Ilia Amitola

Ilia Amitola (イリア・アミトラ, Iria Amitora), is both a fictional character and deuteragonist from the Tales of RWBY series created by Monty Oum and Yoshiharu Gotanda. She is a chameleon Faunus and a former member of the White Fang.

"I'll stand with you! If... if you'd have me."
 * —Ilia Amitola, deciding to side with Blake Belladonna.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Cherami Kuehn (English), Mariya Ise (Japanese), Not Known (Albanian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Basque), Not Known (Brazilian), Not Known (Cantonese), Not Known (Catalan), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (French), Not Known (Galician), Not Known (German), Not Known (Greek), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hong Kong), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Indonesian), Not Known (Isralian), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Mandarin), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Portuguese), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Serbian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Tagalog), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (Valencian), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

Appearance
Ilia is a young woman and a chameleon Faunus. In her normal appearance, her skin has somewhat darker spots on her arms, legs, stomach and face. Her brown hair is tied back in a ponytail that curls at the end like a chameleon's tail, and her eyes are a light gray with a faintly bluish tint. Her Faunus trait grants her the ability to change the color of her skin, hair and eyes, allowing her to blend in with her environment. Her colors also appear to change in response to her emotions. As noted by her concept art, her body type gives her a smaller bust and rear.

White Fang (Volume 4-5)
As a White Fang member, she wears a Grimm Mask with chameleon horns on it to hide her identity. Her mask also points upward at the top and extends past her hairline; this resembles the crest of a veiled chameleon. She wears a black, plum and navy sleeveless stealth suit with short legs. The suit has two parts to the bottom section - a navy blue front panel that matches her belts and a plum color to the rest. The color divide is at the center of her thighs. The stealth suit's zipper is gold, and over it, she wears navy blue belts with gold buckles. She wears simple black boots with a cuff and a black glove on her right hand.

Casual Outfit (Volume 6-Current)
After the Battle of Haven, she wears a more casual appearance. She wears a short black jacket with two tails, with a gold zipper, buckle and buttons and with a white interior. She also wears a gray short top that exposes her stomach, maroon jean pants, black sneakers and black matching wristbands.


 * Hair Color: Brown
 * Skin Color: Tan
 * Eye Color: Gray
 * Age: Not Known
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: 5'6" (1.68 meters) minus ears
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
When she is first introduced, Ilia appears to operate between moral grounds. While she hesitates to attack Blake Belladonna until "True Colors", she is not opposed to others doing it or herself harming others, such as Sun Wukong. Until then, she is willing to make personal sacrifices for the betterment of the collective so long as the collective is the Faunus, specifically the White Fang's goals, and not people in general. Ilia is a lesbian and was romantically attracted to Blake, but she disregarded her feelings for Blake during the time in favor of what the White Fang demanded.

She used to enjoy blending in with Humans, even playing along with their anti-Faunus beliefs despite the hypocrisy. This stopped after an incident involving the deaths of multiple Faunus, including her parents, in a mining accident. The event served as a catalyst for her joining the White Fang. Ilia was also vindictive enough to assault her former friends in Atlas as they snickered at the losses sustained in the mining accident.

Her loathing of Humans is not merely because of those who mistreat or segregate Faunus; it is also against Humans or Faunus who stand by and do nothing to help or improve the Faunus' standing outside of Menagerie. Ultimately, her righteous anger from her painful past has blinded her to the fact that her actions are based on revenge and will make her no better, perhaps worse, than those who wronged her.

Ultimately, Ilia realizes her wrongs and seeks redemption, volunteering to stand with Blake and showing her moral compass has guided her back to the right path.

Friends/Allies

 * Team RWBY
 * Blake Belladonna
 * Team SSSN
 * Sun Wukong
 * Neptune Vasilias
 * Ghira Belladonna

Family

 * Unnamed Parents (Deceased)

Neutral

 * White Fang
 * Corsac Albain
 * Fennec Albain
 * Adam Taurus

Powers and Abilities
Ilia is very agile, able to climb and run along trees and rooftops.

Her Faunus trait allows her to change the color of her skin, eyes and hair. This gives her the ability to hide from others by blending in with the environment, which she uses with great skill. Like a real chameleon, her skin seems to change with her emotions. For example, in "Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back", when she becomes frustrated, her skin turns red, and her hair, eyes and skin spots turn yellow. Following this, she takes on a more sorrowful expression, with her skin turning green and her hair, eyes and skin spots turning blue. In certain cases, her eyes or skin spots may change without her skin changing.

She has at least some training in handling explosives, for she is able to disarm Adam Taurus' bombs at Haven Academy.

Weapons

 * Main article: Lightning Lash

Ilia's weapon of choice is a whip that is able to load Dust. It is capable of cutting through metal easily with its blade. It has two slots along the hilt filled with Lightning Dust. The Dust's effect can be remotely activated by grasping part of the hilt, which causes electricity to run along the whip. The effect is strong enough to taze people as shown when Ilia uses it on Corsac Albain.

Past
Ilia Amitola grew up in the Faunus miner community in Mantle before moving to Atlas to attend a prep school. During those days, she was forced by her parents to hide her Faunus heritage. She enjoyed blending in with Humans and even spoke badly of Faunus along with her Human friends. One day, she and her classmates received news of a large explosion causing a cave-in at the mines, resulting in the deaths of her parents. Her friends snickered about it, and Ilia could not contain her emotions. As she cried, her skin turned blue, and her friends became afraid of her. She then assaulted them. Sometime later, she joined the White Fang and befriended Blake Belladonna.

Canon

 * White Fang vs. Schnee Dust Company (Won)
 * Ilia Amitola vs. Blake Belladonna and Sun Wukong (Fled)
 * Belladonna Household, and Sun Wukong vs. White Fang (Won, after switching sides)
 * Menagerie Army and Mistral Police vs. White Fang (Won)

Theme songs

 * Volume 5 Blake Character Short: "Smile" - Jeff Williams.

Etymology

 * Amitola is the word for "rainbow" in Sioux or Cherokee.

Notes & Trivia

 * Prior to the "Volume 5 Blake Character Short", Miles Luna noted that Ilia could easily pass for a human.
 * The song "Smile" from the RWBY Volume 5 OST alludes to Ilia's past, hiding her Faunus identity from people in Atlas.