Traitor Lord

"Deposed Lord of the Mantis tribe. Embraced the infection and turned against his sisters. I have felt that desire. The desire to take the infection into myself. To become stronger, more powerful... these thoughts haunt my dreams during the darkest times. A false hope, but it can burn so brilliantly in one's mind."

The Traitor Lord is a main boss in Hollow Knight. He blocks the path to the White Lady in the Queen's Gardens.

The Traitor Lord was one of the leaders of the Mantis Tribe along with his sisters, and particularly resented the kingdom of Hallownest. Similarly, he despised the relationship of his daughter with the Grey Mourner.

When he and his followers embraced the Infection to gain more powers, they were cast out from the Mantis Village. They eventually found their way to and settled in the Queen's Gardens. They sought to take the gardens for themselves and chase the White Lady out of her refuge but were pushed back by her protector, the knight Dryya. Despite this failure, the Lord and the other Mantis outcasts still remained in the gardens, now guided only by a basic territorial and violent instinct.

The Traitor Lord had a deceased daughter. Her grave can be found in the Queen’s Gardens just above the Stag Station, in a cave smothered by vines. Her grave can be seen in the background of his arena in Godhome as well.

The Traitor Lord can be found in a large building on the upper border of the gardens' wilds. When the Knight enters the place, they are first ambushed by Mantis Traitors, with the Lord jumping down from the ceiling thereafter. If the Knight rescued Cloth from the Ancient Basin, she will join the fight before his appearance. In doing so, she will be impaled by the Traitor Lord at the end of the fight. However, she also takes one last swipe with her club, bashing him on the head and leaving both dead.

If the Traitor Lord dies from the Knight alone, the infection bursts out of him and makes him explode. If Cloth kills him, less Infection bursts out and his husk collapses on the ground, his face and right horn shattered.

Behaviour and Tactics
Traitor Lord is a very large enemy in a very small arena and he attacks frequently.

If Cloth's quest has been followed, she will show up during the fight to aid the Knight, dealing 15 damage to Traitor Lord per club hit.

Traitor Lord's falling animation when entering the fight will also deal two masks of damage.

Use Shade Cloak dashing to avoid every attack Traitor Lord has. Use the spell Descending Dark for the invincibility frames. Strike with the Nail during those brief moments in between Traitor Lord's attacks. These are some of the most effective tactics against Traitor Lord.

Traitor Lord's two new attacks added in the Lifeblood update will only occur if the player strays too far from him. So long as the Knight is relatively close to Traitor Lord he will not perform these attacks and only Dash and Dive. Occasionally however he may quickly step a small distance backwards and perform these attacks through that method.

The only way to avoid the Traitor Lord's Ground Pound Attack is to have invincibility, such as that gained from using Shade Cloak or Descending Dark. Unlike all the other shockwave attacks in the game, the Traitor Lord's shockwaves span as tall as the ceiling of the arena. However, it is guaranteed that the player will have gained the Shade Cloak upgrade by this time as the player will have had to pass a Shade Gate to reach this boss.

Shape of Unn can be used to weave between Traitor Lord's wind-scythes while healing.

It is possible to jump to the top right side of the room and charge up the crystal dash and stay there until Cloth or a companion charm (Glowing Womb, Grimmchild, or Weaversong) finishes the job. The only attacks that may cause damage while clinging to the wall are the Dive and Ground Pound attacks.

An easy way to cheese this boss is to use the Sharp Shadow charm and dodge through all of his physical attacks as they all home in on the player very well making it easier to dodge with the extended range.



Location
The Traitor Lord is located in the upper section of the Queen's Gardens, beyond a Shade Gate.

Trivia

 * The Traitor Lord is first mentioned in the Dream Nail dialogue of the uninfected Mantis Tribe. Also, a fourth broken throne can be seen next to the Mantis Lords' in the village.
 * In his original Journal entry, the Traitor Lord was identified as female. This was changed to its current version in the public release version 1.0.3.7.
 * The Mantis Traitors fought before the Traitor Lord do not drop Geo.
 * After the Lifeblood update, the Traitor Lord now visually emits a cloud of infection around his body
 * The blades that the Traitor Lord sends out in his Dancing Glaive attack are a bright infected orange instead of white like all the other spinning mantis projectiles.
 * The Traitor Lord fight is one of four fights in the game where an NPC aids the player; the other three are Uumuu with Quirrel, The Hollow Knight with Hornet and The Radiance with the aid of The Hollow Knight.
 * The Traitor Lord can be damaged before he lands from the ceiling.

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