Miracle Materials

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Prometheus

Adapted from a description in Ultimate Super Mage:

 

Qliphothium:- "...this residue is denser than mercury, chemically inert, has the superfluid properties of Helium II and is an almost perfect electrical and thermal insulator. It has all the properties of a vacuum except the absence of matter."

 

One of my villians, Darqling, produces small amounts of it as a side effect of his powers. Imagine what you could do with that.

 

I had completely forgotten about the description of that substance in USM. I guess you might consider that an "official" Champions Universe material - and I love the name "qliphothium". You're right that its properties could be spectacular. Of course, since it's normally produced as the byproduct of feeding by the claynull, one of the most dangerous forms of anti-life from the qliphothic planes, gathering significant amounts of it would be a challenge.

 

Speaking of official materials, let us not forget that the CU version of Atlantis is the unique source for the legendary material orichalcum. From CU p. 88: "Reddish-orange in color and similar to copper in consistency, orichalcum holds the 'charge' of enchantments with great facility, which makes magical devices created with orichalcum powerful and easy to craft." It's also "light and malleable, but exceedingly strong when alloyed with steel." (p. 90)

 

The 4E Atlantis sourcebook describes orichalcum in similar terms (much of the contents of that fine sourcebook is very similar to the 5E Atlantis, and could easily be adapted). In addition to holding enchantments, orichalcum can enhance the effectiveness of spells. The metal is also able to absorb radiation and render radioactive objects inert.

[Syberdwarf2]

Re: Re: okay, but hear me out...

 

Originally posted by Thirdbase

I've been looking for a source of Unobtainium for a long time, but I can't seem to find any.

 

It's right there on the shelf (aisle 5) between the Immovable Objects and the Unstoppable Forces.......

[Tamashii2000]

Re: Re: Biofibre

 

Originally posted by Dynamo

Thanks for the kind words.

 

There's more: Although biofibre is currently being grown commercially in ever greater amounts, the original colony was extruded by a metamorphic/power-copying super who'd mastered shapeshifting down to the genetic level and could engineer portions of his body into biochemical factories. Genetic matching tests available in the Cannibal Comics setting (2008 + super inventors + tech salvaged from crashed starships) are capable of turning up some intriguing similarities between biofibre DNA and that of metahumans. The companies that manufacture the material have thus far kept these similarities out of the public limelight.

 

At the metagame level, the facts about biofibre provide clues for the players to pursue concerning the common origin unknowingly shared by all supers except those of purely magical or purely technological origin.

 

Sounds a bit like Abberants Eufiber.

[Supreme]

"Qliphothium"

Isn't Qliphoth one of the stations on the Tree of Life of the Qabballah (Hebrew mysticism)?

[Dynamo]

Re: Biofibre

 

Originally posted by Tamashii2000

Sounds a bit like Abberants Eufiber.

Yup, I admitted as much in my first post above.

 

Aberrant is packed with cool stuff, ripe for plundering -er- I mean emulating.

[Lord Liaden]

Originally posted by Supreme

"Qliphothium"

Isn't Qliphoth one of the stations on the Tree of Life of the Qabballah (Hebrew mysticism)?

 

Very good, Supreme. Dean Shomshak used the Tree of Life and the Four Worlds as one of the bases for his detailed cosmology in The Ultimate Supermage. (An excellent read if you have any interest in super-magic games.) Judging by several references in the Hero Universe meta-setting and in Champions Universe, Steve Long has adopted this cosmology almost wholly.

 

In this form, "the Qliphothic World" embraces ancient dimensions that have decayed to a form inimical to normal life, inhabited by horrific and malevolent entities in the "Lovecraftian" vein.

[The Mad GM]

Reality break: Liquidmetal

 

A real-world material, called Liquidmetal:

"Liquidmetal alloys possess a unique, amorphous atomic structure that enables them to be cast into very thin-profile, precision net-shape parts while maintaining strength and hardness two-to-three times greater than titanium and other commonly used metals."

 

It can apparently be injection molded like plastic, and retain detail (like an edge on a surgical scalpel) down to the micron level. Normal metals change shape too much during cooling to be reiably casted with that much precision, which is why knives have that shiny machined bevel at the edge.

 

Check out their website:

 

http://www.liquidmetal.com/

 

It kills me that the first application they came up with was a head for a golf club.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Reality break: Liquidmetal

 

Originally posted by The Mad GM

It kills me that the first application they came up with was a head for a golf club.

 

LOL! Ironic indeed, but in a luxury-based consumer economy, not terribly surprising. As I mentioned earlier, science is closing fast on science fiction.

 

On a slightly different note: since Prometheus brought up supernaturally derived substances, I thought I might mention this one which I came up with for a fantasy campaign. Any universe which includes magic or really advanced tech could probably justify something like this.

 

Adamant. This material was mentioned in classical mythology and later works which drew from it, such as those of Milton. It was supposed to be virtually unbreakable; the sickle used as a weapon by the Titan Cronus was made from it, for example. Modern scholars often hold that what the Greeks called adamant was really diamond, but I decided to take that idea one step further.

 

Certain supernatural entities, such as the god Hephaestus and the svartalfar or dwarves of Norse legend, know how to create magical forges which can melt diamonds to the consistency of molten glass. In this state it can be molded and shaped into various useful forms, far larger than naturally occuring diamonds, which regain diamond's wonted hardness after it cools. Weapons and tools fashioned of adamant are usually folded many times like fine steel, to eliminate the cleavage patterns which can make natural diamonds brittle.

[Supreme]

The gates of Hell are made from Adamant as well, IIRC. A friend of mine suggested a material which was carbon-diamond with its molecular chains arranged into a metallic lattice thus preventing it from being "brittle". Call it Adamantium.

[SkyKnight]

Good pseudoscience idea. Just for the record, the metallic bonded form of carbon is ordinary graphite, which is still brittle. Diamond derives its strength from its three dimensional covalent network bond structure. You might have better luck with some sort of sub-scale composite of carbon nanotubes.

 

 

Originally posted by Supreme

The gates of Hell are made from Adamant as well, IIRC. A friend of mine suggested a material which was carbon-diamond with its molecular chains arranged into a metallic lattice thus preventing it from being "brittle". Call it Adamantium.

[BishopofB&W]

Real-Life Miracle Materials

 

TRANSPARENT ALUMINUM

http://www.rense.com/general20/transparentalum.htm

 

NANOTUBES

http://news.com.com/2009-7337_3-5091267.html?tag=nefd_lede

 

AEROGEL

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad26oct98_1.htm

[Supreme]

I once did a complete write-up of the effects of all the Silver-Age Kryptonites. Lost it, unfortunately.

 

My current Golden Age character, Freedom Fighter, is a former heavy-weight boxing chamion who wears a bullet-proof costume made from "Freedom Cloth." It's an "advanced form of anti-ballistic nylon" which his brother invented before being destroyed along with the secret formula at Pearl Harbor. FF's personal hunted is the Baroness von Beck who's out to steal it back.

 

I also came up with an idea for a powered-armor character who got his tech from an abandoned alien ship. The substance is like a long-chain polymer. Orient the molecule one-way and it's a highly resistant, light-weight polymer. Orient the molecule another way, and it becomes a super-conductor. Thus you can make armor plating with it that has molecule-thin circuits that never break.

[BishopofB&W]

I felt inspired this weekend:

 

Nanoweave—Material made of carbon-based nanotubes. Though expensive, it has a variety of uses in communications, computers, and biotechnology. Less commonly known are its military applications such as in body armor, stealth and infiltration gear, and battle dress for elite special forces units. A bodysuit made of the appropriate weave configuration can defeat radar, infrared, or disperse radiant energy to provide some protection from lasers, electricity, and heat-based attacks. This can be increased by combining it with Mallorite.

 

Mallorite—A substance which can channel kinetic energy, radiant energy, or even hard radiation through itself into a predetermined location (or locations). Invented by Dr. Matthias Mallory in 1966.

 

SpectraSilk—A synthetic fiber invented in 1970 by a chemist named Waylon Carver (great-great-grandson of the scientist George Washington Carver) after analyzing a scrap of The Protean’s biomorphic costume he recovered near the site of The Protean’s defeat by the members of The Love Generation. SpectraSilk was an instant sensation in the high fashion world because, though it ordinarily possessed a near-perfect transparency, it could accept any dye. It could go from see-through to solid opacity depending on the designer’s preference. It is more expensive than ordinary silk, but is lighter and stronger and can knit cuts and tears back together when treated with a special solution developed by Carver. Carver’s secret was that one key component was grown out of the original biomorphic scrap. It never got much use in clothes beyond the runways of New York and Paris but it found wide acceptance in other applications such as parachutes. The profits from the initial sales allowed Carver to launch his own company, Spectrum Solutions (We have your solution!). In 1973, Carver discovered that his nephew, Darius Johnson, was the lightning-projecting superhero Power Surge. Not only was Darius using a costume made of SpectraSilk, but the material had somehow attuned itself to Darius’ bioelectric field so that it acclimated to his powers. Carver couldn’t find any proof but he began to suspect The Protean’s morphic technology was extraterrestrial in nature. Word quickly spread through the metahuman community and soon SpectraSilk was on every superhero’s and supervillain’s list of costume upgrades. The daringly clad flying brick feminist Ms. Steele publicly endorsed it after it held up during an incident involving an exploding gasoline truck.