Runes

Runes are a source of powerful magic that can be accessed and used by toons. Here's all known information on runes. It is important to note that while this page refers to Micco runes the Demons, Angels and Dishes all have their own runes separate from those discussed on this page. Please visit the Magic page for more information on the various runes used by other races.

## Description

### What is a Rune?

Runes are specific magic symbols that each produce their own unique magical effect depending on the meaning of the symbol. According to Holly runes are old magic that comes from nature (Ch 21).

### How does a Rune work?

In general, runes are used by toons in order to tap into and shape their internal magical energy (Ch 61). While Micco runes, like all magic, get its power from a toon's soul these runes are specifically meant to focus energy to their center (Ch 21) and work strongest when dealing with repulsion or attraction. For example, the mural at Yen Sid University works by attracting peace, calm, and focus while repelling anger, fear, and dark thoughts. Runes can affect one another when used together to create more elaborate effects. This means that choosing the wrong rune to add to a sequence may ruin the effect of one of the other runes in the sequence (Ch 51). Holly compares the way runes interact to words in a language (Inky Extra's Ch 49). However, using multiple runes is not always necessary if the desired effect is already fairly similar to the rune's original effect. For example, Holly and Alice were able to alter a cloak rune in order to cloak emotions, which the normal rune would not be able to (Ch 134).

Ex-

Original Cloak RuneAltered Cloak RuneOther magic also seems to be able to effect/change runes as seen when one of Cuphead's chaser bullets hits a rune, causing the sleep rune to change into a different one that causes a rose bush to grow from his head (Ch 90). Holly also mentions that runes are a very direct magic, often needing to be physically written on or very near the thing they wish to be used on (Ch 61). While runes are flexible magic they are limited in power, both by the individual user's knowledge, inherent magical ability, and the limits of what each rune is designed to do (Inky Extra's Ch 53).

Holly has also mentioned that in order to perform rune magic one needs both a rune and an activator. This is what allows one person to write runes while another person activates it. The rune activator will tap into whatever person reaches out to it, or in some cases just the closest living thing. It has been shown that Dishes do not require an activator to activate a rune, presumably due to their large amount of magic (Inky Extra's Ch 110).

Rune magic can be used either by the user feeding magic into them or by the runes feeding magic into the user. While rune magic that feeds magic into the person is much longer lasting, able to stay active for thousands of years, it is much more complicated then the more direct path of the user directly feeding energy into the rune because you must get magic from an outside source instead of using just your own internal magic. Rune magic that feeds magic into the user usually has to be crafted in the form of an array instead of just a single rune. This type of rune magic can be very dangerous as you would need to pull the extra magic from its surrounding area, usually the other living things in the environment, and the user could completely drain these other living things if they are not careful. However, it is possible to fuel an array using solely non-life based energy from the surrounding environment (Ch 248).

## Rune Arrays

Rune arrays are the complex magical symbols made by combining multiple runes together in order to get a more powerful or specific magical effect then what could be achieved by any one rune. The design of the array is meant to stabilize the runes so they can be safely combined to obtain the intended effect. Just like any combination of runes great care must be taken in which runes are combined together and how they are laid out in the array. Every line, circle, and symbol must be carefully considered and placed in the larger array. Like all rune magic, an array needs an activator symbol in order to function. If the activator is damaged then the entire array will shut down (Ch 248).

As mentioned earlier on this page, rune arrays, though they can be just as flexible as any other form of rune magic, are used in the majority of rune spells that deal with feeding magic into a user. For example, the array shown here was designed by Holly and Felix in order to feed emotion based energy into Boris (Ch 248). It uses a star array, which is the most common and easy to use form. The star array can perform a variety of runes together with the most important one being the center rune, which acts as the crux of the spell. It should be noted however that, while this particular array does use a center rune, it is possible to use something else as the center crux, such as an individuals own hand (Ch 259). The outside circle of this array is made to support and stabilize the rest of the array. The inner circle is comprised of energy runes that feed into the center rune. The multi-colored runes on the points of the star feed off the energy of the elements, which charges the array and coverts the energy supplied by the inner circle into the emotional magic of the center rune. The energy from the center rune is then channeled into Boris (Ch 248).

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* If opposing energy type runes are used together they will end up cancelling each other out, while combining complementary energy runes will increase their power (Ch 248)

### Notes

* Holly is the character most often connected to runes and is usually the one responsible for the use of rune magic in the series
* The compression rune was originally called Space but was changed for the sake of accuracy