The Staff of armadyl is a quest item used in the quest Temple of Ikov, If you side with Lucien in the quest, you must steal this staff from a temple and bring it to him, if not, however, you must go back to Lucien and kill him.
Background and history
The godstaff 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. It is not known when or how it was created, but at some point it was placed in the temple of Ikov, guarded by the Guardians of Armadyl, for safekeeping.
Close at 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, so he took the staff to bring it to Saradomin. 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, the back-then Mahjarrat 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 it's power.
Zamorak, who was now able to get close enough to Zaros, launched an attack on his castle. Zamorak's followers (including the most other Mahjarrat, as well as Lord Drakan, 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, he stumbled in such a way that Zamorak was impaled with the staff too.
In this way, Zaros' power flowed through the staff into Zamorak. Zaros slowly dissapeared from the world, cursing everyone responsible for his banishment to remain on this world as invisible ghosts. Later Zamorak was also banished from the world by the other gods because he killed one of their kind.
However, Zamorak quickly returned to Gielinor as a god himself, he declared war upon the other gods. And this was how the God Wars started.
Years later, 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, should the player choose to.
Current role in the game
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.
The Staff is considered one of the most powerful items ever to exist on Gielinor's plane. For example, Lennissa claims that "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 this power would have been so great that he could have overthrown all on this world, and made it into his own image!"
A replica of the staff is currently on display at the Varrock Museum, after you speak to the museum curator on the second floor and explain to him what it looked like during the Temple of Ikov quest.