character info — illumi zoldyck;

[needlepoints]

Will contain spoilers to those who only watch the Hunter x Hunter (2011) anime.





Canon: Hunter x Hunter anime (2011) — main
Hunter x Hunter manga — secondary
background canon source material^*: Hunter x Hunter anime (1999), Hunter x Hunter Drama CDs, Hunter x Hunter Musical: Nightmare of Zoldyck

*Drama CDs and musicals are headcanoned in solely as "examples" of how Illumi could possibly interact with other characters and/or his preferences towards certain hobbies, etc.

canon point: episode 142 (corresponds with manga chapters 327 thru 329)
Main voice (seiyuu): Masaya Matsukaze
Secondary voice (seiyuu): Urara Takano
Height: 185 cm; 6'1"
Weight: 68 kg; 149.6 lbs
Bloodtype: A
Age: 24


Background:

Besides Hunters, there are many other various professions one can have in the world. Illumi Zoldyck comes from such a family composed of a specific profession. Located in the whole surrounding area of Kukuroo Mountain in the Republic of Padokia, the Zoldyck family resides, undisturbed and shrouded in mystery, except for a foolish few who dare try to enter their closed off estate, for they are renown as the deadliest assassins of the world. They are so elusive that a single photo of any of the family members can be sold for millions. Their located is even treated as a tourist attraction, but is heavily guarded by walls and giant beasts-like guard dogs. Those who enter should not expect to come back out alive.

Illumi is the eldest son of of Silva Zoldyck and Kikyou Zoldyck. His other siblings are Milluki, Killua, Alluka, and Kalluto. Because they are a family of assassins, once can already wonder about their upbringing. Illumi, being the eldest, was subject to an overwhelming amount of attention form not only his parents but grandfather and (most likely) his great-great-grandfather. From birth, he was trained to endure intense situations and hardships — fed home-cooked poison-laced meals to build up a resistance made by his mother, and training with electric shock torture for examples of known teachings that he went through. This is to help them have the upper hand for business once they were deemed old and experienced enough to go out into the assassination field and become full-blown killers. Its assumed that Silva and Zeno (his grandfather) were in charge of that part of his training. Illumi was either raised to be able to assess his enemies as "whether they should be killed of whether they cannot be defeated", or it was a code he set for himself. He also was either taught of instilled in himself and to be unreadable, as he keeps his emotions heavily guarded, and declares to live his life without such things as friends, for he believes that trusting anyone outside of a Zoldyck could prove fatal. He always thinks in the benefit of the family. Thus, Illumi became the ideal representation of an assassin of the Zoldyck family.

When his second sibling was born, things shifted slightly within the family. Killua, at a young age, possessed qualities of hi's father's side of the family , along with skill and potential. It was deemed that Killua would become the family heir and that Illumi would assist in raising him. Its unknown whether he had such a large role in raising his other siblings, but he did at least also raise them in some form or fashion, as part of his duty being the eldest and the fact that he and all of the older members of the family are professional assassins.

Being the oldest, his influence on his siblings is shown throughout his interactions with them throughout the series time-and-time again.

Headcanons: The Zoldyck family is probably of a Romani and Chinese descent (or what counts for it in the world of Hunter x Hunter).
Kikyou dressed all of her children in feminine clothing up until a certain point in their childhood, minus Milluki.

Personality:

● Outside the Zoldyck family, Illumi is seen as a cold-hearted individual with an impassive expression, or in the words of Leorio, "a worthless piece of crap."

● Physically, his looks are in the uncanny valley because of his eerie, wide, cat-like lackluster black eyes; yet other than that he very beautiful in appearance: fairly pale in complexion but complemented with a sharp facial structure and long, black, dutifully maintained black hair.

● But back to the mentally. Illumi is a cold-blooded, elite assassin, or tries to be. Because he was the eldest son of Silva and Kikyou, he keeps his emotions heavily guarded, and declares to live his life without such things as friends, for he believes that trusting anyone outside of a Zoldyck could prove fatal.

● views emotion as useless

● refers to Killua as a "passionless puppet of darkness"

● eccentric i.e. digging holes into the ground to sleep. (its most likely an "assassin art technique but Illumi is the only one so far out of the Zoldyck family seen to have done this)

● doesn't need to earn the right to be Killua's brother

● Election Arc thoughts/Episode 143:

● Gittarackur: Illumi makes a point to stay out of the public eye, or rather, to disguise himself when he is in the public eye. Because Gittarackur is a disguise to keep his actual identity secret, it's quite complex, if not a tad bit strange. Using many needles that he stills into the nerves all over his head, Illumi transforms his features into Gittarackur: a broader grayish-purple skinned guise with red eyes, blue/indigo Mohawk and eyebrows, and king, purple painted fingernails. His voice as Gittarackur is deeper and has an echo, while his body moves like an animatronic. When he transforms, it sounds like that of a movie reel.

● Illumi does not seek change or personal growth within himself; he ignores what is right in front of him, like the friendship he has with Hisoka for instance, for he does not believe that he has any friends (as to him, a assassin should not have). He isolates himself from those outside of the family, except on the off-chance that he needs to be social, and even then he is wary of people by default. Attachments to him are seen as weaknesses, and the only pleasure one should get is from the death that they bring through their work.

● If Illumi Illumi finds himself dealing with things are difficult for him to understand and/or things he just doesn't want to deal with, he will answer remarks towards his questionable traits and morals with a flippant dismissal of the subject or turn it into either a business ordeal/mission..

● Which means he has things he isn't willing to face nor accept;his reaction to those things is to run from them, the creed he taught Killua. This, along with his belief in that he should have a strict control over his emotions, are his major weaknesses.

● he's really just super control-obsessed in all honesty. it's possible that because his life was so controlled and he was given the duty to train Killua that his desire to control manifested so strongly.

Gittarackur:


General Abilities: The Zoldyck family are elite assassins, and Illumi has been trained since birth in the art of assassination. Thanks to his training he possesses many abilities a normal humans and many pro Hunters don't, like the following:
Enhanced Strength: advanced armed and unarmed combat, along with the strength to open the testing gate doors on the family estate. There are seven doors and its unknown how many of them at the moment Illumi can open, but the smallest door weighs 2 tons, and a bigger panel weighs twice as much as the panel immediately preceding it. The gate is designed so that it opens the door corresponding to the strength of the pushing force coming from the person pushing against it.
Enhanced Speed, Agility, and Reflexes: Illumi's possesses a superior speed to many in the Hunter x Hunter universe due to training and remarkable martial artistry. He is also able to have great reflex when reacting to the slightest hint of danger.
Stealth (outside of zetsu): Being an assassin, especially one of the Zoldyck family, Illumi is able to walk without his footsteps being heard by the normal human ear, and even sometimes other sentient beings. They are very inaudible. He also is very proficient at hiding from opponents/staking out opponents.
Other things include a having high stamina/withstanding hard training sessions, and long battles; resistance to almost all known poisons, electric resistance due to electric torture, and a high pain resistance to pain.

Nen Abilities: Illumi's medium is his needles he keeps on his body, pierced into his skin. His general nen ability is to alter his appearance, thus making Illumi a master of disguise. With the assistance of his needles, he can change himself into almost anyone and will look identical to them; without the assistance of his needles, the disguise will only last for four or five hours at most and his eyes remain the same wide, dark, emotionless black that they normally are. With his needles, he is able to place them into others, with or without their notice. When placed into the brain he can hypnotise his target into following his orders; i.e. sometime before the start of the series he placed one into his younger bother Killua's head and was able to persuade him to never fight an opponent stronger than he was, among other things.

His last currently known ability with his needles would be would be his Needlemen. Taking special needles (seemingly the ones he keeps on his shirt), Illumi adds a powerful amount of nen to them and sticks them into a victim from the back of the head at an incredible accuracy of throwing them, and creates soldiers to work for him. His aura enters the victim, normally normal citizens who have no knowledge of nen and are defenseless against it. And the moment they are pierced they will work for him until die. Sometimes they die from working so hard to fulfill his requests; if they live then they turn into vegetables.

This is different than the type of needle he uses to control Killua, or even the needles he uses to disguise himself as others (though to an outsider, all of his needles seem to be the same). It is also a different way he is using his nen, though the concept is still fundamentally the same as he normally does.

Relationship with other characters in Hunter x Hunter:

Zoldyck Family
Maha Zoldyck. Age: 98.

Not much is known on Maha, other than he is Illumi's Great-Great Grandfather who has once fought Netero. He is an Enhancer, and on the scale of where he lies in the Zoldyck family hierarchy is "untouchable".

Zeno Zoldyck. Age: 67.

Illumi's Grandfather. They most likely have a Give-and-Take relationship. Other than that, he's a known and skilled assassin of the family.

Silva Zoldyck. Age: 46.

Illumi's father. They have a Give-and-Take relationship, though his orders are normally still absolute. Silva is current head of the Zoldyck family.

Kikyou Zoldyck. Age: 42.

Kikyou is quite the doting mother, and smothers her children with love. Illumi, being the eldest, was privy to her smothering affection on top of the worst training against poisons and electricity/pain tolerance. Illumi will obey his mothers requests as long as he sees nothing wrong with them. She originates from Meteor City.

Milluki Zoldyck. Age: 19.

Illumi's relationship with Milluki is of control. He will use Milluki's resources to further his own goal, but does not expect to return the favour. This doesn't mean that he doesn't care for him like an older brother should though.

Killua Zoldyck. Age: 12; 15 (ch 340— current).

dearest baby brother killua,
you are mine forever
let me control you
its for the best for everyone
i think i want to bang you
you must be the perfect assassin and i'm the only one fit for the job of making sure you exceed in that



what do others mean when they say you're terrified of me?

sincerely illumi.

Alluka Zoldyck. Age: 11.

Like everyone within the Zoldyck Family besides Killua, Illumi finds Alluka to be a fearful thing because of Nanika. Seeing that Nanika's powers could destroy the family, Illumi does not treat Alluka/Nanika as one of his younger brothers (sister), but an outsider to the family, and a threat. Up until Killua finally tells him all of the rules to Alluka/Nanika's powers, Illumi wants her dead; afterwards Illumi wishes to either control Alluka or control Killua so that he can control Alluka.

Kalluto Zoldyck. Age: 10.

Illumi and Kalluto are able to work together efficiently during missions. Illumi cares for Kalluto like he does all his siblings, but up until his departure, Kalluto was normally at the side of their mother.

Mike

Zoldyck Family guard dog.
*Noted that I see Mike as white as opposed to the 2011 version's purple/black, as the manga shown him as white.

Hunters

Hisoka

Illumi's friend; most likely his best friend (though he'd never admit it). Illumi and Hisoka are long-time business partners, though neither are above offing the other if it were to come to it. Illumi's expressionless and by extension, emotionless act can easily be broken around the magician.

Gon Freecss

A dangerous boy and Killua's best friend, Illumi does not care for Gon. At all. But because too many people are in his way that he'd rather not cross (Hisoka, Killua somewhat) for him to kill Gon, he leaves the boy be. Illumi does however acknowledge that Gon has quite the potential to grow into a powerful Hunter.

Others

Butlers:

Amane and Tsubone report directly to Silva and Zeno, while the others are dispersed between any Zoldyck family member. Zebro is the groundskeeper.