39,327
edits
Unobtainium: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:unobtainium-avatar_9189.jpg|link=Avatar (
Line 33:
** {{spoiler|It's actually the menstrual blood of the Angel Lilith, which adds all sorts of retroactive squick when you realize they've been "breathing" it the whole time.}}
* Orichalcum (or a variant spelling) is a metal with magical properties that makes appearances in several anime, including ''[[The Slayers]]''.
* ''[[Digimon]]'' as a whole has the Chrome Digizoid metal ([[Spell My Name
* ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' has the alloy Gundanium, which is incredibly tough, nearly immutable, heat-resistant, electrically neutral, and a natural radar damper. The "rare, hard-to-find" part comes from the fact that it can only be manufactured in space and the fact that at the start of the show, only six people in the world know how to make it.
** [[Reality Is Unrealistic|This has some basis in real-world science]]. The crystalline structures that form as liquid metal solidifies can be ''very'' different in microgravity. The odds of creating an alloy with ''all' the aforementioned properties remain fairly small, however.
* ''[[
** ''[[
** And ''[[
** ''[[
* Levistone from ''[[Kyouran Kazoku Nikki]]'', a material which makes things hover when electricity runs through it.
* ''[[Code Geass]]'' has Sakuradite, previously found and said to be the "Philosopher's Stone" in medieval times, and found in large amounts in Japan. It's now valued as a superconductor, being liquid in room temperature. It also [[Made of Explodium|explodes rather easily...]]
* Various evolution-inducing stones aside, in one episode of ''[[Pokémon (
* Done with a twist in ''[[Laputa]]'' where the Levistone (a Grade A [[Unobtainium]]) is a well-known mineral (and the name of the material is Etherium instead of Levistone), commonly found in rocks - however, it rapidly decays when exposed to air and thus serves no practical purpose. The movie's [[Precursors]] knew how to refine it and fashion it into durable crystals, with many amazing properties. This technology has been lost and the world's nations will now stop at nothing to lay their hands on the few remaining samples.
* ''[[Vision of Escaflowne]]'' has 2 of these.
Line 51:
** Adam, a super-strong type of wood.
** Don Krieg's armour was made of Wootz steel, a real-world type of unobtanium (see below).
* Vizorium is both the [[Unobtainium]] that makes warp-drive possible, and the central plot driver of the [[
* GEMs in ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' give Otome their robes (and thus, most of their powers). The Coral and Pearl GEMs used by students are artificially created, but the knowledge of how to create Meister GEMs was lost, making them extremely valuable.
* [[Outlaw Star]] has ''dragonite'', used for [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]].
Line 73:
** The first version of the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' used "inertron" for this purpose, an invulnerable metal.
** The [[Pre Crisis]] DCU also featured the invulnerable metals "Supermanium" (a metal once created by Superman) and "Amazonium" (the metal [[Wonder Woman]]'s bracelets were made from), both invulnerable metals akin to inertron.
* The ''[[Tintin
** In ''[[Tintin
* In an early Marvel/DC crossover featuring the X-Men and the New Teen Titans, the villain Darkseid keeps both teams shackled, and states that Kitty Pryde's shackles are made of a rare metal with molecules so tightly packed, not even she can phase through them.
* A metal native to the Breakworld in Joss Whedon's ''[[Astonishing X Men]]'' run adversely affected Kitty Pryde when she phased through it, to the point where she ended up stranded inside a ten-mile long bullet of the stuff when she [[Heroic Sacrifice|phased it through the Earth]], and wasn't able to control her powers after Magneto rescued her.
* Epiphyte in ''[[
* Radion in the DCU is incredibly rare. It's also very special because it is the [[Kryptonite Factor]] of the [[New Gods]]. Even ''[[Darkseid]]'' can be truly and permanently killed by Radion poisoning {{spoiler|and a Radion bullet -- fired by ''[[Batman]]'' [[Does Not Like Guns|of all people]] -- to the shoulder is the first part of Darkseid's [[Rasputinian Death]] in ''[[Final Crisis]]''.}}
Line 83:
== Film ==
* Central to the plot of ''Black Lighting'' (Chernaya Molniya) is a mystery space element that powers the flying car. The [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] spends the entire movie trying to get his hands on it.
* ''[[Avatar (
** According to [[All There in the Manual|the guide]], it's called "unobtainium" because this is a tongue-in-cheek designation for all high-temperature semiconductor materials, called so by Earth scientists when they gave up on reliably synthesizing them.
* ''[[The Core]]'' lampshaded this, calling their Unobtainium ''Unobtainium'', which turned heat and pressure into electrical energy. Perfect for a journey through the Earth's molten core. Extremely practical, as all you had to do was to randomly cut supply wires and casually weld them to the substance in question, and you had an energy source that rivaled a nuclear reactor. There are actually [[Real Life]] substances that turn pressure into electricity, known as Piezoelectric substances, although they wouldn't work on such a large scale. One example is quartz crystals (including the one that goes "tick" in your wristwatch). Piezoelectric materials work by ''flexing'', seeing as how the energy has to come from somewhere. This means your core-ship would generate lots of lovely electricity in the process of crumpling into a ball. If a [[Real Life]] metallurgist with a sense of humor actually managed to make something that worked as in the movie, they might be sorely tempted to call it "unobtainium" or "impossibilium" or something like that.
* Metallic tritium serves this function in the second ''[[Spider-Man (
** Strangely enough, the way the [[Big Bad]] is going to use the tritium is a scaled-down version of one way physicists are trying to develop fusion power called "inertial confinement". The idea is the same, vaporize an amount of an element with lasers in an attempt to create a miniature sun, only the scale and elements used are different. For more information, this writer's original reference is "Kaku, Michio [[PHD]]. ''Physics of the Impossible''. Doubleday Publishing, 2008. Pages 43-45."
*** The "miniature sun" created by inertial confinement wouldn't have a photosphere, prominences, and sunspots like the one in the movie, though.
Line 93:
* Quantonium in ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]''. The [[Big Bad]] needs it to power his cloning machine so he can execute the [[Alien Invasion]]. The only known supply is absorbed into the body of Susan Murphy, who then suffers from some [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|interesting side effects]].
* Fluid Karma in ''[[Southland Tales]]''. A compound found by drilling in the ocean that apparently can be used to generate electric power. Also, acts as a drug working somewhat like a [[Green Rock]].
* ''[[Star Trek (
* In ''[[Outlander (
* Turbinium from ''[[Total Recall]]''.
* In ''[[District 9]]'', the unnamed nanofluid is found in prawn technology in extremely small amounts, and is apparently quite precious. It has the power to {{spoiler|activate the aliens' ship as well as transform a human into a prawn}}.
* In ''[[
** Wonderflonium doesn't freeze time as suggested here. It merely makes the impossible possible and powers the freeze ray -- [[I Thought It Meant|which freezes time]] -- for a short time, at least. Wonderflonium should also never be bounced for some reason.
== Literature ==
* Cavorite from H.G. Wells' ''[[The First Men in
* Wells also had a previously undiscovered element present in the titular comet in The Day Of The Comet.
* [[Harry Harrison]]'s 1973 Golden Age SF spoof novel, ''Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers'' features Cheddite (a fuel created from cheese). In another scene the heroes' 747 jet is turned into a spacecraft by means of windows armored with ''armolite'', vacuum insulation with ''insulite'', fuel tanks filled with ''combustite'', guns firing pellets of ''destructite'', batteries replaced with ''capacitite'' and a space-warp drive powered by ''warpite''.
Line 118:
* The hyperdrive of Kevin J. Anderson's ''[[The Saga of Seven Suns]]'' is fuelled by "ekti," described as "[[Did Not Do the Research|an allotropic isotope of hydrogen]]."
* Atium, from the ''[[Mistborn]]'' books. It's only mined in one place, it's extremely rare, and incredibly powerful. All of the properties of Atium are ultimately justified by it being {{spoiler|made from the body of a god}}.
* John Ringo's ''[[Into the Looking Glass|Looking Glass]]'' series is so named for the instantaneous transmission portals which were created by what were originally thought to be Higgs bosons. That identification was later corrected, and they were renamed [[Applied Phlebotinum|Looking Glass Bosons]]. The looking glasses of the first book take a secondary role however, after the series takes off into space in a ship powered by a [[Black Box]] of alien origin, {{spoiler|and when the ship is destroyed in the third book, it is entirely remade by an alien race the ship just saved.}} This leads to the fourth book where the captain of the ship discovers he is missing a large number of alien made spare parts and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] all of this saying, "And now I have to call SpaceCom and explain to them that we're non-mission-capable until a couple of tons of [[
* Practically every book in the old ''Danny Dunn'' children's scifi series starts out with the discovery of a new form of Unobtainium. Usually because Danny or a friend of his spilled something in the lab.
* Tanglestone from the Elizabeth Bear book, ''Undertow'', was only found on the planet named Greene's World, and allowed instant data and material transportation across many light years from the colonies to Earth.
Line 127:
* [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[Anathem]]'' has a material called New Matter that has drastically different properties than regular matter.
** It is explicitly stated that it is an alternative chemistry created by rearanging subatomic particles. This is based on Real Life physics with Exotic Matter.
* [[
* Humanity's escape from the doomed planet earth in ''[[When Worlds Collide (
* Wil [[Mc Carthy]]'s ''Queendom of Sol'' series has quantum dots, which can imitate the properties of ordinary matter as well as manifesting exotic attributes like perfect reflectivity and frictionlessness. He also wrote a non-fiction novel called ''Hacking Matter'' that talks about the real-world possibility of using them. So, unobtainium today, but maybe not tomorrow.
* ''[[Discworld]]'' subverts this trope with octiron, a fantastic metal that's really only useful as a substitute for spherical worlds' compass magnets (it points to the Hub). Played straight with sapient pearwood, which is to blame for the Luggage's animation and magical properties.
* Neal Asher's [[Polity Series]] has Chainglass, a material made from silicon chain molecules that can be made near-indestructible and sharp enough to slice through steel with ease. Chainglass is used instead of metal and plastic in most applications. It also made the inventor the richest man in the galaxy.
* Urim in L. Jagi Lamplighter's [[
* The ''[[Sten]]'' series has Anti-Matter Two, the only energy source capable of generating enough power to run hyperspace engines and make interstellar travel feasible. In all the Universe there is only a single source of AM2, and only the Eternal Emperor knows where it is.
* In Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Heaven, common coal have rare "slow" and "fast" coal that slow or speed up time inside it. The [[Big Bad]] had {{spoiler|hundreds of young girl slaves move hands over small pieces of coal and pick out those specific coal pieces}}.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Raise the Titanic]]'' by Clive Cussler, the US hatches a military plan requiring ultra-rare byzanium. The only known deposit, on a remote Russian Arctic island, had been mined out in the early 20th century, and the entire output shipped out on an ocean liner to the United States. Guess which one.
Line 145:
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]],'' naquahdah is material the Gate is made of. Also, naquadah-enhanced nukes are used to Blow Stuff Up. This is demonstrated magnificently in the season 3 finale of ''[[Stargate Atlantis]].'' Its evil twin is naquadriah, which can also be used to Blow Stuff Up, but is "unstable" and has a track record of blowing up its users. The iris on Earth's Stargate is made of a trinium-titanium alloy. Human-form replicators apparently can only be made from neutronium.
** Naquadah is also a powerful source of energy (naquadah reactors). Also ZPMs could be seen as a sort of unobtainium given that no one knows how to make them and they're needed to run all the Ancient technology in the series (as well as providing a convenient bit of [[Tim Taylor Technology]] to the human ships)
** Naquadriah also indirectly plays the Unobtainium role in ''[[
* The whole of ''[[Star Trek]]'' is liberally sprinkled with various types and grades of unobtainium; the original (and most frequently recurring) example is dilithium, used in the reactor core of [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|warp drives]] as a control medium, but there are many others:
** Corbomite, which doesn't actually exist; it was an [[Ass Pull]] by James T. Kirk to bluff an enemy -- which means that Trek pulled a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on their own tendency to invoke unobtainium in one of its ''earliest episodes''.
Line 154:
** Latinum, a valuable liquid metal, used as a form of hard currency due to its rarity and the fact that replicator technology cannot recreate it.
** Trilithium, less stable than dilithium, but equally magical.
** Keiyurium, a [[Shout-Out]] to the original ''[[
** Vertenium-Cortenide, a compound of ''two'' non-existent substances, used in the warp coils themselves.
** Archerite, another Ass Pull, this time by the Andorian Shran when explaining to another alien commander what he was doing in their territory.
Line 161:
*** Aluminum Oxynitride is a ceramic, however. Transparent aluminum metal remains unobtainium.
** Cortenide, which comprises Data's skull with duranium, as he describes to a Klingon warrior who almost knocked himself out headbutting him.
** Trellium-D formed a major [[Mineral MacGuffin]] for the third season of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', which has the ability to negate the random [[Negative Space Wedgie|anomalies]] that existed in the Expanse. Interestingly, there appeared to be a sub-science developed around the item, with a method of synthesizing the stuff.
** At one point in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' when aliens try to kidnap Paris for the {{spoiler|weapons research}} that has been implanted in his brain, Janeway mentions that they packed the shuttle he was captured in with fulmorite explosives.
* Both versions of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' relied on a fictional element called "tylium" to power their [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|FTL]] drives.
** And an episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' had an alien species using the same exact fuel by name!
* In ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'', Trizirium Crystals are an very powerful energy source that originally won't be discovered about 200 years from 2001, because of the battles between the Time Force Rangers and Ransik, as well as Bio-Lab trying to reverse-engineer the future tech the early discovery {{spoiler|nearly sucked the world into time vortices in the "End of Time" three-part finale}}.
** ''[[
* The jumpgates and jumpdrives of ''[[
* In ''[[Knight Rider]]'' (the original series), KITT was built out of a material called either Tri-Helical MBS (Commonly referred to as a "Molecular-Bonded Shell") or Plasteel 1000, which rendered the car almost indestructible.
* In the TV series of ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV series)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]'', it's revealed that an element Wayne named "Szalinskium" is at the core of all his impossible inventions. In another episode it's revealed that {{spoiler|he obtained it from the space alien Arnox}}.
* In a two-part episode of the Lynda Carter TV adaptation of [[Wonder Woman (TV series)|Wonder Woman]], we learn that her indestructable bullet-deflecting bracelets are made of "Feminum." (This is in contrast with the Comic Book canon, which at the time held that her bracelets were made of "Amazonium.")
Line 183:
* In ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', almost every race has a form of this, from the psychic wraith bone to the ubiquitous armour plate the humans use on tanks, adamantium. Adamantium's properties are never really explained, though, in the books, it seems to suffer from a mineral variation of [[The Worf Effect]] ("How could they cut through X many feet of adamantium that easily?!"); another worf effect example is the material used in Space Marine power armour, Ceramite (often such examples involve either cutting blades, or melta/heat weapons as ceramite is reckoned to be extremely resistant to heat). This also happens a lot with human building materials in that universe, all of which have odd but recognizable names and are supposedly better than what we have now, but which can be reduced to rubble in the first bombardment.
** The [[Schizo-Tech|technology levels]] in the setting also cause some rather strange applications for the unobtainium, such as adamantium bayonets fitted to the [[Frickin' Laser Beams|lasguns]] of the [[Redshirt Army|Imperial Guard]].
* In ''[[
** That's not quite right. Warp energy spewing out of the Old Ones' polar gates blows across the world, refracting into the eight colours (winds) of magic. The unrefracted leftovers (dark magic) settle in areas of evil and death, congealing into warpstone over time. The Warhammer world also has a moon composed entirely of warpstone, Morrslieb, which rains warpstone meteor showers on occasion. Warpstone is also not collected by any faction except the evil ones, most notably the Skaven.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has mithril, adamantine, orichalchum, AND the Philosopher's Stone. Unobtainium overload... ''and that's the tip of the iceberg''.
** ''[[Eberron]]'' has Dragonshards, Khyber Dragonshards, Siberys Dragonshards, Star Metal, Baatorian Steel, Residuum, Arcanite, Byeshk, Ironwood, Bronzewood, Densewood, Soarwood & Riedran Crysteel. Unobtainium overload indeed.
** Red steel, cinnabril, and related substances from the "Red Steel" region of [[Mystara]].
** Bloodsilver from the [[
* ''[[Exalted]]'' features the five magical materials, Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Starmetal, some variants of Jade and Soulsteel. All of these are extremely difficult to obtain and work: Orichalcum only forms when gold touches magma and has to be worked in a lava floe while sunlight streams onto the forge, Moonsilver only forms in the Wyld, where reality is breaking down, Starmetal is made from dead gods and, while working it is theoretically as simple as iron, Fate conspires to make the manufacturing process go wrong in ten thousand little ways, Soulsteel is made from ore from the Labyrinth (under the Underworld) and ghosts, Jade requires hazardous chemicals to work and is used as a currency, admittedly an [[Zillion-Dollar Bill|extremely high-value one]]. There is even an Unobtainium version of Jade - in rare and unrepeatable alchemical accidents Jade (most normally a mixture of white and green Jade) can be turned into Yellow Jade which is possibly the most coveted magical material out there.
** With the release of the Alchemical sourcebook, there now exists a sixth basic magical material as well: Adamant. It is extremely rare in the main world of Creation, and only slightly more commonly found in the machine-body world of the Primordial Autochthon. To quote the sourcebook, "Adamant is composed of super-dense, electric-blue diamonds that form in yard-long rod-like masses with smaller crystals growing off larger ones. They can be found in areas that are under enormous pressure and are scorchingly hot. Mining for adamant is impossible without protective gear, even for Exalts, and special tools must be used to cut the crystalline rods free so that they can be taken back to a city and refined into useable forms." Though it is a crystal, rather than a metal or stone like the other materials, it is used in the forging of magic weapons and armor in an identical way to the others.
** Solars. One of the reasons that Solar technology is unsustainable by anybody else is due to their Wyld Shaping powers. When Solars need a material with properties relevent to the artifact or [[Magitech]] they are building, they just go out into the Wyld and conjure it up, regardless of how impossible its existence would otherwise be.
* The "Perfected Metals" of ''[[
* As well as the [[Elements Do Not Work That Way|lanthanum]] used in [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|jump drive]] technology, ''[[Traveller]]'' features so many varieties of [[Unobtainium]] that the latest edition [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it by including "unobtainium" as a trade good.
* Ghost Rock, which burns twice as long and twice as hot as coal, is used for all the weird high tech stuff from ''[[Deadlands]]'' and somehow stopped the collapse of the Confederacy. Oh, and it looks like coal that has had tortured human faces into it, and it moans faintly when burned.
* The various essential elements from ''[[GURPS]]: Magic'' as well as orichalcum and adamantium in ''Fantasy'' and hyperdense matter in ''Ultra-Tech''.
* Although it's a tabletop war game rather than a tabletop RPG, Steve Jackson Games' ''Ogre'' features combat units protected by Biphase Carbide armor. This makes them tough enough to withstand anything short of a direct hit from a nuclear weapon.
* ''[[
* In the boardgame Nexus Ops (originally by Avalon Hill, recently re-released by Fantasy Flight Games), the corporations fight for control of a mineral called Rubium. Nothing more is known about it from the manual, but it seems that some indigenous species on the planet it is mined on are linked to the mineral in some way as there is a creature called the "Rubium Dragon" which is also the most powerful unit in the game.
Line 215:
* ''[[Eve Online]]'' has a player economy built around mining for a rather long list of made up materials. And the rarer types are very hard to get. Bonus points for using "Tritanium", which is the most sought after element in high security space.
** However, most of the asteroids that refined minerals come from are made up of either real-world minerals (such as veldspar and gneiss) or slightly renamed versions of real minerals (like hemorphite and hedbergite).
* ''[[
* Two kinds of unobtainium are mentioned in the game manuals of the ''[[Halo]]'' series:
** An "unknown alloy" (read as: the writers couldn't think of a cool name) used to make the shields of the Hunters and the armor plating of Covenant warships.
Line 222:
** Played more straight in the game is Impervium, a metal found as a rare form of salvage (Enchanted Impervium is one of the most valuable drops), which the Vanguard soldiers are said in their profiles to be armored with.
** Orichalcum shows up too, also as a salvage material for crafting.
* A recurring element in the ''[[Mega Man (
** There's also officially "Bassnium," the power supply Wily says he used to make Bass, which is a bit silly.
*** In the Japanese version, it has the much less silly-sounding name "Fortenium". However, since Wily himself discovered the element while designing Bass/Forte, it's not out of character for him to give it a silly name just to match his robot.
** As well as the metal given the [[Fan Nickname]] 'Mettanium', used to make the Met/Mettaurs/Methats that are so iconic in the series. One fan explanation for it [[Fridge Logic|not being used in every robot Wily makes]] is the fact that it's Unobtainium - or at least rare enough that only small objects can be created with it at a time.
* Orichalcum, seen elsewhere in this article, also turned up in ''[[Indiana Jones and
* It also shows up in various ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' titles (usually used to make gift jewelry). They also feature Mystrle and Mythic Ore - used to give tools semi-magical properties.
** And plain ol' Mythril in Harvest Moon's spin-off title 'Rune Factory'.
Line 233:
** Nevermind the fact there's blue (canonical) and red/orange (semi-canonical) variants that are [[Made of Explodium]] - as if the green stuff didn't explode enough to begin with. With a bit of SCIENCE, you can turn tiberium (or tiberium-related substances, such as tiberium veins) into a chemical weapon that puts some of the deadliest stuff today to shame, or an explosive that makes a heavy-duty fuel air bomb look like a firecracker.
** Makes a lot more fictional sense if you know that C&C was itself based on the RTS game ''[[Dune II]]'', which had you harvesting spice out of the ground.
* Cleria, Emelas, etc. in the ''[[
* ''[[Starcraft]]'', likewise, had "minerals" of an unspecified type and "Vespene Gas" (which [[You Require More Vespene Gas|you require more of]], by the way), which each of the playable races uses in a different way to produce its various units and buildings.
** Neosteel, the material of Terran construction, is another example.
Line 242:
* [[Minecraft]] gives us redstone, a nice little powder that can conduct electricity and can be used to open doors, power minecarts, make music, ect. Although it actually is pretty common below certain depths.
** The unminable bedrock is sometimes referred to as Unobtanium.
*** This is probably the most accurate use of the name, since, without the use of cheats, you [[Exactly What It Says
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has frightening amounts of Unobtainium, starting out around the time the player starts mining Mithril ore, proceeding through Truesilver, Arcanite, Fel Iron, Adamantium and finally Khorium and Eternium. To quote a recent ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' post on the subject, "What's next? Awesomite?"
** There's also the equally-mundane Titanium, its enchanted cousin Titansteel, and the more fantastic Saronite. This contains or possibly is entirely the blood of the [[Eldritch Abomination]] Yog-Saron, God of Death, drives people who mine it mad, and naturally forms into the shape of skulls when smelted. And which for some inexplicable reason, people decided to make armor out of and ''wear''. Yeah, sticking that on your head couldn't possibly go bad.
Line 253:
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series is also known to have various forms of Unobtainium, such as orichalcum or adamantite. In fact, every RPG ever made by Square Enix has something like that, often in the same relation as the Kingdom Hearts example.
** ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2]]'' lives this trope to the full! Not only has it scores of metallic unobtainium, but also plenty of both chitinous (bones) and dendritious (wood).
* The ''[[Crusader:
** Di-corellium, a mineral that is apparently better for use in nuclear reactors than plutonium--to the point that it almost became a metaphor for petroleum, and at the very least for energy crises in general, what with the increasing scarcity of it and power shortages on Earth because of it--and of which vast quantities, about half of all known reserves, are on the moon.
** Polonium--yes, ''[[wikipedia:Polonium#Famous poisoning cases|that]]' polonium--an element than in real life is unstable, highly radioactive, and extremely toxic, is used as...body armor.
Line 262:
** Now the developer is planning for game world's to each have their own unique [[Unobtainium]] with each one making some rare materials with randomly generated properties. When he first tried it out, he expected metals but ended up getting cursed mist.
* The ''[[Myst]]'' series has the artificial stones nara and deretheni. There is also a tawny stone found on Riven, used for ornamental purposes.
* The [[X (
** This is brought up on the forums quite often, and [[Word of God]] says No, although this may be due to wanting to appear impartial and not wanting to alienate ATI/AMD.
** Also in this category is teladianium, a ceramic mainly used for structural components.
Line 270:
* The browser game ''[[Skyrates]]'' includes Unobtainium (in fact, portrayed as [[Green Rocks]] ) as a trade good, and is also used in role play and player discussion as a reasoning for hard to explain occurrences, jokingly or otherwise.
* A little-known RTS called ''[[Submarine Titans]]'' has "Corium-296"... which appears to suggest that it is an extremely heavy element. Corium is very important to achieving the advanced technologies in the game, but is not naturally found on Earth: the [[Colony Drop|enormous comet]] that forced humanity under the seas was made of the stuff, and small deposits (fragments of the comet) are found all over the place.
* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass]]'', you need the three pure metals (each corresponding to one of the creator godesses) to create a blade that turns the titular hourglas into the Phantom Sword. It's required by the plot, since the Phantom sword is the only thing that can hurt [[Big Bad|Bellum]].
** The names of the Pure Metals are dirived from their color: Crimsonine, Azurine, and Aquanine.
* Psitanium from ''[[Psychonauts]]''. High grade unobtainium - a meteorite that grants anything alive ''psychic powers'' and is the plot device for any number of absurd things in the game.
* In ''[[Golden Sun]]'', there are nine forgeable materials: in increasing order of power, Tear Stone, Star Dust, Sylph Feather, Dragon Skin, Salamander Tail, Golem Core, Mythril Silver, Dark Matter and Orihalcon.
* ''[[
** The MOO series also contains many other substances such as Tritanium, Zortrium, Uridium and Adamantium. Due to the way research works, any of these can be Unobtainium in a given game.
* ''Snoopy vs The Red Baron'' for the Playstation Portable does this bald-facedly. In order to make a superweapon called the Doodlebug, the Red Baron needs, what else? "Unobtainium." Subtle.
* ''[[Half Life]]'''s Xenium: if you focus a particle beam on a pure crystal, it can rip through dimensions. And it can't be found on Earth but is an essential component to human-made teleporters.
** Or that blue-ish metal Combine tech is made of. Whatever it is, it can't be scratched by anti-tank rocket impacts and reflects tau particle beams. Also, [http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_energy dark energy] was the universe's scientific Unobtainium just like in real life - until the Combine came; the Citadel's central reactor is an '''inexhaustible''' supply of the stuff. It is used to generate plasma made of exotic matter which is the basis of all Combine tech.
* The instruction manual for ''[[
* [[Runescape]] features many odd metals, including Mithril and Adamantite. It also features "Runite" as a metal. Then there's the "Dragon" metal, which unlike the others, cannot be mined anywhere, nor can it be forged. Weapons made of Dragon metal can be obtained through drops, but not made.
* In ''[[Original War]]'' a recently discovered material known as Siberite, or Alaskite, depending on timeline, is an efficient energy source, can be used as a nuclear weapon and can power up a time machine.
* Australium in the backstory of ''[[
{{quote| "It's how they choose their king. Like I said, ''idiots.''"}}
** It also has the side effect of causing [[Testosterone Poisoning]] to those who handle it, turning anyone using into ridiculously manly [[Boisterous Bruiser|Boisterous Bruisers]] with [[Badass Mustache|Badass Mustaches]] and [[Carpet of Virility|Carpets Of Virility]].
* The ''[[Phantasy Star]]'' series has laconia, a metal similar to silver in appearance that is found on the planet Dezoris; it is often refined and crafted into some of the best gear available in the series.
* ''[[The Adventures of Sam
* Would ADAM from ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', various types of unobtainium are used for armor and weapons.
** As seen in ''[[Morrowind]]'', the confusingly named ebony and glass are volcanic minerals. Daedric armor is forged from magicked ebony.
** In the ''Shivering Isles'' [[Expansion Pack]] to ''[[Oblivion]]'' the smiths in New Sheoth can forge armor and weapons from amber and madness ore. (Lord only knows what the latter comes from.)
** ''[[Skyrim]]'' reveals that orcish and elven armor are partially forged from orichalcum and quicksilver, respectively.
** Dwarven metal is an interesting case, as it's unobtainium [[In
** ''[[Skyrim]]'' allows elite smiths to forge armor from dragon scales and bones. The [[Game Mod|modding community]] has seen fit to add dragonbone weapons as well.
* ''[[
Line 301:
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' has borfomite, a rare substance that becomes an unstoppable weapon when chemically combined with ''caramel.''
* ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]'' has actual unobtainium, which adheres to [[Minovsky Physics]].
* Though not exactly [[Applied Phlebotinum]] (it may yet turn out to be), Roy's sword in ''[[
* The time machine in [[
== Web Original ==
* [[Whateley Universe]] has plenty of [[Unobtainium]]. They've stolen adamantium from the [[Marvel Universe]], and they've included some of the mystical variants, including orichalcium and mithril. Oddly enough, at the [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy, mithril no longer counts as true [[Unobtainium]], because there's a side character (Silver, a girl from India) who ''sweats'' mithril. The school has had to set up a mithril brokerage.
* A beautiful example is the wonderflonium of ''[[
* The ''[[League of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions]]'' had Plotonium as a generic whatever-the-plot-required supermetal. Also a building block of the universe that allowed people to have superpowers was Nevesytrof (much more stable then the Sub-Reality or Super-Reality of other universes.)
* ''[[Protectors of the Plot Continuum]]'' has Generic Surface. A material created when locations and surfaces in fanfics are given little or no description, the Flowers have used it to build PPC Headquarters due to its durability, structural integrity, and the fact that there is a readily available supply to make such a huge building out of.
** Not a metal, but falling under this heading, is Bleeprin and its derivatives. Bleeprin is a mixture of bleach and aspirin, advertised as 'brain bleach', which erases the memory of a bad fanfic and then the headache it gave the agents. Derivatives include Bleepka (Bleeprin and synthetic vodka, a very popular derivative, often used for making cocktails), Bleepolate (Bleeprin and chocolate), and Bleepsinthe (Bleeprin and synthetic absinthe). Bleeprin's only real downside is that it explodes when mixed with real alcohol, hence the use of synthesised substitutes.
* The ''[[
* The inventions of [[The Spoony Experiment]]'s Doctor Insano are powered by Raritanium.
* [[Super Stories]] has Electronium, resistant to all known methods of scanning (including superpowered ones). Apart from one villain's secret lair being made out of the stuff, no known piece is larger than a pebble.
Line 318:
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' employs this in the making of the show's namesake heroes. The Unobtainium here is the mysterious Chemical X (a fancy name for the contents of a [[Can Of Whoop Ass]]). It also produced the show's biggest recurring villain, and drove several single-episode plots. ''[[Demashita!
* One arc on ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' involved a search for a mountain full of "Upsidaisium", an anti-gravity metal.
* ''[[The Flintstones]]'' had an episode featuring Urgonium - a mineral that exploded on solid impact.
Line 326:
* The first 2009 episode of ''[[The Colbert Report]]'''s [[Show Within a Show]] ''Tek Jansen'' has the [[Big Bad]] enslaving some tiny doughboy aliens to mine [[Meaningful Name|Scarcerarium]].
* ''[[Duck Dodgers]]'' went to Planet X to find Aludium Phozdex, the Shaving Cream Atom, in his classic 50s adventure.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Thundercats
* In "[[Phineas and Ferb]]'s Quantum Boogaloo", Phineas and Ferb need a wood and steel fusing tool, which apparently won't be invented for 20 years.
** In "Vanessassary Roughness," the element "Pizzazium Infinionite" is described as (maybe) having wondrous properties that could be used in the future to power generically-futuristic technology.
* In ''[[Teen Titans (
** Though the Xenothium itself ''didn't'' do all that- it just powered the devices that did.
* [[Futurama|Professor Farnsworth]] once had the crew deliver a single atom of Jumbonium - a tennisball sized "single atom" that doesn't seem to do anything beyond adorn a tiara.
| |||