Enthredic

Summary

Enthredic is an artificially intelligent substance designed by the Vocru. It was originally intended to interconnect their species’ bodily systems and external technology, but was later tweaked as a superfuel and offered to other species to use as a means of bringing the Vocru's ever-expanding intergalactic empire to heel. Species that adopted Enthredic came to grow quickly dependent on it, and after the Vocru empire finally crumbled, their civilizations fell apart due to its absence.
Enthredic's most recent and frankly unexpected application occurred on the world of Taharjin's Flame, where it leaked into the oceans following a crash-landing of a Vocru probe, latching on to the native human population’s DNA and granting magic-like abilities to a select few. Due to the near-total lack of it in the universe, the discovery of any such new source of the compound would stand to incite intense competition across the cosmos; but for now, most remain ignorant of its existence.