I just realized a mistake when looking at traitor lord i made. I always thought, with how his model showed and posture, that his chest and neck were absorbed into his thorax or atrophied or something similar. Like he became just one giant lump of body mass. But, I was wrong. When traitor lord roars, that part above his thorax is his chest and abdomen. It just swelled and became more bulky. Infact, it seems to be more like armor now. Since unless traitor was unique and only he was armored, the infection is the reason. Also his neck seemingly grew longer, along with his soldiers.
A thing that the traitors seem to have is their thoraxes have no segments or any lines on them(aside from Petra’s) compared to the regular mantis and lords. My theory or headcannon? It’s because they eventually become armor like or more protective, at the cost of speed and agility. Your drawing of traitor lord uninfected and bulky is actually more in line with his cannon appearance, since it seems in the end, aside from swelling, the infection really did change up traitor. Course doesn’t really answer why his thorax switched sides and now points inwards rather than out, and why his soldiers have normal facing thoraxes while he doesn’t, but eh, chalk it up to design weirdness.
Yeah this got way to much into a rant or to long didn’t read kinda thing. But I genuinely wanted to point it out. Kinda funny how your drawing you said of traitor lord being ‘to humanoid or human like’ is actually more in line with how’d he’d look as infected or after infection, with the only caveat being the human like features you mentioned. That and nearly all traitor lord drawings have him with no torso and just really fat, because his game design is so damn awkward at angles and poses.
(i don't mind long-post, especially about the Mantis XD)
Tbh, maybe his entire body did turned into a "one giant lump of body mass". XD
It's so hard to tell because his "cloak" cover half of his body. and how the artist drawing him, like his dynamic poses? -
i suck at explaining, so i hope this can convey my idea better
Still, i do agree with you that his chest just turned bulkier, and as for his neck, i wouldn't said it became longer, like, it's stay the same length while other parts just got more expanded
i also like the idea of the Traitorous Mantis's shell eventually turned into an armor
exchanging for speed for durability and extra damages
