History Main / SentientSands

* ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' has the Shifting Sands which serve as both the location and guardian of one of the gems of the Belt of Deltora and is made from the dead members of Hive creatures. As their name implies, the Sands are constantly shifting and changing which results in people getting lost as they travel the desert.

Most often, the sand golem will have a definite form that just happens to be made out of and living into sand. But in very rare cases, most notably in the Creator/StephenKing novel ''Beachworld'', [[GeniusLoci the vast Shifting Sand Land itself will be sentient]].

* ''Manga/HoshinEngi'': When Yozen is stuck in a battle against DomainHolder Chotenkun and his unescapable desert dimension he manages to win by transforming himself in the very red sands of the paope and threaten to slowly expands until he ruptures the limits of the closed space. [[spoiler: It works, killing Chotenkun, but then Yozen's so tired he can't keep human form for long and tries to hide from his friends.]]

* ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica:'' Due to an accident with a ray gun, Sandy the Golden Boy got turned into a being made of sand. Sandman kept him in stasis for decades trying to find a cure. It was only when Sandy got loose that it turned out this was pointless; Sandy had actually regained his faculties a few hours after his transformation.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': One of Spider-Man's usual foes, William Baker/Flint Marko (a.k.a. the Sandman), is made out of sand. He became this way when he hid out on a beach to evade the law, but said beach was the test site of a nuclear bomb, and the radiation bonded his molecules to the sand around him.

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E9SleepNoMore Sleep No More]]" featured Sandmen as the MonsterOfTheWeek, which were literally [[HumanoidAbomination humans made from sand]]. It's later revealed they were made from "sleep dust" (the crusty substance in your eye) and that Sandmen could be created from any human after being exposed to an electronic signal.

* ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerGiantFist EXTRAPOWER Giant Fist]]'': The golem summoned by Blackberry in her first encounter, which appears again as a guardian of the upper levels of her pyramid before fighting Ogonmushi, is a large construct of sand and crumbles away upon defeat. Sadly, you can't summon it while playing as Blackberry. Thankfully, she can't summon it during her actual boss fight.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' introduced Sandygast and Palossand, Ghost and Ground type Pokemons which are basically a sentient sand heap and a sentient sandcastle respectively, and very dangerous ones, at that, being able to exerce MindControl on people and actively hunting their preys to siphon out their life energy. ''Ultra Sun'' also reveals that each and every grain of sand from Palossand's body has its own free will.
* Techically almost all the enemies in the Sands of Time Trilogy of ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'' are either people infected by the Sands of Time or seemingly humanoid/bestial monsters made of sand. The Army of Solomon in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands'' is not only made of sand-created undeads, but can also increase its numbers by absorbing already-existing sand.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Quest}}'' features a sand golem on a desperate hunt for the water that he needs to stick together (dry sand, of course, will not clump).
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSandCastle'' features a sand golem that somehow rises up out of the sand spontaneously, then starts crafting a bunch of sand buddies to hang out with and a castle for them to live in.
* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episode ''Sand Castles in the Sand'' has Spongebob and Patrick building increasingly militarized {{Palatial Sandcastle}}s to war against each other. [=SpongeBob=] manages to build an entire human-like crew (and a bull) made out of sand which are fully sentient and able to move at will. Unfortunately, they are as easily destroyed as regular sand structures. Also, the sand gargoyles from [=SpongeBob=]'s last sandcastle fly away at the imminence of said sandcastle's bombing.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' has Sandpit also known as the Sands of Torus Filney, a sand monster which served both the BigBad of seasons 1 and 2.

* ''Beachworld'' from ''Literature/SkeletonCrew'' takes place on a planet entirely covered by malevolent sand with the power of MindControl and the ability to wreck human electrical systems. It can also assemble into various shapes like a hand to try grabbing any visiting spacecraft in order to prevent them from leaving the Beachworld.
* ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' has the Shifting Sands which serve as both the location and guardian of one of the gems of the Belt of Deltora and is made from the dead members of Hive creatures. As their name implies, the Sands are constantly shifting and changing which results in people getting lost as they travel the desert.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E9SleepNoMore Sleep No More]]" featured Sandmen as the MonsterOfTheWeek, which were literally [[HumanoidAbomination humans made from sand]]. It's later revealed they were made from "sleep dust" (the crusty substance in your eye) and that Sandmen could be created from any human after being exposed to an electronic signal.
* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', Sand Demon is featured as a VillainOfTheWeek, being one of the Earth-2 metas sent by Zoom. Much like his comics counterpart, Barry defeats him by solidifying his sand body into glass before it shatters, by throwing lightning at him.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork3'' has [=DesertMan=], a Navi made of sand that takes the form of a head and two hands sticking out of the ground. The only way to damage him is attacking his head, which will cause it to collapse and force you to wait for it to appear again, unless you hit it with an Aqua attack which makes it briefly harden. His hands are [[CognizantLimbs separate entities]] that attack by either turning into a lion head and charging at you, or turning into a brick block and falling from above.

* ''Manga/SoulHunter'': When Yozen is stuck in a battle against DomainHolder Chotenkun and his unescapable desert dimension he manages to win by transforming himself in the very red sands of the Paopei and threaten to slowly expands until he ruptures the limits of the closed space. [[spoiler: It works, killing Chotenkun, but then Yozen's so tired he can't keep human form for long and tries to hide from his friends.]]

Most often, the sand golem will have a definite form that just happens to be made out of and living into sand. But in very rare cases, most notably in the Creator/StephenKing novel ''Beachworld'', the vast Shifting Sand Land itself will be sentient.

* The ''Series/BlakesSeven'' episode "Sand" features a planet covered with living, carnivorous sand, which tries to trap visitors and [[AliensMadeThemDoIt force them to breed]] so that it can have a [[PeopleFarms farmed population]] to feed on.

* In ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'', Sand Demon is featured as a VillainOfTheWeek, being one of the Earth-2 metas sent by Zoom. Much like his comics counterpart, Barry defeats him by solidifying his sand body into glass before it shatters, by throwing lightning at him.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has the [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-440 SCP-440 ("Sand-Based Ecology")]]. SCP-440 is an anomalous form of sand from which certain creatures are created spontaneously. The sand is made up of silica (silicon dioxide), which makes the creatures SiliconBasedLife.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/SpiderMan3 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/birth_of_sandman.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/AttackOfTheClones "You won't like me. I'm coarse, rough, and irritating...and I get everywhere!"]]]]

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* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Las Noches, the palace where [[BigBad Aizen]] and his cohorts of Arrancar reside, is guarded by a massive Hollow made of sand called Lunuganga. Another similar giant Hollow is encountered much later. In both cases, they live in a world which looks like an infinite barren desert of sand and petrified trees.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* Techically almost all the enemies in the Sands of Time Trilogy of ''Franchise/PrinceOfPersia'' are either people infected by the Sands of Time or seemingly humanoid/bestial monsters made of sand. UpToEleven with the Army of Solomon in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheForgottenSands, who not only is made of sand-created undeads, but can also increase its numbers by absorbing already-existing sand.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'': The Sandman, or Sandy for short, is made entirely of sand. He does not speak, but communicates through sand images that he conjures above his head.

** Sandmaarghs are a variant of Blarggs, a type of vaguely dinosaur-like monsters [[MagmaMan made out of lava]] and found in [[LethalLavaLand fire-themed levels]], that are instead made out of sand and found in [[ShiftingSandLand desert-themed levels]]. They first appeared in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DLand'' , where they usually lurk in the sand and rise out to attack Mario when he gets close, and reappear in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam''.

* The ''Beachworld'' novel from ''Literature/SkeletonCrew'' takes place on a planet entirely covered by malevolent sand with the power of MindControl. It can also assemble into various shapes like a hand to try grabbing the protagonists' spacecraft in order to prevent them from leaving the Beachworld.