Staff of Armadyl

The staff of Armadyl is an Elder Artefact, but is also known as an Elder Weapon or a God Slayer, and is able to give mortals the ability to use its tremendous powers and amazingly increases the size of your pants. The staff is preserved by the Guardians of Armadyl deep inside the Temple of Ikov. In a quest with the same name, a shady individual named Lucien tasks the player to collect the staff for him, providing them a pendant necessary to overcome obstacles in the temple. If the player sides with Lucien in the quest, he or she steals the staff from the Temple of Ikov and bring it to him. If the player sides with the guardians of Armadyl against Lucien, however, the player finds and defeats him. This to no avail, as Lucien ignores his supposed death and decides to hire someone else to retrieve it, later revealed to be the treasure hunter Movario.

Background and history
The staff of Armadyl belongs to the god of purity and justice, Armadyl. It is an extremely powerful god-weapon and has a very important role in the history of Gielinor. According to a recent FAQ, the staff was not always Armadyl's, and, as an elder weapon, was most likely used by another god before Armadyl claimed it as his own, whereby his followers then began using the symbol adorned on the top of the staff to represent their god.

At some point it was placed in the Temple of Ikov, guarded by the guardians of Armadyl, for safekeeping.

Close to the end of the Second Age, the staff was taken away from the temple by a Saradomin follower named Valdez. Valdez himself claimed that he stumbled upon the temple accidentally, the temple appeared to be abandoned, and he took the staff to bring it to Saradomin. The reason why the temple was abandoned remains unknown.

Before Valdez could reach his goal, however, he was robbed by the thief Rennard, who took the staff and decided to sell it. He gave the messenger Kharrim the task to search for an interested buyer. And Kharrim went to Zamorak (A Mahjarrat at the time) who was planning a rebellion against his master Zaros. Now that Zamorak had the staff in his possession, he was finally able to put his plans in action to overthrow Zaros.

Lennissa, a Saradomin follower who was spying at Zamorak's camp, became aware of the theft of the staff, and she immediately went to the wizard Dhalak, so that he could inform Saradomin about what happened. However, Dhalak, who also wanted to make Zaros fall from his throne, cast a spell over the staff so that it could easily go close enough to Zaros' castle without Zaros noticing its power.

Zamorak, who was now able to get close enough to Zaros, launched an attack on his castle. Zamorak's most powerful followers (most of the Mahjarrat, as well as Lord Drakan with his relatives, Viggora and Thammaron), distracted Zaros' body guards while Zamorak fought against Zaros, Zamorak was able to stab Zaros in the back with the staff, but Zaros just continued the fight. And when Zaros grabbed Zamorak's throat, Zamorak kicked Zaros, which caused Zaros to stumble and fall in such a way that both were impaled with the staff.

In this way, Zaros' power flowed through the staff into Zamorak. Zaros slowly dissapeared from Gielinor, cursing everyone responsible for his banishment to remain on the world as invisible ghosts. Later, Zamorak was also banished from the world by the other gods because he "killed" one of their kind.

After that, the staff was placed back in the Temple of Ikov, with its guardians still protecting it. It was during or after the Temple of Ikov quest that the staff was stolen again, by either you or Movario, this time for the Mahjarrat Lucien, who wants to become a god the same way Zamorak did with the staff.

Fifth Age
During Temple of Ikov, the staff can be seen on a table inside the temple. During the quest the player can choose to steal the staff and take it to Lucien, or side with the guardians of Armadyl and kill Lucien.

If the player opposed Lucien in the Temple of Ikov quest, the staff remains in the Guardians of Armadyl chamber in the Temple of Ikov dungeon. On 28 October 2008, those players received the Armadyl communiqué warning that the staff is stolen by Movario. Lucien was found to have taken the staff, whether from the player after the Temple of Ikov quest or from Movario, a human researcher working for Lucien.

During While Guthix Sleeps, Lucien can be seen with the staff. Lucien wants to use the staff to attain near godhood. However, it is shown that he was looking for the Stone of Jas as the staff wasn't enough to overthrow Zamorak, since Lucien is very weak on face to face combat (according to Viggora). The staff is considered one of the most powerful items ever to exist on Gielinor's plane, as when the player talks to the ghost of Lennissa, she says: "As I told you, the Empty Lord was extremely powerful, but not so powerful that he could rule over the other deities of this world. Should he have made a move against any other god, then he could still have been easily brought down by the combined efforts of the others. The theft of Armadyl’s staff changed this however. If he had taken possession of this god-weapon, then his power would have been so great that he could have overthrown all on this world, and made it into his own image!" Lucien maintained possession of the staff up until the events of the quest The Ritual of the Mahjarrat, when he uses it to increase his power during the 18th Mahjarrat Ritual of Rejuvenation. After Lucien brings out and use the Stone of Jas, the Stone's guardians (the Dragonkin) are summoned, who proceed to attack Lucien and kill him by impaling his chest with the staff, smashing the top section in the process. Afterwards, Lucien's body mysteriously disappears and everybody else leaves the scene. Shards of the shattered crystal that once adorned the staff can be recovered from the Glacors, created by Lucien during his last stand, and reassembled into the orb of Armadyl and ultimately into the Armadyl battlestaff, a pale shadow of its former self.

Through means currently unknown, the devious Zarosian Mahjarrat Sliske, having recovered the shaft of the staff from the Dragonkin, crafted a replacement orb and then uses it to kill Guthix in the name of Zaros, bringing an end to the Fifth Age. Sliske is still in possession of the staff, using it for his own goals.

A replica of the staff is currently on display at the Varrock Museum, after players speak to Historian Minas on the first floor and explain to him what it looked like during the Temple of Ikov quest.

Trivia

 * In RuneScape Classic, the staff was wieldable, but looked no different from a normal staff.
 * Before the release of While Guthix Sleeps, the staff of Armadyl resembled a regular elemental staff at the time, but with an orange orb.
 * In the FAQ for The World Wakes, it is revealed that Armadyl found this staff and claimed it as his own, with his followers adopting the symbol on it as Armadyl's.
 * The staff also has a symbol similar to that of Saradomin's on the bottom. This is unsurprising, as Saradomin's symbol orignally was adopted from the Crown Archival which is another Elder Artefact.

Gallery
staff of Armadyl