No Blood for Phlebotinum: Difference between revisions

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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.

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}}

* ''[[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.

== [[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.

** 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.

 

** In an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', a planet was raided for ''[[wikipedia:Deuterium|deuterium]]''. The writers [[Did Not Do the Research]]... although given the existence of things like the Oklo natural nuclear reactors in Gabon, who's to say that there isn't some way the planet could have produced and/or received abnormally large amounts of heavy hydrogen?

** 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).

* 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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