia | The Shadow and the Flame | Prince of Persia 3D
Sands of Time trilogy	The Sands of Time | Warrior Within (Revelations) | The Two Thrones (Rival Swords)
Sands of Time spin-offs	Battles of Prince of Persia | Sands of Time (Film) | Prince of Persia Wii
Characters	The Prince | Farah | Kaileena | Allies | Enemies
Items	Sands of Time | Dagger of Time | Medallion | Mask of the Wraith | Water Sword
Locations	The Island of Time | Babylon