History Main / NoBloodForPhlebotinum

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', Japan was conquered by its former ally Britannia partially because it was the main source of Sakuradite (pink nuclear fuel) located in Mount Fuji. [[spoiler:Then Lelouch detonates the mountain.]]

* ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' had Heaven's War, a MeleeATrois in the backstory where pretty much ''everyone'' was trying to get control of [[NotOfThisEarth Heaven's Gate]] in Brazil. It only ended when [[ThrowawayCountry most of South America got wiped off the map]].
** The main plot is about the government intentionally ''destroying'' the main phlebotinum with war, [[spoiler:by creating shell corporations that hire Contractors into proxy wars with the covert goal of sending them to mutually kill each other until the stragglers can be mopped up by government cleanup crews]].

[[folder:Film]]
* The whole point of Creator/JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. It is even [[LampshadeHanging called]] {{Unobtanium}}.
* ''Film/TheCloverfieldParadox''. Germany and Russia are on the verge of war in a PostPeakOil world (using up whatever fuel they have left, [[HumansAreMorons it's pointed out]]). The protagonists are working on a project for unlimited energy that they hope will avert this; but they instead end up in an alternate reality where a European war has been waging for over a year with no end in sight.
* Alien weaponry in ''Film/{{District 9}}'' can only be used by the aliens themselves, so while all the human groups are stockpiling {{BFG}}s, this only serves to prevent the aliens using them. And then one day a gullible inspector finds a very painful way to use it - he gets gradually transformed into one of the aliens. Cue transition from documentary to action flick.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/{{Water 1985}}'', about a Caribbean island that strikes mineral water, causing the intervention of various outside governments trying to seize control of it. As an American executive points out: you don't have to refine water, just slap a fancy label on a bottle and you can sell it for a higher price than oil.
* The CentralTheme of the ''Film/MadMax'' series; before the Apocalypse, wars were waged mainly for control of petroleum supplies. Afterwards, "Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice." And after the Oil wars came the Water wars, and after the water wars came the Blood (slave) wars, etc.
** George Miller was actually [[http://www.craveonline.com/site/837957-sxsw-2015-interview-george-miller-on-mad-max-fury-road-and-the-apocalypse/2 inspired]] to start the series by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis 1973 oil crisis;]]
--->I remember it really stuck in my mind, in a very peaceful city like Melbourne, our southern capital, or some city, it took ten days after a severe oil shortage for the first shot to be fired. And I thought, what if it went on? That was one of the things when we did the first Mad Max.
* ''Film/TheWildGeese''. The plot involves mercenaries rescuing an African politician, who is presented as one of the few who isn't as corrupt [[FullCircleRevolution as those he's replacing]]. However this has nothing to do with replacing a brutal dictator with a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, it's about UK plc losing the copper concessions in that country. When the dictator renegotiates more favorable terms, the mercenaries and the politician are abandoned to their fate.
* In ''Film/AdAstra'', the now-colonized Moon has no borders, but rather than leading to a spirit of international cooperation the surface has become a No Man's Land with countries seeking control of the Moon's resources giving safe haven to [[SpacePirates privateers]] who take hostages and launch random attacks. The protagonist has to be escorted to his launch site by US soldiers, and even then their convoy of Moon buggies is attacked by an armed group driving unmarked buggies.
* In the 1982 satire ''Film/WrongIsRight'', Middle Eastern terrorist Rafeeq seizes power in the oil-rich country of [[{{Qurac}} Hagreb]] after the CIA assassinates the previous ruler because he'd purchased a couple of WeaponsOfMassDestruction for Rafeeq to use against Israel and the United States. Rafeeq tries to use his control of the oil to force the resignation of the US president who authorized the assassination, but goes too far when he threatens to nuke New York. Fortunately the nukes are discovered before they detonate (on top of the World Trade Center, no less) and the US invades Hagreb in retaliation, conveniently solving the energy crisis by seizing the oil wells. TheReveal is that Rafeeq still has the nukes and the threat was a CIA hoax to justify the invasion. The movie became HarsherInHindsight after the events of 9/11.

* ''Literature/BabelOrTheNecessityOfViolence'': A major plot point -- magic needs to be anchored in {{silver|HasMysticPowers}}, and Britain, as the 19th-century setting's major colonial empire, is bent on securing new silver sources, like the vast reserves in China. [[spoiler:Even if that means instigating a war under false pretenses.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' had its Spice, a resource so vital that whoever owns Arrakis, the only planet that produces it, will have huge power over other planets. Several novels have story arcs where someone attempts (unsuccessfully) to break the Arrakis monopoly on spice by transplanting a SandWorm to another planet, creating a spice substitute, etc.
** There is eventually a successful attempt not at breaking the monopoly, but at devaluing Spice. One of the reasons it is so important is that it is essential for FTL navigation. Eventually one faction manages to develop an alternative navigation method.
** There is also eventually artificial spice as well.
* Another Creator/FrankHerbert story ''Literature/TheDragonInTheSea'' (AKA ''Under Pressure'') has a future in which oil is so scarce that submarines are sent into foreign territory to secretly mine undersea sources of oil. Even though it's only a SpaceColdWar above the surface, HotSubOnSubAction ensues under the water.

* The war driving the plot of ''Literature/TheFlightEngineer'' started when the [[TheFundamentalist Mollies]] cut off all exports of anti-hydrogen[[note]]they had discovered a vast field of naturally occurring anti-hydrogen, rendering particle accelerators obsolete[[/note]] to the [[TheFederation Commonwealth]]. Their intent was to cause the Commonwealth to collapse (due to religious objections to their way of life) since the Welters can't trade between planets without A-H. The Commonwealth was forced to make war on the Mollies for their very survival.

* ''Literature/{{The Way of Kings|2010}}'', first book in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', has traces of this. For the past six years, the war between the human kingdom of Alethkar and the HumanoidAliens known as Parshendi has been a stalemate, for after the Parshendi assassinated King Gavilar of Alethkar -- on the very night they signed a treaty of alliance with him -- they fled to the Shattered Plains. While the human armies would be at too great a disadvantage if they attempted to attack the Parshendi redoubt at the center of the Plains, both the Parshendi and the humans need the gemhearts grown within the chasmfiends that live at the Plains' outer edges to fuel the {{Magitek}} that feeds their armies. Thus, the humans have been fighting the Parshendi in a war of attrition over the gemhearts for the past six years, and are steadily winning. In a flashback in a later novel, a pre-CharacterDevelopment Dalinar describes the ultimate cause of all wars as "Hey, those guys have ''stuff''. Why don't we have that stuff? So we beat them up and take their stuff."
* {{Lampshaded}} in ''[[Creator/BrandonSanderson Perfect State]]'', where Kai realizes that a valley which contains valuable {{Unobtanium}} exists for no other purpose than to be something for him and two other Liveborn to fight over.
* A number of plots in ''Literature/TheFourHorsemenUniverse'' deal with battles over mines for rare resources, from uranium and other radioactives, to red diamonds (used to back the value of the Union's currency), to fluorine-11 (an {{unobtainium}} used in fusion reactors).
* A non-lethal version in ''Literature/KilnPeople'' which takes place in a future where people can copy their consciousness into a disposable body for any dangerous task. Wars are still fought, but as a BloodSport where no-one dies. However there are actual stakes; when it looks like a country is going to lose one of these wargames, it's mentioned that they'll be rationing their water next year. Presumably without the need for PatrioticFervor or a PretextForWar to justify killing and dying, there's less embarrassment about this trope.
* ''Limbo'' by Bernard Wolfe. After World War Three, a worldwide culture evolves where men willingly have their limbs amputated and replace them with nuclear-powered prosthesis, a case of literal disarmament. The idea is to prevent another war, but unfortunately the prosthetics require a rare metal. Mutual suspicion on both sides that their adversary is seeking to gain control of hidden sources of this metal leads to a cold war and eventually open warfare.
* This trope is combined with TimeTravel in ''Der letzte Tag der Schöpfung'' (The Last Day of Creation) by Wolfgang Jeschke. After discovering that time travel is possible, the US government decides to mine oil from the Middle East five million years ago. Unfortunately the Arab countries catch wind of this and send their own troops back into the past to stop them. The video game ''VideoGame/OriginalWar'' is loosely based on it.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** ''Literature/{{Shatterpoint}}'': The Summertime War on Haruun Kal is driven by a colonial-style conflict between the indigenous Korunnai, who herd "grassers" through the jungle and gradually destroy it, and the Balawai, offworld settlers who harvest valuable plant products from the jungle for export. The novel is a WholePlotReference to ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness'' by Creator/JosephConrad.
** ''Literature/XWingSeries'':
*** ''The Bacta War'': Bacta is a {{panacea}} that is essential throughout much of the galaxy, but especially now given an ongoing biological weapon epidemic on Coruscant. Imperial Intelligence Director Ysanne Isard has seized control of the planet Thyferra, the only source of bacta, and Rogue Squadron literally goes rogue and mounts a guerrilla war to capture it.
*** ''Starfighters of Adumar'': Adumar is an attractive prize to both the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant on account of its massive arms industry for internal wars: Wedge has constantly tried to get production of proton torpedoes and concussion missiles increased,[[note]]In previous books, the X-Wing pilots frequently used them to thin out [[ZergRush swarms of TIE fighters]], even though NRDF doctrine recommends the expensive weapons be held back for bombing runs against enemy warships.[[/note]] and if either side gets Adumar, all they really have to do is convert existing missile factories (significantly cheaper than building new ones).
* Causes [[HumanitysWake humanity's extinction]] in a short story by Creator/PhilipKDick where humanity goes to wars over various resources it needs for the futuristic tech. Repeatedly.

** The Klingons and Federation sometimes fight over sources of dilithium crystals (e.g. the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Elaan of Troyius"). In ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}'', Scotty and Spock invent a way to "recycle" it with particles stolen from "nuclear wessels", thus making it less rare by the Next Generation era.

*** In one episode, a planet is raided for ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterium deuterium]]''. The writers didn't do their 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 produce and/or receive abnormally large amounts of heavy hydrogen? Though the technology to convert protium (the most common hydrogen isotope and thus the most common substance in the universe) into deuterium is well-established in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' verse, so the ship running critically low on deuterium in the first place would require epic-level incompetence. Perhaps the writers meant ''dilithium'' (the AppliedPhlebotinum that makes warp drive possible) and just used the wrong word.

* A classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' had one of these, in the episode "The Caves of Androzani". It was over spectrox, "the most valuable substance in the universe." We even discover the CorruptCorporateExecutive who sells spectrox is secretly supplying weapons to the other side to prolong the war and keep the price up.
* ''Series/{{Treadstone}}''. The plot involves {{Manchurian Agent}}s being activated from the supposedly defunct Treadstone and Blackfriar programs, not for UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror but to assist American corporations with black ops.
-->"The world is getting smaller. Populations are skyrocketing and natural resources are in play. South America, the Arctic...these places are ground zero and we're helping to clear the path for America. This is about survival."

-->With, Without\\

* The central conflict in Music/TheOriginalCaste's "One Tin Soldier." There's rumored to be some valuable treasure on the mountain; the people who live in the valley want it. The mountain dwellers' offer to share the treasure is only met with anger and violence. After what's implied to be a CurbStompBattle, the invading army enters the hold where the treasure is said to be... [[{{Anvilicious}} only to find a rock engraved with the words "PEACE ON EARTH."]] Did we mention this was a ProtestSong written in [[TheSixties the golden age of anti-war Protest Songs]]?

* The flammable substance promethium is critical to the war machines of at least three factions in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': 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. One such conflict can be found in the novel ''[[Literature/CiaphasCain Caves of Ice]]'', which has the 597th Valhallan deployed to fend off an Ork attack.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' liftwood is by far the most important resource on Mars, giving air supremacy to the party that can deny it to his opponent. It is by far the most important reason humans are on Mars and also a driving force behind the intra-Martian conflicts. This is somewhat subverted in that no state can really directly control this resource since it grows on high mountains controlled by the bestial High Martians. The main book also states that the Bhutan spice is controlled by Boreo-Syrtian league that trades exclusively with the British. Maintaining this monopoly is an important aim for the British, apparently even making the normally very anti-slavery British of late 19th century overlook the fact that it is exclusively grown by slaves.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has the world of New Capenna, where by far the most valuable resource is a substance called Halo. In addition to re-energizing the consumer and healing their wounds, it also gives you a nice buzz. All five Mafia families constantly fight each other over the dwindling supplies of it. [[spoiler:Halo is made of the bodies of angels, who sacrificed themselves to produce the Halo to help the mortals of the realm fight off an Phyrexian invasion.]]

* The whole ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' story has its roots in the Core War, a massive world war over Energized Protodermis that emerged from the core of the planet, the unstable nature of which ended up [[EarthShatteringKaboom splitting Spherus Magna into three]]. It is quite likely that the [[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheMan Energized]] [[SentientPhlebotinum Protodermis]] [[EldritchAbomination Entity]] [[ThePlan planned it all along.]]]]
* Often the main thing fought for by the Autobots and Decepticons in ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''. Be it [[Franchise/TransformersGenerationOne energon]], [[ANime/TransformersCybertron Planet Keys]], or [[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Allspark fragments]]. ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' had Mini-Cons, which were sentient phlebotinum. Bonus points for the transformers ''literally'' having phlebotinum (the aforementioned energon) for blood. [[spoiler:Unicron exploited this trope, creating the Mini-Cons specifically to give the Autobots and Decepticons something to fight over so he could feed on the raw hatred and aggression.]]
** ''Anime/TransformersEnergon'' focuses entirely on fighting over and using the titular GreenRocks.
** ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' had this in the first season, where the Maximals and Predacons fought over a planet rich in raw energon. Of course, by season 2 they found plenty of other things to keep fighting over.

* ''VideoGame/ArmoredCoreVIFiresOfRubicon'': A substance known as "Coral" is both an extremely volatile fuel and a mind-affecting drug used on [[{{Transhuman}} enhanced humans]], and mined on Rubicon III, with several megacorporations warring over it. [[spoiler:Coral turns out to be a sapient species of StarfishAliens, and the player can choose to destroy it, wipe out the warring corporations, or, in the NewGamePlus ending, merge with the Coral.]]

* Humans fought a really big war over Imulsion in the BackStory to ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', before the scary underground alien invasion.
* "Ragnite" was one of the reasons behind the war in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', with the player's small neutral country caught right in the middle due to its large natural deposits of it.
* Tarydium in the ''VideoGame/{{Unreal}}'' series.
* "Nectar" in ''VideoGame/{{Haze}}''. [[{{Anvilicious}} Not in any way a stand-in for a certain other resource found in South America.]]
* Practically inevitable in the later installments of ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' if you want your faction to prosper, unless you get really lucky with city placement or allies. If you do not have era-appropriate strategic resources, expect to be invaded by other civilizations who do and consider you easy pickings. If you have era-appropriate strategic resources, expect to be invaded by other civilizations who do not have it and desperately want it. Either way, wars are almost certainly going to be fought over it.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' features the miracle substance Mako. Generated from the essences of creatures long-since dead and pumped from the ground, it has allowed the company controlling it to control world politics, and its overuse creates serious consequences for the planet... similar to a certain black substance that the people of Earth have been using for several decades with similar results. This certain black substance is later treated as a viable alternative to mako in ''Advent Children''.
** There's a bit in Shinra's headquarters where they have a set of advertisements for the line of cars that they make (represented during the opening FMV). The video clearly shows the engines of said cars using Mako in a way that is analogous to the use of the... distillates of the aforementioned black substance. (And "The Aforementioned Black Substance" would make a [[AGoodNameForARockBand great band name]].)
* The ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series' backstory mentions conflicts over the world's dwindling oil reserves between the 2050s and '70s. 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. Similarly, the [[ExpandedStatesOfAmerica USA annexed Canada]] to loot water, oil, timber and other resources for its war effort, and Canadian protesters were repressed violently. 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 [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic setting]].
** By the time the Resource Wars kicked off, the U.S was transfering to a nuclear-powered society rather than an oil-powered one... which didn't help matters at all, as uranium just became another resource to fight over, becoming fuel for the conflict itself just like oil had been. It might have helped if they'd started earlier, but as the saying goes, too little, too late.

* E2 energy from ''VideoGame/AnotherCenturysEpisode'' and ''[[ContinuityReboot A.C.E 2]]''
* ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' had the E99 found in Katorga-12. Since it was in the USSR's back yard, they learned to harvest its potential and promptly take over the world.
* ''Videogame/BattleZone1998'' has the Cold War [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold secretly go hot]] between the USA and USSR over the alien [[{{Unobtanium}} biometal]], which was first discovered in a series of meteorite impacts over the Bering Strait, and was quickly used to create highly advanced [[HoverTank hovering tanks]] and [[BaseOnWheels mobile factories]] in the [[RidiculouslyFastConstruction space of seconds]]. The two armies jump from planet to planet in the Solar System in order to find more of the stuff and analyze the [[PreCursors Cthonian]] ruins dotting the other planets.
* The intro movie for ''VideoGame/{{Warzone 2100}}'' mentions "wars over cans of dog food" in the years following the nuclear apocalypse.
* Many of the conflicts in the ''Franchise/FarCry'' series are fueled by valuable black market products: mutants, blood diamonds, slaves, and LOTS of drugs.
* ''VideoGame/ToothAndTail'' is about a world of omnivorous talking animals who all want to eat meat during a Swine crisis, and have decided to ''kill and eat each other'' instead of eating salad for three months straight. [[spoiler:Eventually, the Swine reveal they planned their crisis to overthrow their carnivore masters, and conquer the world by pitting and manipulating the other factions into literally eating each other, and mop up the survivors with a ZergRush of pigs with pistols.]]
* Combined with TimeTravel in ''VideoGame/OriginalWar'', with the US and the Soviet Union sending soldiers back in time to mine a rare mineral that's been all mined out in the present day, and stop the other side from doing so.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': The planet Manaan has a monopoly on the {{panacea}} kolto, which is mined from its oceans: the native Selkath are FishPeople and only built a single CityOnTheWater to trade with offworlders, which [[WeWinBecauseYouDidnt they would be perfectly happy to blow up and sink]] if either the Republic or the Sith Empire openly violates their neutrality. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome As a consequence]], the Republic and the Sith Empire mount a SecretWar over the planet instead. [[AllThereInTheManual Background material]] states that bacta eventually outcompeted kolto, and the Sith conquered Manaan and enslaved the Selkath.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''Invoked'' in the Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom thread, ''Literature/ZhirinovskysRussianEmpire''. The Union of Independent States purposely rattles the energy market with fear and panic- all to jack up the price of oil, its only valuable commodity. [[spoiler:They even help fund a takeover and shutdown of a Dubai desalination plant, and in the process bring Iran and Saudi Arabia to the brink of war]]. Though gradually the international community grows desensitized to Russian saber-rattling, and energy prices begin to fall in the early 2000s.

** In Season 1, [[WebVideo/ThirdLifeSMP 3rd Life]], see Scar and Grian's attempt to create a monopoly over dark oak trees and sand, the server conflict earlier on over villagers, and people begging for and stealing cows.
** In Season 2, WebVideo/{{Last Life|SMP}}, there's shortages of sugarcane (used in the server-specific TNT recipe) and villagers (as there was no village, making the only way to get them by curing zombie villagers).
** In Season 3, WebVideo/{{Double Life|SMP}}, the sugarcane shortage continues when Grian starts to hoard the server's supply, and when that fails by Day 3, there's a shortage of sand because there isn't a desert on the server and [[XanatosSpeedChess Grian ends up hoarding most of the server supply of that too]].
** In Season 4, WebVideo/{{Limited Life|SMP}}, the very mechanism of the season enforces ''life-time'' as the primary, non-renewable resource everyone is fighting over -- everyone has 24 real-life hours to live in-game; killing someone of a higher colour grade (Yellows killing Greens and Reds killing anyone) or as [[MonsterOfTheWeek the Boogeyman]] gives time back (30 minutes and an hour, respectively), and dying means losing an hour (or two if killed by the Boogeyman). The hunts which the Yellow and Red Names go on to get some extra life-time back result in tremendous amounts of bloodshed, and [[PlayedForDrama serves as the overall motive]] for any non-environmental deaths across the season. As the season inches toward a close, many players even ''want'' to become the Boogeyman just so they can get their hands on more life-time for themselves.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Satirized in ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgersInTheTwentyFourthAndAHalfCentury''. The supply of Illudium Phosdex (the shaving cream atom) has become dangerously low. Rather than developing renewable sources of depilatories (or switching to electric razors), our IdiotHero and his Eager Young Space Cadet are sent to claim the Planet X (the only known natural source) only to end up destroying the entire planet in a pointless conflict with Marvin the Martian (also there for the same purpose). Dodgers does technically gain a PyrrhicVictory, kicking Marvin off the tiny FarSideIsland that is all that remains of Planet X by the end, with the Cadet hanging from a plant root underneath.
--> '''Cadet''': Eh, w-w-who cares?
[[/folder]]

%%To avoid FlameBait, please do not add any real life examples.

* ''Limbo'' by Bernard Wolfe. After World War Three, a worldwide culture evolves where men willingly have their limbs amputated and replace them with nuclear-powered prosthesis, a case of literal disarmament. The idea is to prevent another war, but unfortunately the prosthetics require a rare metal. Mutual suspicion on both sides that their adversary is seeking to gain control of hidden sources of this metal leads to a ColdWar and eventually open warfare.

** In Season 1, 3rd Life, see Scar and Grian's attempt to create a monopoly over dark oak trees and sand, the server conflict earlier on over villagers, and people begging for and stealing cows.
** In Season 2, Last Life, there's shortages of sugarcane (used in the server-specific TNT recipe) and villagers (as there was no village, making the only way to get them by curing zombie villagers).
** In Season 3, Double Life, the sugarcane shortage continues when Grian starts to hoard the server's supply, and when that fails by Day 3, there's a shortage of sand because there isn't a desert on the server and [[XanatosSpeedChess Grian ends up hoarding most of the server supply of that too]].
** In Season 4, Limited Life, the very mechanism of the season enforces ''life-time'' as the primary, non-renewable resource everyone is fighting over -- everyone has 24 real-life hours to live in-game; killing someone of a higher colour grade (Yellows killing Greens and Reds killing anyone) or as [[MonsterOfTheWeek the Boogeyman]] gives time back (30 minutes and an hour, respectively), and dying means losing an hour (or two if killed by the Boogeyman). The hunts which the Yellow and Red Names go on to get some extra life-time back result in tremendous amounts of bloodshed, and [[PlayedForDrama serves as the overall motive]] for any non-environmental deaths across the season. As the season inches toward a close, many players even ''want'' to become the Boogeyman just so they can get their hands on more life-time for themselves.

* A classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' had one of these, in the episode "The Caves of Androzani". It was over spectrox, "the most valuable substance in the universe."

* Pynvium in Janice Hardy's ''TheShifter'' can absorb pain. Its mines are important enough to fight over, but it is when [[spoiler:the healers run out of it]] that the plot kicks in.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has the world of New Capenna, where by far the most valuable resource is a substance called Halo. In addition to re-energizing the consumer and healing their wounds, it also gives you a nice buzz. All five Mafia families constantly fight each other over the dwindling supplies of it. [[spoiler:Halo is made of the bodies of angels, who sacrificed themselves to product the Halo to help the mortals of the realm fight off an Phyrexian invasion.]]

* The whole ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' story has its roots in the Core War, a massive world war over Energized Protodermis that emerged from the core of the planet, the unstable nature of which ended up [[EarthShatteringKaboom splitting Spherus Magna into three]]. Which it is quite likely that the [[spoiler:[[TheManBehindTheMan Energized]] [[SentientPhlebotinum Protodermis]] [[EldritchAbomination Entity]] [[ThePlan planned all along.]]]]