ABS

Astro-Binding Substance

ABS is the miracle material from which the engineers of Galactik Civilization build all constructions. Its mysterious properties allow fuelless vehicles, impossible structures, rebuildable lifeforms, and all of the unexplained sources of energy, thought, and motion that make a BrikWar work. The reality-warping effects of ABS allow Mediks to bring back the dead, Mechaniks to create vehicles from debris in seconds, regular life-forms to mutate into unstoppable monsters, castles to appear next to military bunkers, pirate ships to sail in outer space, and armies from parallel BrikVerses to arrive at a battlefield a thousand years late.

The effects of ABS only warp reality in one direction: the direction of warfare and mayhem, leading some to believe that evil or unworldly minds guide its power. These beliefs, in some form or another, are the basis for all major Galaktik religions.

Properties

The earliest BrikVerse in which ABS is known to appear is Retkon 1,948, although it was not used in constructions until R 1,963. The builders utilizing the substance so far prior to the arrival of Minifigs in R 1,978 have never been identified; these constructions precede even the ancient ProtoFigs (R 1,975) and NoodleFigs (R 1,974).

To engineers, the letters describe the material's primary function as an Absurdative Binding Substance. To philosophers and theologians, they're an abbreviation for its role as the physical manifestation of Absolute Matter.

The reality-warping properties of ABS are poorly understood, as though the substance itself were trolling the researchers attempting to analyze it. The minifig brain is ill-equipped to truly understand ABS, and insights into its nature invariably result in progressive ensanity for everyone involved. If anything, this only encourages minifig civilizations to conduct scientifik, magikal, and religious research into its use. The most advanced research is conducted by SpaceMan scientists using Large HaTron Colliders to smash inhabited planets together at near-lightspeed in the hope of proving the existence of Bozons, the mythikal "Clown Particles" that link the absursive effects of ABS with the universal Farce.

Naturally-occurring ABS is found in Legitimitium ore, commonly shortened to Leg-Ore. Corrupted, synthetic, or counterfeit ABS is lumped under the derogatory term Counterfeit Leg-Ore, or CLO. CLOan ABS is believed to have originated in the NegaVerse as a means of corrupting and sabotaging the creations of Legitimitium engineers. CLOan ABS is much cheaper to obtain and produce than Leg-Ore ABS, but results in such inferior constructions and defect-plagued devices that it often produces genocidal disgust in anyone who witnesses them.