Prifddinas

Prifddinas (pronounced prive-THEE-nuss) is the greatest city of the elves, located just north of Isafdar, and the capital of Tirannwn. It is made entirely of crystal, and is the oldest surviving settlement in Gielinor, having been created in the First Age. The Plague's End quest is required for access to the city, as prior to the quest, it had been entirely reverted to its crystal seed form as an indirect result of the Elven Civil War. Only half of it is currently accessible, as it is still regrowing, the second half of the city is slated for release in November.

It is described by Jagex as being a "high-level Varrock", as well as a skilling hub, and as such contains a number of skilling locations and other features, some of which are the best in the game. It also contains a Grand Exchange and many other features that make it a prime hub for all players that have access.

The first time players approach Prifddinas they will find seven of the clan leaders lining the path, and Arianwyn waiting at the city gate. Upon speaking to Arianwyn, players will be shown a cutscene of the Tower of Voices growing and elves of clans going about their daily business.

Features
Prifddinas is a large city with a number of features, and as is split into 9 areas. Each area (with the exception of the Tower of Voices) has two skills associated with it, which dictate the various training methods found inside it. There are currently five areas of the city that can be accessed: The Tower of Voices, the Iorwerth section, the Cadarn section, the Trahaearn section, and the Crwys section.

Tower of Voices
The Tower of Voices is found in the centre of the city, and has several features:


 * Lodestone - centre
 * Eluned - north-north-east
 * Estate agent and portals - north-east, on balcony
 * Stairs - lead to Seren, east-north-east
 * Grand Exchange booth - east-south-east and north-north-west
 * Crystal tree patch - south east, on balcony
 * Rhobert Dail - herb decanter, south-south-east
 * Dilwyn - loyalty shop, south-south-west
 * Ianto - holiday/Treasure Hunter item storage, south-east on balcony
 * Holiday even portal - south east, behind Ianto
 * Challenge Mistress Heriau - west-north-west
 * Permanent bonfire - north-west, on balcony

The room on the first floor contains a fragment of Seren, several floating crystals that move around the room and speak. The centre of the room contains a Memoriam device.

Iorwerth (Melee and Slayer)
The Iorwerth Clan is located south-west of the Tower of Voices, near the entrance to Prifddinas. It is primarily based on the Melee and Slayer skills, and is led by Lord Iorwerth. It features:


 * Morvran, a slayer master requiring at least 85 Slayer and 120 combat. Morvran can assign preferred assignments and extended assignments once unlocked through the new Slayer Points Store.
 * The Hall of Fame: Movran's special assignment, offered when completing assignments for him. The assignment includes killing ten bosses in a row, with debuffing crystals making each fighter harder than the last.
 * Rush of Blood, a weekly Distraction and Diversion where the player must survive endless waves of monsters for ten minutes. It includes four difficulty levels with different requirements.
 * A Crystal chest with an improved drop table.
 * An altar that allows the player to swap from the normal prayerbook to Ancient Curses, with a combat buff included.

Cadarn (Magic and Ranged)
The Cadarn Clan is located east of the Tower of Voices. It is primarily based on the Magic and Ranged skills, and is led by Lord Cadarn. It features:


 * Cadarn rangers and Cadarn magi to fight against
 * A battlestaff shop
 * A character that will let you swap between spellbooks and prayer books without needing to travel to the astral altar, Jaldraocht Pyramid or Senntisten
 * Tears of Seren fountain for recharging dragonstone jewellery, similar to the Fountain of Heroes
 * A flax field, a loom and a spinning wheel
 * Two magic trees
 * Cadarn workers for pickpocketing
 * The Max Guild

Trahaearn (Mining and Smithing)
The Trahaearn Clan is located south-east of the Tower of Voices. It is primarily based on the Mining and Smithing skills, and is led by Lady Trahaearn. It features:
 * Seren stones, which are like "Ivy for miners", which normally give nothing but experience but sometimes give corrupted ore, which gives Smithing experience when used with a furnace.
 * Mithril rocks, adamantite rocks, and runite rocks
 * Gem rocks
 * Anvil and Furnace
 * Tree patch
 * Trahaearn workers for pickpocketing

Crwys (Farming and Woodcutting)
The Trahaearn Clan is located north-east of the Tower of Voices. It is primarily based on the Farming and Woodcutting skills, and is led by Lord Crwys. It features:


 * One bank
 * Two yew trees
 * Two magic trees
 * A farming shop
 * A tree patch for elder trees
 * A bush patch and an herb patch
 * A spirit tree
 * Crwys workers for pickpocketing

Geography
There are three entrances to the city; large gates on the south and east sides, facing and having paths to Isafdar and Arandar respectively, and a smaller one on the north side. The entrance to the under-city can be found next to the eastern entrance, which is used in the Plague's End quest.

The city is built over a large crater, and is formed entirely out of elven crystal from Tarddiad, constructed by the eight Elven Clans with the aid of their goddess Seren, after they arrived to Gielinor in the First Age. It is divided into eight equally sized sections, each belonging to one of the original elven clans that built the city. Each section has a small crystal tower connected to a large structure in the middle of the city: the Tower of Voices, which is used for communication with Seren.

While the city was a seed, its crystals walls surrounded but an empty crater. It only contained a few remaining pathways and elven lamps, while rabbits had their holes at its edges. The Prifddinas elf camp could be found at the bottom of the crater.

The southern entrance has the Prifddinas monument prominently displayed on the approach to the city, marking the location of the entrance to the city's previous incarnation.

Initial Settlement
Prifddinas was built by the elves after they were led to Gielinor through the World Gate by their crystalline goddess, Seren, and Guthix, the god of balance, in the First Age. The elves settled in Tirannwn, a large wooded area west of the Galarpos, a mountain range which isolated it from the rest of the continent. The eight Elven Clans constructed their city in a clearing north of the Isafdar forest with the crystal given to them by Seren, which could be shaped through crystal singing. Massive, incandescently glistening walls surrounded the city, which became the hub of the elves' new life on Gielinor. The World Gate remained open to allow travel to and from Tarddiad, however, and was used to bring in more crystal to Gielinor.

The elves peacefully coexisted in Prifddinas, as had been their goddess' intention. Each was given their own segment of the city, where they were given a small tower found near the city wall. In the middle Seren had already created the Tower of Voices, where the elves could communicate with the goddess herself. It would also become the site where the Elven Council of Elders convened.

During the remainder of the First, and the Second Age, Prifddinas would remain isolated from the rest of the world. Zaros did steal the World Gate from the elves and sent at least one party to the west to find out about what his divine companion Seren had been up to, but this party was ambushed by elves south of Eagles' Peak and did not succeed in reaching the city.

Likewise, the elves were able to defend their territory during the God Wars. Some would leave the safety of Tirannwn and actively fight in Seren's name, while others, most notably the militant Cadarn Clan, successfully warded off any enemies at the Underground Pass.

After Seren's Departure
Following the end of the wars, Seren was forced to leave Gielinor in accordance with the Edicts of Guthix, and Guthix personally made this request, having found out that she had lied to him about leaving the world at the end of the First Age. Seren was, however, still unable to part with her followers, nor could she lie to her friend again. Therefore, she decided to explode into a shower of crystal so that she could remain with her followers. A saddened Guthix then left Tirannwn, leaving the elves without Seren's guidance for the first time in thousands of years.

When the Fourth Age commenced, the Break Out occurred amongst the elves and a pass over the Galarpos, Arandar, was built. Many travelled east, exploring the lands that are now Kandarin. Spearheaded by the Cadarn Clan, led by the legendary King Baxtorian, the expedition formed ties with the humans and gnomes in the area, although they failed to form treaties with the Bandosians due to the contemporary Feldip Hills Civil War taking place. Soon, the elves permanently settled in the newly acquired area, marking the creation of the first major elven settlement outside Prifddinas.

Civil War
During the absence of the Cadarn and the other settlers, however, the Iorwerth Clan betrayed the other clans and invaded and occupied Prifddinas. They brutally slaughtered thousands of elves and took full control of the city. Until 1930, the eastern elves had no idea about this. Only the Great Divide prompted the eastern elven elders to sent a scouting party to Tirannwn, of which only one elf, Adwr, returned to report the civil war.

In an attempt to restore peace, Baxtorian launched a campaign to liberate the crystal city from Lord Iorwerth's clutches. The elves attempted to recapture the city at the Battle of Prifddinas, which ended disastrously in 1935 with many Cadarn dead. This left the few survivors stranded in Isafdar (notably Lletya, a small, hidden village the refugees erected), where they still fight today as rebels.

At some point, the Council of Elders somehow managed to completely revert the city to a crystal seed, forcing Lord Iorwerth to settle in a camp outside its walls, although they also maintain one inside the crater, run by the Mayor of Prifddinas. Those outside the city when it was reverted were puzzled about how it was able to completely disappear, but continued to hope that it could somehow be restored.

Regrowth
In 169 of the Fifth Age, the rebel elves, led by Arianwyn, asked a human adventurer who'd found their way to Tirannwn and had been tricked by Lord Iorwerth and King Lathas to investigate the activities of the mourners in West Ardougne. This led the adventurer to the long-forgotten Temple of Light, whose safeguard they restored to stop the Death Guard, and from there into a collapsed tunnel that leads into the undercity of Prifddinas, near the Grand Library. It was at this point that the rebels realised the city had been reverted to seed by the elders.

In the first year of the Sixth Age the Corridor of Light was unblocked, and Arianwyn asked for the adventurer's help to further investigate the activities of Lord Iorwerth. The human, once again disguised as a member of the Death Guard, stole documents from the Mayor of Prifddinas that, once interpreted by the archaeologist Iestin Edern, revealed Iorwerth's newest plan; to use the power of the Dark Lord, fuelled by the mass sacrifice of West Ardougne's population, to regrow Prifddinas. As only the Lord of the Iorwerth Clan would be involved, the resulting city would reflect and favour only the interests of the Iorwerth Clan.

Arianwyn and Iestin decided on a three-fold plan to prevent this. The first stage was to remove the ability to sacrifice the humans of West Ardougne, by sending the human adventurer to incite a rebellion against the Mourners and the king that permitted their activities. This resulted in a revolution which ended with the defeat of King Lathas and the head mourner and the eviction of the entire Death Guard from the city by the Royal Army of Ardougne. The second step was to regrow the city themselves, using the power of all eight founding clans, minus Lord Iorwerth. Arianwyn revealed himself as Lord Cadarn, and Iestin knew enough to take the role of Lord Iorwerth in the ceremony, leaving the adventurer to locate the remaining six elders, who'd gone into hiding to await the day of regrowth shortly after the Battle of Prifddinas. Finally, they convinced General Hining and the Tyras Army to distract Lord Iorwerth and the Death Guard by starting a large battle.

The adventurer successfully collected the hidden elders, after which the eight elves performed the crystal singing ceremony inside the Grand Library to direct their clan seal's power into the seed that formed the heart of the city. Once again the adventurer assisted them in this task, adjusting the mirrors that directed the seals' light, and defending the elders from the Dark Lord, eventually revealed to be a fragment of Seren obsessed with death, who had been summoned in a weakened form due to the activation of the seals and the deaths of Lathas and the combatants in the battle above ground. The restoration of the city weakened the Dark Lord with every step of the ritual, so he eventually summoned Lord Iorwerth and killed him to draw power from his death. However, the adventurer withstood the next wave of his and his minions' attacks, leading to his defeat at the restoration ceremony's completion.

The city began to regrow in a manner favourable to all elves, and the elders announced that they had learned from their former isolation, and as a result the new Prifddinas would be open to all races, including humans and gnomes.

Development history
Prifddinas was released with the Regicide quest in 2004, alongside the rest of the elven lands. The walls were originally made of stone and much thicker, containing ladders and a much thinner wall inside the city proper. Only half of it was shown on the world map, although this soon changed to three quarters. With the release of Mourning's Ends Part I, the walls of the city were made thinner and changed to be made out of crystal instead. When the unknown areas of the map were filled in, Prifddinas no longer lacked a segment, and a large coastal area was added north of it.

At the end of 2013, it was announced that Prifddinas would compete with Invention for a scheduled release in July/August of 2014 in the in-game poll. The poll was released on 13 January 2014, along with Mod Osborne's Q&A on the forum. The poll passed, and the city was released in two batches. The Plague's End quest was released in August, the first batch was released in September, and the second is scheduled for release in November.

Trivia

 * "Prifddinas" translates to "capital city" in.
 * The release priority of Prifddinas was the subject of the first Dragonstone Power to the Players poll, competing against the Inventor skill for a 2014 release, with the losing option being released later. Prifddinas won with a small majority of the votes.
 * In the Jagex released a player submission where the Wise Old Man has a plan to get into the elven city.