The "Lord of the Land" is most definitely not approaching when I reach Wishvale (The level with the humans on one side, another keeper on the other, a distinct lack of gold and lava en masse) I take out all of the humans and then move onto the dungeon heart on the other side, but there is no knight, i'm just stuck waiting for my money to run out so that my minions tear my dungeon apart. Any help would be appreciated as this is a real annoyance and means I cannot continue with the game.

the level script reads:

IF(PLAYER_GOOD,TIMER5>=20000)
SET_FLAG(PLAYER_GOOD,FLAG0,1)
IF(PLAYER_GOOD,TOTAL_CREATURES==0)
ADD_PARTY_TO_LEVEL(PLAYER_GOOD,KNIGHT,-2,1)
SET_FLAG(PLAYER_GOOD,FLAG1,1)
DISPLAY_OBJECTIVE(73,PLAYER0)
IF(PLAYER_GOOD,TOTAL_CREATURES==0)
IF(PLAYER_GOOD,FLAG0==0)
DISPLAY_OBJECTIVE(74,PLAYER0)
ENDIF
ENDIF
ENDIF
ENDIF

so you've probably missed some of the heroes.
Explore the map more. (try digging east from the 3x3 room south-west of the lave

Yes. You must have missed a hero somewhere, probably he's stuck behind a locked door or on the wrong side of a lava pit that you haven't bridged over, or in a blocked-off room the wrong side of a wall with no tunneller to dig through the wall so you'll have to dig through to *him*.