No Blood for Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}
{{quote|''"War never changes. In the 21st century wars were still fought over the resources that could be acquired..."''
|''[[Fallout]]''}}
{{quote|''"When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will."''
|'''Frederic Bastiat'''}}
Nearly every conflict in human history has been over a resource of some kind. Land, water, food, oil, mineral rights, timber, livestock, labor... something other than national pride or honor and glory is usually lurking around as subtext whenever man kills man on the field of battle.
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The local [[Unobtanium]], [[Green Rocks]], [[Spice of Life]], [[Minovsky Physics|Minovsky Particles]], [[You Require More Vespene Gas|Vespene Gas]] or [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] are all naturally rare and valuable, so much that everybody wants to get their hands on it. Quite naturally, this can lead to world- or galaxy-wide wars over the damn stuff. Caught up in the middle are the usual tragic bystanders, for whom your magical miracle substances are [[Worthless Yellow Rocks]]. Things will get... [[Fantastic Aesop|interesting]] if the resource in question turns out to be [[Aesoptinium]] that decides it doesn't want people fighting over it and sets up a [[No MacGuffin, No Winner]] scenario.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Transformers Energon]]'' was all about fighting over and using the titular [[Green Rocks]].
** ''[[Transformers]]'' is usually about that ''in general'', be it [[Transformers Generation 1|energon]], [[Transformers Cybertron|Planet Keys]], or [[Transformers Animated|Allspark fragments]]. ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' had Mini-Cons, which were sentient phlebotinum.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Dune]]'' had its Spice, a resource so vital that whoever owns Arrakis, the only planet that produce them, will have a huge power over other planets. Several novels have story arcs where someone attempts (unsuccessfully) to break the Arrakis monopoly on spice by transplanting a [[Sand Worm]] to another planet, creating a spice substitute, etc.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': The Ring, obviously.
** Except the Ring is not what the war is about. It is about whether or not people of Middle Earth will be ruled by Sauron. The ring is just one of the weapons.
** Also Mithril in the [[The History of Middle Earth|supplemental material]], and the eponymous silmarils in ''[[The Silmarillion]]''. And the dwarven treasure horde taken by Smaug in ''[[The Hobbit]]''.
* Pynvium in Janice Hardy's ''[[The Shifter]]'' can absorb pain. Its mines are important enough to fight over, but it's when {{spoiler|the healers run out of it}} that the plot kicks in.
== [[Live
* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe, the Klingons and Federation sometimes fought over sources of dilithium crystals (e.g. the ''[[Star Trek: The
** In an episode of ''[[Star Trek:
** In the first ''[[Star Trek Shatnerverse]]'' novel, Chekov and Uhura are engaged in an undercover operation and pretend to deal with a shady Klingon. He offers dilithium as payment. Chekov brushes him off, saying it's nearly worthless now, ever since the whole "nuclear wessels" discovery (i.e. ships can run forever on a single set of dilithium crystals without needing to replace them).
** Somewhat bizarrely, in ''[[Star Trek:
*** That's mainly because the Kazon are [[Too Dumb to Live]]. The Borg refuse to assimilate them because of that.
* A classic ''[[Doctor Who]]'' had one of these, in the episode "The Caves of Androzani". It was over spectrox, "the most valuable substance in the universe."
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer
** Promethium (a catch-all term for oil-like flammable substances) is critical to the war machines of at least three factions - the Orks, the Imperium, and Chaos. Expect frequent conflicts over promethium mines and refineries, since the Imperium is the only group that bothers to build them instead of just stealing the stuff from everyone else.
** The same goes for many natural resources, from less common ores to Nephium (a toxic exotic substance with variety of uses, mined on some planetoids) - in ''[[Rogue Trader]]'' had two strongest dynasties come to blows over a rich source of the latter until they had to settle on division.
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* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series' backstory mentions conflicts over the world's dwindling oil reserves between the 2050's and 70's. The European Coalition invaded the Middle East once oil prices rose too high, though these Resource Wars ended suddenly once the last of the petroleum in the region was tapped out. With Alaska containing the last oil on the whole planet, China invaded America in a conflict that led to a global nuclear war, hence the game's [[After the End|post-apocalyptic setting]].
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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