Prince of Persia
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:49 am
Finding inspiration in the oddest places these days...
I was playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time the other day, fighting a host of monstrosities through a swirling, malicious sandstorm in a ruined palace, and I thought ... "Ravenloft".
For those of you who haven't played it, the myth of the game goes like this. The Prince is fighting in his father's army, laying siege to the palace of the Maharajah of India. He has no taste for killing, so instead resolves to bring back glory in the form of treasure. Aided by the Maharajah's treacherous Vizier, the Persians triumph and Prince finds both a dagger that allows him to rewind time, and a titanic hourglass filled with golden sands.
The loot & captives are brought back to the Persian King's impossibly huge palace. The Vizier causes Prince to open the hourglass with his dagger, unleashing the malcious and destructive Sands of Time. The Sands tear through the palace, turning almost all living things into undead sand-monsters. Prince is forced to kill his father but is seperated from the hourglass. He spends the rest of the game fighting his way through the palace until he gets back to them, rescuing the Maharajah's daughter on the way, before using his new powers to rewind time to before the hourglass was opened - at which point he kills the Vizier and retroactively saves his family.
The followup game, which I have just started, adds to this. Prince is being pursued by a creature called the Dahaka, a manifestation of Fate and guardian of the timeline. All who call on the Sands die from it - Prince cheated this. He tries to escape this fate by travelling so far back in time that the Sands will never be created, but I don't yet know how this works out. The fact that there is a third in the series suggests that Prince survives however.
But twisted a little, I see a lot of potential in this. It's known that the Mists take on different forms in different Domains, forming sandstorms in desert domains. They can also rewrite time as they need. The malicious Sands of Time seem like a natural interpretation on them for this strange new Domain.
The Prince has certainly sinned - he kills in battle, and loots the Indian palace to win his father's favour. The Vizier also sins, betraying all he allies with as he seeks to master to Sands - he is old and dying, and belives that he can use them to become immortal. Immortal like so many Darklords, preserved by the Mists. As the game progresses, the Prince acquires new powers which allow him to control time itself in more and more dramatic ways - add in a few downsides and we have a nice set of failed Powers Checks right there.
And the settings, hot and blasted, inhabited by the remains of those who were consumed by the sands... plenty of creepy ideas there.
But that's about as far as I got. Other than the image of the madman trapped in his huge, haunted palace, I'm not sure what to do with this. Castle Forlorn already has a hook on a castle slipping through time - perhaps this might be more like groundhog day, with time looping on itself? I don't know. But it's in my head making noise, so I thought I'd write it up in case it inspires anyone else.
I was playing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time the other day, fighting a host of monstrosities through a swirling, malicious sandstorm in a ruined palace, and I thought ... "Ravenloft".
For those of you who haven't played it, the myth of the game goes like this. The Prince is fighting in his father's army, laying siege to the palace of the Maharajah of India. He has no taste for killing, so instead resolves to bring back glory in the form of treasure. Aided by the Maharajah's treacherous Vizier, the Persians triumph and Prince finds both a dagger that allows him to rewind time, and a titanic hourglass filled with golden sands.
The loot & captives are brought back to the Persian King's impossibly huge palace. The Vizier causes Prince to open the hourglass with his dagger, unleashing the malcious and destructive Sands of Time. The Sands tear through the palace, turning almost all living things into undead sand-monsters. Prince is forced to kill his father but is seperated from the hourglass. He spends the rest of the game fighting his way through the palace until he gets back to them, rescuing the Maharajah's daughter on the way, before using his new powers to rewind time to before the hourglass was opened - at which point he kills the Vizier and retroactively saves his family.
The followup game, which I have just started, adds to this. Prince is being pursued by a creature called the Dahaka, a manifestation of Fate and guardian of the timeline. All who call on the Sands die from it - Prince cheated this. He tries to escape this fate by travelling so far back in time that the Sands will never be created, but I don't yet know how this works out. The fact that there is a third in the series suggests that Prince survives however.
But twisted a little, I see a lot of potential in this. It's known that the Mists take on different forms in different Domains, forming sandstorms in desert domains. They can also rewrite time as they need. The malicious Sands of Time seem like a natural interpretation on them for this strange new Domain.
The Prince has certainly sinned - he kills in battle, and loots the Indian palace to win his father's favour. The Vizier also sins, betraying all he allies with as he seeks to master to Sands - he is old and dying, and belives that he can use them to become immortal. Immortal like so many Darklords, preserved by the Mists. As the game progresses, the Prince acquires new powers which allow him to control time itself in more and more dramatic ways - add in a few downsides and we have a nice set of failed Powers Checks right there.
And the settings, hot and blasted, inhabited by the remains of those who were consumed by the sands... plenty of creepy ideas there.
But that's about as far as I got. Other than the image of the madman trapped in his huge, haunted palace, I'm not sure what to do with this. Castle Forlorn already has a hook on a castle slipping through time - perhaps this might be more like groundhog day, with time looping on itself? I don't know. But it's in my head making noise, so I thought I'd write it up in case it inspires anyone else.