What is a carbuncle?

Answer 1

It is a severe abcess in the skin or a bright red gem - same colour as OED says. In the video game series Final Fantasy, or more specifically, Final fantasy 8, a carbuncle can be summoned, and it takes the form of a green little rabbit nymph creature with a carbuncle gem enlodged into its forehead, which grows into a horn of some sort. It is therefore named for its sparkling ruby colored forehead gem that causes the shiny reflect magic. The creature called carbuncle, in the game anyway, has the ability to shield it master/masters with a reflect magic/move that lasts for a good while. This reflection not only voids all magic attacks on the user(s) but it bounces the magic off of one person (depending on what game) or off of all members of the team, inflicting the damage onto the caster, sometimes double, if the player purposefully bounces some black magic on one of its own team members, assuming and hoping that the reflect has not yet worn off! The downside is that, reflect also causes all curative/white magic to bounce off of the team to the enemy, forcing the player to either put up with items in order to heal the party, not to heal at all, if there aren't any items available, or the player can dispel the reflect move (which is the only magic that is not able to be reflected) and cast cure or some form of it on the next turn. Some bosses have been known to cast reflect on the player's team just to cast cure/cura/curaga on the reflected character, doubling the curative power of the magic. Yu yevon, the final boss in FF10, has a auto curaga ability equipped, as it cures itself 9,999 points, the max number for a curaga each time, though by casting reflect on it, it willl heal a member of your party 9.999 points each turn!