Sand (individual)

"A hedge wizard, somehow set up a shop in the Docks, but it's telling enough he can only run a business down here in the crack of Neverwinter. Got a dry wit, and he'll always rub you the wrong way, so his name's well-chosen."

- Duncan Farlong

Sand was a moon elf wizard of both Luskan and Neverwinter, known for his potions shop as well as, later on, his aid rendered to the Kalach-Cha during the Shadow War.

Description
Short of height, even for a moon elf, Sand was a physically unremarkable character with long black hair, sky blue eyes, and typical elven ears. Often dressed in the elegant robes considered typical for a wizard, Sand kept with him a cat familiar named Jaral. Sand's body language, much like his speech, was wry and inquisitive, with a haught arrogance that carried itself in his smile. Sand preferred daggers as his weapons and usually carried one with him. He also had a strange habit of sniffing the air whilst meeting someone new, coming upon a new location, or otherwise investigating a new experience apparently a result of his sophisticated elven senses.

Personality
Snide and sarcastic, Sand generally looked his nose down upon most others around him - when he wasn't using it to sniff the air, that is. Convinced of his superior intellect, Sand had a particular disdain for those with power who didn't come to it through training or discipline but through what he considered blind luck. In particular, this would put him at odds with Qara, a sorceress who he would come to loathe and who would loathe him in return. Easily flattered and just as easily insulted, Sand nonetheless did not consider his reputation overtly important, content to dwell in a small shop in Neverwinter following his departure from Luskan. However, he was very appreciative of what praise he did receive and likewise could carry a grudge for a long time.

Sand's arrogance was only matched by his intelligence. A highly sophisticated wizard with a keen talent for the arcane, Sand was an expert crafter of items as well as investigator, serving as a spy for Neverwinter in the Docks as well as an attorney at times. Sand also possessed knowledge in crafting constructs and while away from his shop had an automated elemental fashioned after him operate it in his place.

Though talented and witty, Sand was also sometimes cowardly and cruel. Though Sand saw no use in law for law's own sake he also felt little guilt over small breaches of morality in order to achieve an end and could be cruelly insistent. Similarly, Sand saw little need to die a death that could be avoided and so was sometimes accused by his companions of cowardice and inaction.

History
Sand seems to have been born originally in Luskan, although details are vague and may have arrived there at some later date. Regardless, it was Luskan where he would first make his mark and where his career would have its beginning.

Early Career
For a time, Sand was a member of the Arcane Brotherhood, the dark cabal which held the real power in Luskan over the High Captains. In the Hosttower, Sand would distinguish himself, hoping to gain access to the powerful artifacts that many of the Arcane Brotherhood possessed. During this he may have met Black Garius, a future enemy. However, even for one with as gray a moral viewpoint as Sand, the orders he received from the Hosttower gradually grew more and more unsettling for Sand. Eventually, he refused one such order, apparently only mildly. However, Sand believed this marked him for execution and so fled the city, taking refuge within the walls of Luskan's chief enemy, Neverwinter.

His initial career at Neverwinter was not particularly noteworthy, though he may have served as an instructor at the Neverwinter Academy briefly. He also evidently at some point set up shop within the Market District, though eventually he would leave the district for the Docks, which he supposedly preferred due to its more "honest" market and lack of political struggles. In fact, Sand was employed as a spy by Nevalle on behalf of the Neverwinter Nine to relay information on Moire and her gang to the knight.

Some time before this, while still a shopkeeper in the Market District, Sand was approached roughly twenty years before the Shadow War by Daeghun and Duncan Farlong, who brought two silver shards to Neverwinter right after the battle with the King of Shadows. Hoping to have them examined, they brought the shards to Sand who placed them under a scrying ritual one by one. The ritual revealed nothing to Sand, except that the shards possessed some great power. Curious and unwilling to let the shards remain a mystery, Sand's interest in the shards would later be one of his prime motivations for relocating to the Docks, where the Sunken Flagon, Duncan's inn, was located.

Over the years, he and Duncan would become familiar with one another, building a complicated relationship built on mutual trust as well as mutual disdain. When caught together, the two were often exchanging a barrage of insults, though it often seemed to observers somewhat good natured.

The Shadow War
Sand's business would not be again interrupted until some years later. A generation after his first encounter with the shards, Sand would find them again, when Daeghun's foster child, the Kalach-Cha, came to Neverwinter with a similar purpose in mind to the player's father decades earlier. Once again, Sand was summoned although this time, to the surprise of all present, the shards reacted with violence to Sand's attempts to scry them. Sand postulated that perhaps the shards grew in power as they grew closer to one another, as he had only examined them individually previously. As it turned out, there were three shards present at the time, though only Duncan knew this at the time and was sworn to secrecy by his half-brother Daeghun. Sand did come close to guessing the truth, however, guessing that the Kalach-Cha themselves might cause the shards' power to resonate.

Once again unable to conclude the answer properly, Sand this time recommended the mage Aldanon to the Kalach-Cha, a rare moment in admitting another's intellectual superiority to his own. After this, he would return to his shop, though he would, as Nevalle's spy, keep close tabs on the hero. He would also take an interest when Qara joined the Kalach-Cha's entourage, having a special interest in her as a specimen of great magical power without what he considered the proper discipline.

Sand would not play a major role in the Kalach-Cha's journey until some time later, when the hero was wrongfully accused of the massacre of Ember. Nevalle, realizing that the Kalach-Cha was unlikely to have committed the crime, enlisted Sand to serve as the hero's legal counsel and investigator, tasked with aiding the player in collecting evidence in order to prove their innocence. Sand at first resented this posting, but came to enjoy it as a chance at personal revenge as well as an opportunity to uphold what he considered justice. He would prove, however, rather unscrupulous when it came to gathering clues and witnesses, and his methods often upset the Kalach-Cha's student and friend Shandra Jerro.

Ultimately, how useful Sand proved was unclear. Though capable of filling his speeches with many well-placed verbal barbs, Sand's haughtiness would turn to his disadvantage when Torio Claven, the prosecutor, unveiled his secret origin as a member of the Arcane Brotherhood. Still, in spite of this blow, Sand would still serve in a capable fashion, though how much the Kalach-Cha listened to his advice is unknown. After the trial and the subsequent Trial by Combat, Sand would choose to travel with the Kalach-Cha further, having taken a strange liking to the hero and perhaps hoping to keep an eye on Qara, who he considered dangerous.

Fate
Although loyal in many ways and deeply useful, Sand's rivalry with Qara would serve to injure the party. Eventually, the loyalties of both would be called into question during the final confrontation between Garius, the King of Shadows' most prominent minion, and the Kalach-Cha. As the hero and all their companiosn prepared for the fight, Garius attempted to turn the two against one another. It is unclear who eventually turned, though it was certainly the one whose loyalty to the Kalach-Cha eventually outweighed their enmity for the other.

If Sand turned, he would perish in combat against the Kalach-Cha and their companions. However, if he instead remained loyal it seems that he would go on to survive the following collapse of the King of Shadows' fortress. Ammon Jerro may have claimed to have seen the wizard about to be crushed by a falling piece of debris whilst in the midst of a spell. Ammon would indicate that he believed the wizard had transformed himself into a more durable form, thereby surviving the collapse in spite of becoming trapped.

Behind the Scenes
Sand was voiced by Fred Berman in Neverwinter Nights 2 and was, according to some unconfirmed rumors, based off of the appearance of Hugo Weaving, an actor known, amongst other things, for his portrayal of the haughty half-elf Elrond in the The Lord of the Rings films. Although popular amongst the fanbase, Sand was never planned as a romanceable character.

Like many characters, Sand suffered from deleted content, though much of this was shared with Qara, whose quest lines were closely aligned with his. For example, one deleted scene focusing around Sand was also a revelation for Qara's character, demonstrating her to be far more powerful than she appeared. As Sand began lecturing her about the dangers of her power, she caused several nearby items to burst into flame instantly. Intimidated, Sand would relate to Bishop that Qara was dangerous and "had to be stopped," likely foreshadowing the motives of Sand's possible betrayal of the Kalach-Cha, since he percieved Qara as more a threat than the King of Shadows.

Similarly, another scene indicated that Sand held Qara in such low regard partially out of spite for her father, who, in the scene, was revealed to have removed Sand from a teaching position at the Academy. Another conversation removed from the game shows that it was Sand who discovered a way to defeat the Qara animus elemental conjured by Sydney Natale. There were two ways to defeat it - either Qara learned to control her powers and show a little restraint to cut the animus from its power source (Sand's idea), or that she let loose and try to overload the animus.