Regarding Iris' secret, I could have sworn I saw her taking care of little girl Lily in a flashback... And she looked exactly the same. My guess is that she's immortal or has an exceptionally long lifespan, so she doesn't want people to get close to her and die off.
If I had to think of a common story pattern, it's possible she had a close relationship with a human, but when the human grew old they shoved her away out of spite. Or something along those lines.
Also the fact that Lord Blind is secretly (not really) a superhuman... somehow not surprising. Someone with that many stitches better have earned them.