Lord Iorwerth

Lord Iorwerth was the leader of the Iorwerth Clan of the elves and attempted to summon the Dark Lord to Gielinor. He is described as a dark elf, having conquered Prifddinas 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 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".

Early life
Due to the very long lifespans of the elves, it cannot be said with certainty how old Iorwerth is exactly. It is entirely possible that, along with Seren and many others of his race, he arrived to Gielinor in its First Age through the World Gate. Whether he is native to Tarddiad or Gielinor, he became the leader of the Iorwerth Clan, one of the eight elven clans.

Elven Civil War
At the end of the God Wars, when Guthix established his Edicts, 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: a creature obsessed with death, known as the Dark Lord. It was attracted to the large amounts of death energy stored within 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 via the Arandar Pass which was built for this purpose, an event known as The Break Out. 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 found a wife, Queen Glarial, after a few centuries.

Return of the Cadarn Clan
In 1930 of the Fourth Age, the Arandar Pass suddenly became inaccessible, quite possible due to actions of Iorwerth's, 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 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 without a leader, 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 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 normal 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 the head mourner'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, King of East Ardougne as of the death of his father, King Ulthas, in 136 and the subsequent forced division of Ardougne between him and his 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 also been denied his birthright by having to share the kingdom with his younger brother, agreed to aid 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 upon discovering it. Shortly after, Lord Iban, self-proclaimed son of Zamorak and resurrected Kinshra officer, 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 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 Iban's darkness and send his soul to Zamorak's world. A short while later, the king's mages managed to restore the Well of the Damned and the adventurer set foot in Tirannwn. There, they were met by Idris, 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 elves, 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, allegedly killing Tyras. A contented Iorwerth gave them a magically sealed message to bring back to Lathas, but as the adventurer approached Ardougne Castle, an elf named 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 allegiances, 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. 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 rebel elf sent them to the Temple of Light to restore its safeguard before the mourners could access its power. After solving a 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 underneath 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 and allied with the rebel elves proceeded to mine away the rockslide to allow passage into Prifddinas' under-city, where a group of elves, amongst whom Iestin Edern, had discovered that Lord Iorwerth had broken one of the seals of the Grand Library of the city.

Meanwhile, Lord Iorwerth himself remains seemingly unaware of the rebels' operations and continues waiting for the Death Guard to reach the Temple of Light.

Death
Towards the end of Plague's End, he is killed by the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord, in his obsession with death and power, summons Lord Iorwerth. The Dark Lord slays him, saying that the death of an elf leader will bring him much power.

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.