History Main / ElementalNation

** Possibly the Land of Fire is more diverse because the Uchiha clan, where the members have fire powers, doesn't run the show, but the clans that give the names run the show in the other nations.

* ''{{Naruto}}'' has the Land of Wind, The Land of Earth, The Land of Water, The Land of Lightning, and the primary setting, the Land of Fire. There are also a bunch of way smaller countries with names like the Land of Grass, the Land of Waves, and the Land of [[InherentlyFunnyWords Vegetables]]. Subverted in that many of the most powerful ninja don't use jutsu that match their nation. The Land of Fire 'is' known for their Fire Monks and the fire-using Uchiha clan, but the First Hokage was famous for using ''[[GreenThumb trees]]'' (which partially explains why Naruto's hometown is called The Village Hidden In The Trees), and his brother was skilled at [[MakingASplash water techniques]]. In fact, the vast majority of ninja from the Land of Fire don't use fire, and likewise with Land of Wind ninja. This trope has so far held true with Earth, Lightning and Mist though, but then only a very few ninja from each of those countries have been shown.

* ''{{Naruto}}'' has the Land of Wind, The Land of Earth, The Land of Water, The Land of Lightning, and the primary setting, the Land of Fire. There are also a bunch of way smaller countries with names like the Land of Grass, the Land of Waves, and the Land of [[InherentlyFunnyWords Vegetables]]. Subverted in that many of the most powerful ninja don't use jutsu that match their nation. The Land of Fire 'is' known for their Fire Monks and the fire-using Uchiha clan, but the First Hokage was famous for using ''[[GreenThumb trees]]'', and his brother was skilled at [[MakingASplash water techniques]]. In fact, the vast majority of ninja from the Land of Fire don't use fire, and likewise with Land of Wind ninja. This trope has so far held true with Earth, Lightning and Mist though, but then only a very few ninja from each of those countries have been shown.

* ''TheBannedAndTheBanished'' series of books have a variety of different tribes/races associated with different elemental magic forms. Dryads and Earth, Elves and Air, Mountain tribes and Rock.

* The Adept clans of ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' fall into this, particularly the [[PlayingWithFire Mars Clan]] of Prox, the [[MakingASplash Mercury Clan]] of Imil, and the (functionally-extinct) [[BlowYouAway Jupiter Clan]] of (vanished) Anemos. Lemuria would also qualify, being exclusively Mercury, though it doesn't identify as such as readily as the others. There's no sign of where or who the [[DishingOutDirt Venus Clan]] was, and Adepts of all four elements have been known to exist elsewhere. [[spoiler: ''Dark Dawn'''s massive twist is that Adepts exist outside the known elements -- but we're promptly introduced to the [[CastingAShadow Umbra Clan]] of Tuaparang, so this trope still applies even there.]]

* ''{{Naruto}}'' has the Land of Wind, The Land of Earth, The Land of Water, The Land of Lightning and the primary setting, the Land of Fire. There are also a bunch of way smaller countries with names like the Land of Grass, the Land of Waves and the Land of [[InherentlyFunnyWords Vegetables]]. Subverted in that many of the most powerful ninja don't use jutsu that match their nation. The Land of Fire 'is' known for their Fire Monks and the fire-using Uchiha clan, but the First Hokage was famous for using ''[[GreenThumb trees]]'', and his brother was skilled at [[MakingASplash water techniques]]. In fact, the vast majority of ninja from the Land of Fire don't use fire, and likewise with Land of Wind ninja. This trope has so far held true with Earth, Lightning and Mist though, but then only a very few ninja from each of those countries have been shown.
** Possibly the Land of Fire is more diverse because the Uchia clan, who has fire powers, doesn't run the show but the clans that give the names run the show in the other nations.

* The Adept clans of ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' fall into this, particularly the [[PlayingWithFire Mars Clan]] of Prox, the [[MakingASplash Mercury Clan]] of Imil, and the (functionally-extinct) [[BlowYouAway Jupiter Clan]] of (vanished) Anemos. Lemuria would also qualify, being exclusively Mercury, though it doesn't identify as such as readily as the others. There's no sign of where or who the [[DishingOutDirt Venus Clan]] was, and Adepts of all four elements have been known to exist elsewhere. [[spoiler: ''Dark Dawn'''s massive twist is that Adepts exist outside the known elements-- but we're promptly introduced to the [[CastingAShadow Umbra Clan]] of Tuaparang, so this trope still applies even there.]]

* In ''TheLegendOfZelda'' games, forest residents (Deku or Kokiri) have the Forest element; Gorons have the Fire element; Zoras have the Water element. This has more to do with their temple and artifacts than their magical abilities, since spellcasting isn't common in these games.

* The Adept clans of ''GoldenSun'' fall into this, particularly the [[PlayingWithFire Mars Clan]] of Prox, the [[MakingASplash Mercury Clan]] of Imil, and the (functionally-extinct) [[BlowYouAway Jupiter Clan]] of (vanished) Anemos. Lemuria would also qualify, being exclusively Mercury, though it doesn't identify as such as readily as the others. There's no sign of where or who the [[DishingOutDirt Venus Clan]] was, and Adepts of all four elements have been known to exist elsewhere. [[spoiler: ''Dark Dawn'''s massive twist is that Adepts exist outside the known elements-- but we're promptly introduced to the [[CastingAShadow Umbra Clan]] of Tuaparang, so this trope still applies even there.]]

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* ''TheBannedAndTheBanished'' series of books have a variety of different tribes/races associated with differnt elemental magic forms. Dryads and Earth, Elves and Air, Mountain tribes and Rock.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' features this prominently. Elemental "bending" is limited to characters from the appropriately named nation that engages in use of that element. Moreover, the nations themselves are easily defined by those elements. The Air Nomads, when they were still around, largely lived in high-up temples to which only they could glide. The Water Tribe lives at the poles (where they are naturally surrounded by water), except for one offshoot that lives at a swamp (which is mostly surrounded by water). The Fire Nation has an inordinately large number of active volcanoes in its territory. The Earth Kingdom, in addition to being a massive landmass, is very rocky and mountainous with lots of caves.
* ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' uses this for all the defined nations. Though "magic" figures largely as a game mechanic, the cultures are all clearly influenced by the kinds of moonstones to which they have access: Valua has a strong industrial sector powered by electricity, Ixataca has lots of trees, and Yafutoma has ships that can fly unusually high. Nasr mostly just has sand, but its people manage.

* ''MagicTheGathering'' does this fairly frequently. Aligning tribes with certain colours or colour combinations, which in different blocks can be associated with differnt elements.
** Taken to extremes in the Odyssey block (and the Onslaught block, which took place in the same setting) where the entire map was created simply by superimposing two colour wheels on the spare continent outline they had lying around.
** and the 5 Shards of Alara were elementals worlds; Alara broke in to 5 pieces, one for each color of mana, accompanied by the two allied colors. The design of each of the shards was based off a world with only 3 colors of mana (Bant is super organized and caste based, as it lacks the chaos of red or the jockeying for position of black, for example).

* Used by the ''{{Gormiti}}'' toys and [[GormitiTheLordsOfNatureReturn TV show]].

* ''{{Naruto}}'' has the Land of Wind, The Land of Earth, The Land of Water, The Land of Lightning and the primary setting, the Land of Fire. There are also a bunch of way smaller countries with names like the Land of Grass, the Land of Waves and the Land of [[InherentlyFunnyWords Vegetables]]. Subverted in that many of the most powerful ninja don't use jutsu that match their nation. The Land of Fire 'is' known for their Fire Monks and the fire-using Uchiha clan, but the First Hokage was famous for using ''[[GreenThumb trees]]'', and his brother was skilled at [[MakingASplash water techniques]]. In fact, the vast majority of ninja from the Land of Fire don't use fire, and likewise with Land of Wind ninja. This trope has so far held true with Earth, Lightning and Mist though, but then only a very few ninja from each of those countries have been shown.
** Possibly the Land of Fire is more diverse because the Uchia clan, who has fire powers, doesn't run the show but the clans that give the names run the show in the other nations.

* in TheGreatTreeOfAvalon Trilogy, each of the seven elemental realms has at least one race specifically attuned to the element, even though they usually aren't its sole inhabitants (this depends mainly on how inviting it is to other races; you won't find many humans willing to settle in Shadowroot or Waterroot for example).

* The main setting in ''{{Exalted}}'', Creation, has the Elemental Poles of Fire (south), Water (west), Air (north), Wood (east) and Earth (center). The closer you get to the pole, the more prominent the element becomes; the south is a vast desert and then volcanoes, the west opens to a vast ocean, and the east is thicker and thicker forests. The people naturally try to adapt.

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[[quoteright:333:[[AvatarTheLastAirbender http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Opening_Avatar_World_Map_5686.png]]]]

Examples:
* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' features this prominently. Elemental "bending" is limited to characters from the appropriately named nation that engages in use of that element. Moreover, the nations themselves are easily defined by those elements. The Air Nomads, when they were still around, largely lived in high-up temples to which only they could glide. The Water Tribe lives at the poles (where they are naturally surrounded by water), except for one offshoot that lives at a swamp (which is mostly surrounded by water). The Fire Nation has an inordinately large number of active volcanoes in its territory. The Earth Kingdom, in addition to being a massive landmass, is very rocky and mountainous with lots of caves.

This is when the process of defining nations in fantasy settings is to have each group be under the domain of one kind of magic. The main appeal to this is, naturally, the easy convenience of being able to define who is from what nation, since they'll have the appropriate elemental affinity to go with it, and the trappings of the culture itself will be clearly delineated by that element as well. This is often paired with tropes like SinglePaletteTown in order to get the full effect. On the downside, this can sometimes result in a PlanetOfHats situation on a small scale, since all members of a specific nation must, by definition, fit into the general archetypes of their nation's element. Taken to extremes, the nation can fall prey to the problem of PoorPredictableRock.

* Employed by the ''{{Xanth}}'' series.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' features this prominently. Elemental "bending" is limited to characters from the appropriately named nation that engages in use of that element. Moreover, the nations themselves are easily defined by those elements. The Air Nomads, when they were still around, largely lived in high-up temples to which only they could glide. The Water Tribe lives at the poles (where they are naturally surrounded by water), except for one offshoot that lives at a swamp (which is mostly surrounded by water). The Fire Nation has an inordinately large number of active volcanoes in its territory. The Earth Kingdom... [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking has a lot of land.]]

* ''SkiesOfArcadia'' uses this for all the defined nations. Though "magic" figures largely as a game mechanic, the cultures are all clearly influenced by the kinds of moonstones to which they have access: Valua has a strong industrial sector powered by electricity, Ixataca has lots of trees, and Yafutoma has ships that can fly unusually high. Nasr mostly just has sand, but its people manage.

* in TheGreatThreeofAvalon Trilogy, each of the seven elemental realms has at least one race specifically attuned to the element, even though they usually aren't its sole inhabitants (this depends mainly on how inviting it is to other races; you won't find many humans willing to settle in Shadowroot or Waterroot for example).

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' features this prominently. Elemental "bending" is limited to characters from the appropriately named nation that engages in use of that element. Moreover, the nations themselves are easily defined by those elements. The Air Nomads, when they were still around, largely lived in high-up temples to which only they could glide. The Water Tribe lives at the poles (where they are naturally surrounded by water), except for one offshoot that lives at a swamp (which is mostly surrounded by water).

This is when the process of defining nations in fantasy settings is to have each group be under the domain of one kind of magic. The main appeal to this is, naturally, the easy convenience of being able to define who is from what nation, since they'll have the appropriate elemental affinity to go with it, and the trappings of the culture itself will be clearly delineated by that element as well. This is often paired with tropes like SinglePaletteTown in order to get the full effect. On the downside, this can sometimes result in a PlanetOfHats situation on a small scale, since all members of a specific nation must, by definition, fit into the general archetypes of their nation's element.

* ''{{Naruto}}'' has the Land of Wind, The Land of Earth, The Land of Water, The Land of Lightning and the primary setting, [[strike: Tierra del Fuego]] the Land of Fire. There are also a bunch of way smaller countries with names like the Land of Grass, the Land of Waves and the Land of [[InherentlyFunnyWords Vegetables]]. Subverted in that many of the most powerful ninja don't use jutsu that match their nation. The Land of Fire 'is' known for their Fire Monks and the fire-using Uchiha clan, but the First Hokage was famous for using ''[[GreenThumb trees]]'', and his brother was skilled at [[MakingASplash water techniques]]. In fact, the vast majority of ninja from the Land of Fire don't use fire, and likewise with Land of Wind ninja. This trope has so far held true with Earth, Lightning and Mist though, but then only a very few ninja from each of those countries have been shown.