Lord Iorwerth

Lord Iorwerth was the leader of the Iorwerth Clan of the elves and attempted to summon the Dark Lord to rule Prifddinas as a dictator. He is described as a dark elf, having conquered the crystal city for his own clan and effectively started the Elven Civil War. He is located inside a camp just north of Isafdar in the elven land of Tirannwn along with some members of his clan.

Iorwerth broke one of the nine seals of the Grand Library that were used to protect the seed of Prifddinas, which the Elven Elders had reverted to protect it from the Iorwerths. He planned to use the power of the Dark Lord to restore the city, killing the "frozen" elves inside and effectively establish an Iorwerth-only settlement. However, the Elders returned from hiding to aid the rebel elves who had fought the Iorwerths during the civil war and he was stopped.

Additionally, Lord Iorwerth is a possible solution to a certain Treasure Trail anagram riddle that states "There is no 'worthier' lord".

Elven Civil War
At the end of the God Wars, when Guthix established his Edicts and cast out the other gods, Seren felt forced to shatter herself into numerous crystal shards so that she could remain with her followers. The elves could still communicate with her via the Tower of Voices in Prifddinas and she warned them about a negative part of her that she had rejected upon shattering: a creature obsessed with death, known as the Dark Lord. It was attracted to the large amounts of death energy stored inside the death altar, located deep within the Galarpos Mountains separating Tirannwn from the rest of the continent. In order to contain it, the Hefin Clan designed a large structure with its own safeguard and the other clans helped to build it. This Temple of Light would contain the Dark Lord, who, at full power, could pose a threat to the entire world. Nevertheless, it would remain eager to learn more about death and haunted the Underground Pass with its voice, leading many travellers to "interesting" deaths.

After the war, the military Cadarn Clan ventured beyond the Galarpos, an event known as The Break Out. For this purpose the Arandar pass was constructed, an effort also led by the Cadarns. Under leadership of the legendary King Baxtorian, the Cadarn Clan travelled further east and soon established peace treaties with the Tree Gnome Stronghold and local human tribes. Apart from suffering a number of raids by goblins fleeing north as a result of the Feldip Hills Civil War, Baxtorian soon established a large kingdom which prospered. As it grew larger, members of other clans began to settle in the east as well.

With the most powerful clan absent, Lord Iorwerth seized power in Prifddinas. After conquering the city and the Tower of Voices, he denied access to the other seven clans, throwing the nation into a bloody civil war. Thousands of elves would lose their lives during Iorwerth's regime. Meanwhile, Baxtorian's kingdom continued to flourish and he ruled with his wife, Queen Glarial, for centuries.

Return of the Cadarn Clan
In 1930 of the Fourth Age, the Arandar Pass suddenly became inaccessible, an event known in elven history as The Great Divide. The council at the other side conducted an emergency meeting to restore communication with Tirannwn. They sent five of their best scouts through the ancient Underground Pass, a very long tunnel going underneath the Galarpos. A few months later, one of these scouts, Adwr Cadarn, returned to inform King Baxtorian of Lord Iorwerth's actions and the Civil War. The shocked king set off on a crusade to reclaim Prifddinas in the united elven clans' name, leaving behind his beloved Glarial. The Baxtorian Campaign turned out to be a large failure, for the Iorwerth Elves were able to not only ward off the attack but also drive the Cadarn Clan back out of Tirannwn after the Battle of Prifddinas. In 1935, Baxtorian, his forces decimated, returned to his kingdom, only to find it in ruins, having been destroyed during his five years of absence. Additionally, Glarial had been taken by hostile forces - a mortified and grief-stricken Baxtorian proceeded to bury himself beneath the waterfalls now named after him in sorrow, eliminating Lord Iorwerth's largest threat.

With their kingdom destroyed, the surviving Cadarn elves were forced to return to Isafdar, where they would rebel against the Iorwerth Clan and attempt to liberate Prifddinas. The Iorwerth Clan subdued its opponents with relative ease, forcing them to scatter and live in refugee camps across Isafdar, which would systematically be found and annihilated over time. The forest itself would be patrolled by Iorwerth elves and infested with dangerous traps to eliminate all resistance.

In an effort to save the city from the Iorwerths, the seven other elven elders decided to revert the entire city of Prifddinas and the elves inside to a crystal seed, leaving an empty field behind. The elders then hid in various places to avoid being hunted down by the Iorwerths, planning to return when it would be time to regrow the city. Lord Crwys transmogrified into a tree in the middle of Isafdar, Lady Hefin went to live as a hermit west of the Poison Waste, Lady Trahaearn entered a state of torpor in a cave near the Well of Voyage, Lady Meilyr found herself a hidden dungeon under Daemonheim and Lord Amlodd travelled to the Spirit Plane. Lord Cadarn and Lady Ithell founded a village for the rebel elves in Isafdar, Lletya, although the latter died shortly after constructing it. From there, Lord Cadarn, using the name Arianwyn to remain hidden, would lead the resistance. The city's huge seed was stored in the Grand Library, locked by nine seals in the Prifddinas undercity. The loss of Prifddinas forced Lord Iorwerth and his army to set up a warcamp south of its walls, while the other Iorwerths would remain in the city's crater, starving in a large camp with poor living conditions and ruled over by a vain mayor.

Lord Iorwerth formulated a plan to restore the city by himself, without the other seven clan leaders so as to create a Prifddinas exclusive to his clan. He would harness the power of the Dark Lord to do this and began to work toward his liberation. He founded the Prifddinas Death Guard, whose goal became to "prepare the way for the Dark Lord," in their leader's words. Upon attempting to do this via the Pass, a large battle broke out leaving the Death Guard in great fear of the place. Thus, they had to seek another way.

Alliance with King Lathas
Some time between 132 and 168 of the Fifth Age, approximately two centuries since the civil war broke out, Lord Iorwerth forged an alliance with Lathas Ardignas, who had become King of East Ardougne after the death of his father, King Ulthas, in 136 and the subsequent forced division of Ardougne between him and his younger brother Tyras, who became king of West Ardougne. In 132, Ulthas had given King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, who had arrived to Gielinor from Britain that year, the Camelot castle in eastern Kandarin, much to Lathas' dismay. As such, the jealous monarch, who felt he had been denied his birthright by having to share the kingdom with his sibling and was angry that the Sinclair family had been forced out of their castle, agreed to help Iorwerth in summoning the Dark Lord in return for aid in the downfall of Camelot. He did not realise, however, that Lord Iorwerth intended to betray Lathas at the first opportunity, not planning to destroy Camelot at all.

An opportunity for the Death Guard arose in 168, when King Tyras and his army left West Ardougne and travelled to Tirannwn through the Underground Pass. Shortly after, Lord Iban, a Kinshra officer who had been resurrected from the dead by the crone Kardia and self-proclaimed son of Zamorak, seized control of the Pass, corrupting it. He turned the Well of Voyage into the Well of the Damned and began to build an army of soulless in the depths, thus deterring not only any elves or travellers, but also impeding Tyras from returning, leaving West Ardougne leaderless. The Dark Lord's voice also continued to infest the Pass, a terrifying phenomenon which was ascribed to Iban. Lord Iorwerth subsequently sent his Prifddinas Death Guard to West Ardougne through Arandar to establish a foothold in the east by convincing Lathas that Iban posed a serious threat. However, they soon found out about the Temple of Light and the death altar, which would allow the Dark Lord to return, and began working towards harnessing its power. They discretely took over the city under the pretence of being mourners, come to deal with the fake plague, a hoax set up by Lathas to be able to put the west under quarantine, thus allowing the "mourners" to freely conduct their operations. While keeping the citizens under control by spreading fake symptoms, making the city warder Bravek fear them enough to do nothing and turning the once great city into a dilapidated ghetto, the Death Guard began tunnelling westwards underneath the city using captured citizens whom they claimed to have been infected by the plague as slaves. However, due to the very dangerous roaming shadows unleashed as a result of the temple's safeguard failing and local dark beasts, the scouting parties were slaughtered, stagnating the operations.

Assassination of Tyras
In 169, an adventurer and an Ardougnese citizen, Elena, had discovered the plague to be fake and the former confronted King Lathas about it. The king lied that he had created the ruse in order to protect the people of Ardougne from his "evil brother Tyras," who, so he claimed, had been corrupted by drinking from the Chalice of Eternity, after being forced to by a Dark Lord. He asked the adventurer to end Tyras' life by cleansing the Well of Voyage and assassinating him in Isafdar and thus aid him in stopping the Lord. Oblivious to Lathas' true intentions, the adventurer obeyed and, with immense effort and the aid of the guide Koftik, was able to overcome the darkness of the Pass and destroyed Iban's soul. A short while later, the king's mages managed to restore the Well of Voyage and the adventurer set foot in Tirannwn. There, they were met by Idris Ithell, one of the rebel elves of Lletya who was sent to warn them about the evil of Iorwerth and Lathas, but who was assassinated by two Iorwerth warband leaders, Essyllt and Morvran, before being able to do so. The latter two claimed that Idris was one of the villains and the adventurer was taken to Lord Iorwerth, who revealed himself to be an ally of Lathas' and gave the adventurer instructions on how to build a bomb to kill Tyras.

They complied and fired a barrel with an explosive substance at the king's tent in Tyras Camp, which was devoured by flames in a large explosion, killing King Tyras. A contented Lord Iorwerth gave them a magically sealed message to bring back to Lathas, but as the adventurer approached Ardougne Castle, Arianwyn appeared. He revealed the sad truth that the adventurer had been tricked by two evil masterminds into murdering Tyras before showing the contents of Iorwerth's letter, which confirmed his story. The shocked adventurer pretended not to know upon delivering the message to Lathas, but joined the rebel elves in an attempt to help them defeat the Iorwerth Clan.

Failure of the Death Guard
While Iorwerth remained oblivious to the adventurer's knowledge of his true intentions, Arianwyn tasked them to infiltrate the mourners, who had begun travelling to Ardougne in increasing numbers, and find out their plans. They proceeded to do so, although they had to re-dye Farmer Brumty's sheep to sustain the ruse of the plague as well as poison West Ardougne's food supply to provide the mourners with more slaves in order to win their trust. The head mourner revealed their plans to release the Dark Lord and tap from the death altar, which the adventurer hurriedly reported to Arianwyn. The elf sent them to the Temple of Light to restore its safeguard before the mourners could access its power. After solving the Hefins' massive light spectrum puzzle, they were able to purify the large crystal within the temple, thus restoring its safeguard and impeding the Death Guard's plans. Later, the adventurer accessed a caved-in passage leading to the undercity of Prifddinas by energising themselves with death altar power. A report carried by a dead elf found in the corridor led Arianwyn to draw the conclusion that the elders of Prifddinas had caused the crystal city to revert to its seed form in order to protect it from the Dark Lord. A group of dwarves trapped in the Underground Pass that had allied with the rebel elves proceeded to mine away the rockslide to allow passage into the undercity.

While the dwarves were mining, the Death Guard managed to get past the dark beasts and reached the Temple of Light. Realising that they could not free the Dark Lord from the temple now that the safeguard had been restored, Lord Iorwerth formed a new plan. He decided to summon the Dark Lord by killing the entire population of West Ardougne in a necromantic ritual that would produce massive amounts of death energy, thus substituting the death altar's power. The Head Mourner decided to perform the massacre quickly by having the citizens die in a cave-in. King Lathas agreed with the plan, eager to see the end of the plague hoax and planning to turn West Ardougne into his personal garden. Iorwerth also tasked Iestin Edern with preparing the seed of Prifddinas, stored inside the Grand Library, one of the nine seals of which he had broken, for the reception of the Dark Lord's power.

Death
After the Corridor of Light was cleared, Arianwyn and the adventurer disguised themselves as mourners and entered the undercity, where they met Iestin. The adventurer stole a copy of Iorwerth's plan from the Mayor of Prifddinas in the camp upstairs and the three of them found out that the elf lord was going to kill the entirety of West Ardougne and use the Dark Lord's power to restore Prifddinas. Iestin then joined forces with them and Arianwyn suggested to start a revolution in West Ardougne to evict the Death Guard.

The adventurer went to see city warder Bravek and informed them of the situation, to which he provided them with a list of individuals who would be willing to fight. These people - Koftik, Elena, Clara, Jethick, Martha and Ted Rehnison, and Nurse Sarah - assembled in the church while the adventurer went to Halgrive, Councillor of Health and Safety of the Ardougne City Council, in East Ardougne and informed him of King Lathas' treachery. The shocked councillor provided them with a proclamation that would authorise the eviction of the mourners if the Royal Army of Ardougne should interfere. After revealing the truth about the mourners, the plague and the king to the revolutionists, the mob went to the Death Guard Headquarters in the city, kicked in the door and killed all the mourners inside. The adventurer then defeated the Head Mourner downstairs in combat and dealt with them.

As Halgrive had predicted, the Knight of Ardougne Sir Edmond and the paladin Sir Hugo arrived when the revolutionary flag was hung above the outpost, to which the adventurer presented the council's proclamation to them. The two knights returned to Ardougne Castle and a fight broke out between two factions: the Knights of Ardougne and Order of Heroes, who emphasised Kandarin's constitution and fought for the City Council to oust King Lathas; and the Holy Order of Paladins and the Warrior Women, who supported the King and his divine right to rule. They battled on the castle grounds but the Knights and Heroes were able to best their opponents. The adventurer then confronted Lathas in his throne room and dealt with him by executing him or sending him into exile after fighting off Sir Hugo. Afterwards, the city's army invaded West Ardougne and sent the remaining Death Guard on a full-scale retreat to Tirannwn, while Lathas's cousin Thoros succeeded him as King of Kandarin.

Arianwyn and Iestin concluded that the Elven Elders would need to return to regrow the city so that Lord Iorwerth could not control it. The former revealed himself as Lord Cadarn and tasked the adventurer with seeking out the lost elders, with Iestin substituting for Lord Iorwerth. After locating the remaining elders, and turning the Lletyan elf Kelyn into the new Lady Ithell, the adventurer had them assemble in the undercity.

They then returned to the Tyras Camp and explained the situation to General Hining. He agreed to launch an attack on Iorwerth's camp to keep him occupied while the city would be regrown, and immediately began to march northwards with his army. Upon seeing the incoming attack, Lord Iorwerth called back all Death Guard and a large battle broke out between the two armies. The eight elves and the adventurer then entered the Grand Library and began to chant the seed of Prifddinas, but shadows appeared and attacked them. They were defeated and the elves continued to chant. However, the activation of the seals inside the library and the many deaths from the Iorwerths' battle against the Tyras Army provided the Dark Lord with enough power to leave his prison. The Dark Lord appeared in the library and began to attack the adventurer with his shadows, but the elves were nonetheless able to chant the seed further, weakening him as light passed through his body.

Needing more death energy, the Dark Lord summoned Lord Iorwerth and killed him, in addition to revealing he had also devoured the soul of King Lathas. Fuelled with the deaths of two powerful leaders, the Dark Lord regained power and continued his attacks. However, the light created by the elves proved too much for him and he died himself. Prifddinas was then fully restored and opened to other races as well.

Trivia

 * If you speak to Lord Iorwerth wearing full mourner gear, he will say, "What are you doing here? You will ruin everything...Get back to Ardougne now."
 * His name is likely derived from Iorwerth, a once rather common Welsh name which translates to "Fair lord" or "Handsome lord".