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"Prince, of all the possible futures, this one held the most promise, but something has changed."
—Kaileena[3]

Kaileena (Persian: کایلینا ), also known as the Empress of Time[1], is an antagonist-turned-supporting-character in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and The Two Thrones. The physical essence of the Sands of Time, Kaileena attempted to stop the Prince from rewriting his own history on the Island of Time and killing her. She is later used against him, and the people of Babylon, when the Vizier kills her to re-release the Sands of Time and gain immortality.[3]

Official Description

Warrior Within

Empress of Time

"While the Empress of Time is mortal and physically beautiful, she is certainly not human. She was made eons ago by the Gods, an unwitting byproduct of the creation of the timeline. Consequently, she carries part of the timeline within her, making her incredibly powerful. Although she exists only in the past, she commands a seemingly unstoppable army of Sand Creatures in the present thanks to several portals scattered throughout the fortress on the island. And although she had long since been dead when the Prince first arrives on the island, her presence can be felt everywhere. When the Old Man warns the Prince about the Island of Time, he is most vocal about the Empress. She is matchless in her cunning and strength and completely without mercy."
—Official Booklet Description[2]

Kaileena

"The Prince first meets Kaileena as a helpless servant of the Empress. He saves her from Shahdee, and to repay her debt, she assists the Prince by explaining how to access the fortress Throne Room to prevent the creation of the Sands of Time. As she continues to help the Prince, he develops feelings for her and we suspect that she develops feelings for him as well. But there may be more to Kaileena than meets the eye..."
—Official Booklet Description[2]

The Two Thrones

"The enigmatic Empress of Time has been rescued from the Island of Time by the Prince. Together, the two of them left the island and the past behind them, or so it seems until they arrive in Babylon..."
—Instructional manual[4]

Biography

Original timeline

Earlier life

The being known as Kaileena, the Empress of Time, was created eons ago by the gods, being a unwitting byproduct of the creation of the timeline. Carrying part of the timeline within her, she became a incredibly powerful figure. During her earlier activities in her life, she would eventually come to reside on the Island of Time, where would she would enslave the villages that once lived there into building her Fortress of Time using her Imperial Guards.[5]

At various her lifetime, Kaileena would begin cultivating and creating sand creatures for her army; in some cases, she would create raiders from merchants and pirates whom were lured to the Island of Time.[6] Kaileena would also be challenged by various warriors, many whom failed and were killed by her hand. The bodies of the warriors who fell to her power would later be subjected to her experiments, creating the Brute with her magic.[7] Eventually, Kaileena would create the sand creature known as Shahdee, whose existence was said to have been made in her image. Throughout Shahdee's years of servitude, the woman proved to possess a degree of autonomy not typically present in others but was subjected to years of abuse by Kaileena despite being second-in-command to her army.[8]

At some point in time, Kaileena would also create what would be known as the Artifacts of Time: the Staff of Time, the Medallion of Time, the Dagger of Time, and the Hourglass of Time.[1]

Original death

At an unknown point in time, Kaileena would perish as destined, creating the Sands of Time from her essence that would later be stored within the Hourglass of Time.[1]

Disrupted timeline

Learning of the Prince

Due to the actions of the Prince, who was fated to die after releasing the Sands of Time but managed to advert this dark fate, the royal Persian caused a disruption of the timeline that adverted it's natural flow, prompting for the timeline to send the Dahaka. In this newly disrupted timeline, Kaileena's life proceeded as it did originally although the manner of which she would of die changed; now she was fated to die at the hands of the Prince of Persia, who would seek out the Empress of Time in the past to stop her from creating it, thereby adverting the possibility of the Maharajah of India and the Vizier ever coming into contact with the artifacts found on the Island of Time.[1]

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Shahdee's failure

Believing his intentions were to kill her, she ordered Shahdee and her army to stop the Prince at all costs, and went so far as to threaten to kill her should she fail her mission despite, as Shahdee pointed out, knowing the outcome was doomed anyway. Unbeknownst of her, her actions would constitute the Prince believing the Empress of Time to be more malevolent, making them both believe that their eventual conclusion of battle was fated.[1] Later, when she later learned of Shahdee's failure, she assaults her servant after Shahdee decides to stop helping Kaileena change her fate altogether.[1]

Meeting the Prince of Persia
Shahdee Death

Kaileena and the Prince witness Shahdee's death.

Kaileena first meets Prince when Shahdee fights back against her in a vain attempt to gain her freedom from her, playing the role of a victim to Shahdee's aggression. Assuming Kaileena was in danger, the Prince fought Shahdee and mortally wounds her in the center of the Sacrificial Altar. Before she died, Shahdee's last words to Kaileena was that she could not change her fate. Thinking her a useful ally, the Prince asked Kaileena for information on how to reach the Empress of Time in order to kill her. Kaileena pretends to be a servant of the Empress and was secretive at first, providing little help with the Prince's journey. She attempted to dissuade the Prince by warning him to stay away from her master. When the two meet again, Kaileena frequently told the Prince not to continue his journey as his fate cannot be changed. The Prince continued his journey despite her advice against it. Kaileena continued to present herself as an ally. She aided him throughout his journey, like giving Prince the Serpent Sword and the Lion Sword, and using her knowledge about the fortress' towers, which were used to keep the Empress's throne closed to outsiders.[1]

In secret, Kaileena sought for the Prince to meet his demise by using any means necessary, be it of the traps within the Fortress, the curse she placed on the the Lion Sword she gifted to him, or the Dahaka finally catching up to him. Despite her efforts, the Prince managed to allude and survive all the traps she laid out for him.[1]

New death

Eventually, the Prince unraveled the complicated puzzle of locks keeping the fortress doors shut. Kaileena arms herself and then reveals herself as the Empress of Time. She fought the Prince in an effort to change her own fate in the timeline where her plans and failsafes did not succeed. Despite her efforts, she is fatally wounded by the Prince's hand. Before dying, she reiterates that he will fail in his attempts to change the timeline just as she failed. Her death at the Prince's hand, however, caused an alteration in the timeline. Instead of the Dahaka, the Prince was now responsible for the creation of the Sands of Time, and the Dahaka still pursued him.[1]

Averted Fate

Using the Mask of the Wraith to exists at two points in time simultaneously, the Prince eventually reworks his plan by first warning his copy of Kaileena's eventual betrayal although in one iteration, the Wraith is killed. Eventually piecing the previously seen Wraith's intent and plans, he alters the plan by letting his past self die to the Dahaka, giving him the opportunity to change the course of events by bringing Kaileena into the present and convincing her to remain there, causing another change to the timeline.[1]

He returned to the point before Kaileena was killed and arrived at the throne room before her, knowing that she would soon arrive. When Kaileena arrived, the Prince altered the events of their previous encounter and brought them to the present using a time portal. In the present, Kaileena attempted to kill the Prince, but the Prince refused to fight her and tried to convince her that she could be saved from her fate. The Dahaka arrived and tried to kill her, his changes resulting Kaileena not belonging in the present. In a desperate attempt to save her, the Prince attacks the creature and managed to harm it using the Water Sword and battles the creature. Kaileena assisted the Prince and the Dahaka was killed. With the threat to their lives eliminated, the two built a ship and departed from the Island of Time, setting sail for Babylon. After Kaileena made peace with leaving the island, she headed for the lower level of the ship. Shortly afterward, she slept with the Prince and presumably experienced a vision of Babylon burning and under siege by an army.[note 1].[1]

New Timeline

In the new timeline, all events of her prior life transpired as it did originally until the point involving her death, which was altered out altogether after the Prince brought Kailenna from the past to the present and slew the Dahaka, preventing his attempt from changing the Prince's various alterations timelines and restoring it to the original; instead of perishing as she did originally or by the Prince's in the disrupted timeline to create the Sands of Time, the Hourglass of Time remained empty and the sands weren't create at their previously preordained time. [1]

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Death & spiritual afterlife

Following the departure from the Island of Time, Kaileena and the Prince began a romantic relationship during their journey to Babylon. Though she is content with the choice the Prince made in regards to saving her life, she suspected the change in the timeline has altered their fate and current events for the better. The Prince does not appear to be concerned with the possible change and he promised no harm will come to her in Babylon.[3]

However, because of the Prince's efforts on the Island of Time to prevent the creation of the Sands, prior events in India and Azad never came to pass. As a result, the Vizier was alive and attacked the kingdom of Babylon with the help of the Scythians. Their boat is attacked by Scythian Archers and destroyed by a catapult attack. Kaileena is rendered unconscious by the ship's destruction and drifts to shore. A pair of Scythian Swordsmen find Kaileena on the shore and dragged her off the beach. The Prince in pursued them through the ruined city all the way to the palace.[3]

Unable to reach Kaileena, hung up on the edge of the palace's upper courtyard, the Prince watched the Vizier kill her with Dagger of Time. As Kaileena dies, her essence is re-released upon the city, corrupting everything, from the city's inhabitants, the Vizier's Generals, the Scythian army and the Prince. When the Vizier stabs himself with the Dagger of Time, he is transformed and renames himself Zurvan, the self-professed "God of Time". The Prince grieves over her death and seeks to avenge her.[3]

When the Prince kills Zurvan, Kaileena is able to present her spirit to the Prince and Farah. Kaileena told the Prince and Farah that their world was not meant for her, but there would be other places for her. Destroying the Dagger of Time, she removed the remnants of the Sands within the Prince before departing.[3]

Trivia

  • Kaileena was modeled after and voiced by Italian actress and model Monica Bellucci in Warrior Within. In The Two Thrones Kaileena is voiced by Sarah Carlsen.
  • Kaileena's role as the narrator of events in The Two Thrones parallels that of the Prince's in The Sands of Time.
  • In Two Thrones when the Prince finds Kaileena on shore, she appears to be wearing a hat. However, during the in-game cinematics, the hat is missing. Similarly, during pre-rendered cinematics, Kaileena bears ornate tattoo above the bridge of her nose that does not appear during in-game cinematics.

Notes

  1. Canonical ending occurs if the player has obtained all Life Upgrades and the Water Sword

References


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