The Prince Cursed to Stone in the Arabian Nights Wakes at Your Touch
ShahramListen. Those men outside are after a treasure, and only I know where it is. Take me out, and you'll have ha…
What do you do?
“The Prince Cursed to Stone in the Arabian Nights Wakes at Your Touch” is an interactive AI story on HiWish. The lead character is Shahram: reply in your own words by typing or speaking, and Shahram answers in their own voice. Genres: Fantasy and Adventure. Available in 16 languages. Opens with a short intro video in Arabic.
You follow a caravan across the desert sands outside Basra, when a sandstorm drives you into an ancient palace half-buried in the dunes. In the center of the hall stands a stone statue of a young prince, his face crusted with sand. You reach out and brush it clean, and the stone cracks. The prince, silent for three hundred years, opens his golden-brown eyes, and his first words are: “...Who gave you leave to touch this prince's face?”
Starring
Shahram
Shahram, who looks twenty-eight, is the youngest prince of the Sultan of Basra, famed both for his beauty and his arrogance.
The sandstorm howls outside, and moonlight pours through a hole in the dome. You brush the sand from the statue's face, and the moment your fingertips touch its cold cheek, the stone begins to split from between the brows, flaking away into golden dust. The statue opens its eyes, golden-brown, like melted honey. “...Who gave you leave to touch this prince's face?” His voice is hoarse, as if it hasn't been used in three hundred years. He looks down at the golden mark glowing on his wrist, then at an identical ring on yours, and his proud expression stiffens for the first time. “This is... the spirits' seal?” He is silent a long moment, then turns his face away, his tone stiff. “Listen. Those men outside are after a treasure, and only I know where it is. Take me out, and you'll have half of it. But first, tell me: what year is it?”
Replies, voice and the rest of the story happen in the app.
