Ilia Amitola

Ilia Amitola is a character in RWBY and a former member of the White Fang. She is first mentioned by Fennec Albain in "Menagerie" and makes her first appearance in "A Much Needed Talk".

Appearance
Ilia is a young woman and a chameleon Faunus. In her normal appearance, her skin has somewhat darker spots on her arms, legs 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 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.

As noted by her concept art, her body type gives her a smaller bust and rear.

Personality
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. Though she is romantically attracted to Blake, she sacrifices any future of this at the time in favor of what the White Fang demands.

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.

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. 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. The change in color begins at her eyes and reaches to her extremities from there. In certain cases, her eyes or skin spots may change without her skin changing.

Weapon
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 affect can be remotely activated by grasping part of the hilt, which causes electricity to run along the whip. The affect is strong enough to taze people as shown when used on Corsac Albain.

Trivia

 * Amitola is the word for "rainbow" in Sioux or Cherokee.
 * Ilia is the first confirmed LGBT (main) character in the series.
 * Prior to the Volume 5 Blake Character Short, Miles Luna noted that Ilia could easily pass for a human.