History Main / MadeOfPhlebotinum

There is actually a great deal of evidence that ''RealLife'' is thus: when you develop a potent capability to the point that there are few side effects, you start using it for everything imaginable. When we learned to harness electricity easily, the only things weren't 100% electrical were the things that we used to generate electricity. When computers became advanced enough, we started carrying them around with us. Litmus Test? If you took away computers, it'd '''re-create TheGreatDepression'''. If you took away electricity, '''''ninety percent of the world would die within a decade'''''.

* Literature/{{Elcenia}}, [[http://elcenia.com/11/251-2-41.shtml here]]:
-->"Physical laws? Oh, those things. We don't have them."\\
"But everyone has them. It's a fundamental principle."\\
"Not in this world. Everything is taken care of by magic in various forms. What's holding you to your seat isn't gravity, for example."\\
"Oh, what then?"\\
"Magic. Don't look so alarmed. It's at least as reliable as gravity is."

** To a lesser extent, all ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' settings fit this trope. ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' especially, but even a place like ''ForgottenRealms'' is mildly MadeOfPhlebotinum.

** ''Film/BlackPanther'' later establishes that the people of Wakanda base all of their advanced technology on their massive stockpile of Vibranium.

[[quoteright:300:[[Webcomic/AwkwardZombie https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Mass-Effect-as-Phlebotinum_6452.jpg]]]][-[[caption-width-right:300:"How could you HandWave everything like that?"\\
"Franchise/MassEffect."]]-]

** The fact that everything is made out of ''matter'' is a bit of a headscratcher in itself. Matter and antimatter must have been made in equal quantities in the big bang, so why didn't they just annihilate each other?

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' uses this as its ''CharacterTitle [[TitleDrop Drop]]'', despite being one of the [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness hardest]] {{Space Opera}}s to date. How does [[CasualInterstellarTravel Casual]] FasterThanLightTravel work? [[AppliedPhlebotinum Mass Effect Fields]], generated by [[{{Unobtainium}} Element]] [[MinovskyPhysics Zero]]. How do the {{Flying Car}}s fly? Mass Effect Fields, generated by Element Zero. How do [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Biotics]] [[MindOverMatter move things with their minds]]? Mass Effect Fields, generated by Element Zero. How do the guns have BottomlessMagazines? Mass Effect Fields, generated by Element Zero[[note]] And computers in the gun which calculate the size of the shot needed and shave it off of a large block inside the weapon.[[/note]]. How do [[spoiler:the Reapers build a space station in the '''[[UsefulNotes/BlackHoles galactic core?]]''']] '''''[[OverlyLongGag Mass Effect Fields, generated by Element Zero.]]''''' And of course, without Mass Effect Fields, generated by Element Zero, [[AnthropicPrinciple there would be no interstellar civilization]].

** ''BlackPanther'' later establishes that the people of Wakanda base all of their advanced technology on their massive stockpile of Vibranium.

** According to [[http://www.viddler.com/rooreynolds/videos/26/ this]] video, Azeroth is a sphere about 12 kilometers across, with a density around a hundred times that of Earth. This explains why when you drop an item it disappears; due to the gravity it is crushed into an extremely fine powder spread over a wide area.
*** Azeroth is, in fact, about the same size as Earth (if it's smaller, it's only slightly smaller). The reason it appears to small in game is because of ''Main/SpaceCompression'' and ''Main/GameplayAndStorySegregation''.

* ''Literature/SixthColumn'' by RobertHeinlein is heading toward this in the end. The harnessing of magneto-gravitic, electro-gravitic and ternary fields promises to change the world even more than electromagnetism did and much faster. Everything TheResistance uses, both weaponized and mundane is based on those new discoveries.

** [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_energy It's till pretty hard]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy all things considered]].

* Money. (Which may count as fundamental force of the universe as its been stated to make the world go round.) Its been around in some form or another since the Stone Age and if it were to suddenly vanish, Human Civilization as we know it would likely go up in flames. (The damage getting worse the longer money is gone.)
** First, it just cannot "suddenly vanish". Second, money have no value on its own - it's only a medium used to exchange fruits of labor and someone else's labor. You cannot buy anything if there's simply nothing around that could be bought and if money somehow disapper (or, more likely, become worthless), the goods, the food and the houses won't disapper with them. Third, in how many {{Utopia}}s there is no money at all?
** It could be argued that a medium of exchange is an emergent property of the human mind... barter appears to have been ubiqitous, and many quite diverse cultures invented money separately.

* In the blog-novel ''FlyoverCity!'' – Malphysical Particles create a cosmic loophole which render the laws of physics “malleable”, allowing the story’s superheroes to do all those superhero-y things that are impossible in the real world.

-->Youtube Commenter: I'm not sure which is weirder, the way the universe in this series works, or the fact that the universe works EXACTLY HOW KAMINA THINKS IT DOES!

* ''The ChroniclesOfThomasCovenant.'' Then, in the Second Trilogy, [[spoiler:They lose the phlebotinum. This is way more horrific than it sounds. In part, because they eventually realize that the phlebotinum hasn't actually been lost: it's become corrupted and is causing the various disruptions that the world is experiencing (rainstorms, droughts, pestilences etc.)]]

* ''{{Eberron}}'''s DungeonPunk world comes to mind as an especially obvious example of this trope. Without that magical-flavored {{Phlebotinum}}, everything in that world would fall apart ''hard''. It's pretty much MadeOfPhlebotinum.
** To a lesser extent, all ''DungeonsAndDragons'' settings fit this trope. ''{{Planescape}}'' and ''{{Spelljammer}}'' especially, but even a place like ''ForgottenRealms'' is mildly MadeOfPhlebotinum.
** {{Ravenloft}} literally so - it's a series of artifically-created "demiplanes" floating in the misty emptiness of the Ethereal Plane. When a domain's CosmicKeystone is destroyed, it may be absorbed by neighboring domains, or it may simply collapse into the Mists.
* ''{{Exalted}}'', full stop. Creation itself is the greatest artifact ever built, while OddJobGods exist for individual rice grains and their interactions provide the physics of the universe.

* In David Wingrove's ChungKuo, the world-spanning City is made of "Ice"

* [[Literature/Elcenia Elcenia]], [[http://elcenia.com/11/251-2-41.shtml here]]:
--> "Physical laws? Oh, those things. We don't have them."
--> "But everyone has them. It's a fundamental principle."
--> "Not in this world. Everything is taken care of by magic in various forms. What's holding you to your seat isn't gravity, for example."
--> "Oh, what then?"
--> "Magic. Don't look so alarmed. It's at least as reliable as gravity is."

* The world of ''TalesOfMU'' is driven by {{Magitek}}, the physics are based on AWizardDidIt, and from the point of view of people in other worlds, a knife that was said to be "barely enchanted" is ''[[MadeOfMagic made out of magic]]''.

* ''SixthColumn'' by RobertHeinlein is heading toward this in the end. The harnessing of magneto-gravitic, electro-gravitic and ternary fields promises to change the world even more than electromagnetism did and much faster. Everything TheResistance uses, both weaponized and mundane is based on those new discoveries.

* [[http://elcenia.com/11/251-2-41.shtml Elcenia]]:

** The consistency of this trope throughout the series is one of the reasons the [[spoiler:Synthesis]] ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' was considered so terrible. It had nothing to do with the mass effect fields. Neither was it generated by element zero.