Swemmel was King of Unkerlant during the Derlavaian War. Swemmel won the crown after defeating his twin brother Kyot in the Twinkings War. (He boiled Kyot alive at the end of the conflict) Swemmel ruled Unkerlant with an iron hand: he deprived the nobility and the government ministers of much of their power, regularly sacking or even executing them at the first sign of incompetence, disloyalty, and often just disagreement; and he enforced draconian rules on the common people with large forces of inspectors and impressers. He had no qualms about sacrificing his own subjects to the murderous "special magecraft" first used against his forces by Algarvians.