History Main / ElementalNation

* The real-world places that the four nations of WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender are the FantasyCounterpartCulture of:
** The Fire Nation is based on Japan, which has strong volcanic activity, thus is Fire.
** The Earth Kingdom is based on China, which is covered in deserts (Taklimakan and Gobi) and mountains, representing Earth.
** The Water Tribes are inspired by Inuit, which live in the North Pole, and the Ainu people of the cold Hokkaido, both of which live in contact with the cold seas (Water).
** The Air Nomads are based on Tibet, which is located on a high mountain range, representing Air.

* The real-world places that the four nations of WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender are FantasyCounterpartCultures of:

* The four nations are FantasyCounterpartCultures of actual places in the world which can be seen as this: the Fire Nation is based on Japan, which has strong volcanic activity, the Earth Kingdom on China, which is covered in deserts (Taklimakan and Gobi) and mountains, the Water Tribes on Inuit, which live in the North Pole, and the Air Nomads on Tibet, which is located on a high mountain range.

* A sci-fi example is ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders''. The Cluster's solar system has five planets; Rock, Fire, Ice, Bone and Water, with their inhabitants looking a lot like the element describing the planet (with the exception of the people of Bone, who look like reptiles).

* The elves from ''WesternAnimation/TheDragonPrince'' have clans for each Primal Source of Magic ([[{{Lunacy}} Moon]], [[ThePowerOfTheSun Sun]], [[BlowYouAway Sky]], [[MakingASplash Ocean]], [[DishingOutDirt Earth]], [[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[StarPower Star]]), each one giving the elf a natural ability. For example, Moonshadow Elves can become VisibleInvisible at night, while Sunfire Elves have a SuperMode and a [[HealingFactor Healing Mode]].

[[caption-width-right:350: Not pictured: the Country of [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Heart]]]].

[[caption-width-right:350: Not pictured: the Country of [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Heart]].

[[caption-wide-right:350: Not pictured: the Country of [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway Heart]].

-->--''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'''s OpeningNarration

* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilationKingdoms'' the Kingdoms and their monarchs are based on the elements they control. Aramon, a stereotypical medieval kingdom with castles, farms, knights, wizards and courtly intrigue ruled by TheGoodKing Elsin is associated with Earth. Veruna, a Greco-Roman/Scottish archipelago nation with a powerful navy ruled by the Sea Queen Kirenna is associated with Air. Taros, a barren wasteland taking cues from feudal Japan but also {{Mordor}} where demons and undead and all manner of other horrors reign, ruled by the evil necromancer king Lokken, is the land of Fire. Finally, Zhon, a wild land populated by badass savages and monstrous beasts where the Huntress Thrish is worshipped as a goddess, is associated with Air. The expansion gives us the nation of Creon, ruled by the Sage Mendalos and associated with [[SteamPunk steel and technology]].

* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilationKingdoms'' the Kingdoms and their monarchs are based on the elements they control. Elsin and Aramon are earth, Kirenna and Veruna are water, Lokken and Taros are fire, Thirsha and Zhon are wind, The Sage and Creon are steel.

** In the past, five dragon broods allied with ally colour pairs also existed on Tarkir, born from elemental storms that took mana from different terrains. They were also elementally aligned: Green-White dragons breathed [[LightEmUp lasers]], White-Blue dragons breathed [[AnIcePerson ice]], Blue-Black dragons breathed [[PoisonousPerson poison]], Black-Red dragons breathed [[ShockAndAwe lightning]] and Red-Green dragons breathed [[OneOfTheseThingsIsNotLikeTheOthers fire]]. Each brood also took its culture and personality from its colors -- the White-Blue dragons were contemplative and enlightened, but arrogant and restrictive, monks and scholars, while the Red-Green dragons were ferocious, simple-minded and ever-hungry beasts.

* ''Franchise/{{Tsukipro}}'''s "Tsukino Empires" series of illustrations and short stories feature the UniversalAdaptorCast as military officers of empires based on TheFourGods. There's a surprising amount of world building for something that's essentially [[GoodLookingPrivates military uniform fanservice]].

* In the world of the ''TheSovereignStone'', certain individuals are chosen to be Dominion Lords, who are basically {{Magic Knight}}s with elemental powers. In the beginning, only the humans had this power, being associated with the element of earth. However, in an act of goodwill the king of the strongest human kingdom uses the titular artifact to share this power to other races inhabiting the world. As a result, the elves received power over wind, the dwarves power over fire and the orcs (here being a race of seafaring nomads) gained power over water.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatar_world_map.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[MakingASplash Water.]] [[DishingOutDirt Earth.]] [[PlayingWithFire Fire.]] [[BlowYouAway Air.]] Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...]]

* ''TabletopGame/DuelMasters'' has five civilizations that each had a distinct elemental theme: Light, Nature, Water, Fire and Darkness (think the colors of MagicTheGathering with the alignments of Green and Blue switched).

* In ''Literature/TheGreatTreeOfAvalon'' trilogy, each of the seven roots of the WorldTree is attuned to a different element which dominates its landscape (Woodroot is heavily forested, Stoneroot is very mountainous, Airroot consists entirely of open skies, etc) and has at least one race specifically attuned to that 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).

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' does this fairly frequently. Gameplay tribes and in-game factions frequently align to either one of the five colors of {{mana}} in the game and their associated philosophies and magics -- White (law, society and light), Blue (science, the mind, water and air), Black (ambition, death and darkness), Red (chaos, emotion and fire) and Green (stability, nature and life) -- or various combinations of these, which naturally has heavy influences on how members of these societies think and behave and on what magic they use.

** 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).
** Tarkir similarly is ruled by five warrior clans, [[FantasyCounterpartCulture each modelled after an historical asian culture]], aligned with each colour of mana plus its enemy colours, although the focus is somewhat arbitary and random (for instance, the Mardu Horde, which features White and its enemy colours Black and Red, focuses primarily on Red and not on White).
** In the past, five dragon broods allied with ally colour pairs also existed on Tarkir, following this trope specifically due to being born from elemental storms that took mana from different terrains. They were also elementally aligned too: green-white dragons breathed [[LightEmUp lasers]], white-blue dragons breathed [[AnIcePerson ice]], blue-black dragons breathed [[PoisonousPerson poison]], black-red dragons breathed [[ShockAndAwe lightning]] and red-green dragons breathed [[OneOfTheseThingsIsNotLikeTheOthers fire]].
* The main setting in ''TabletopGame/{{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, the North is frozen and windblown, and the East is thicker and thicker forests. The Elemental Pole of Earth, in the center of Creation, is a ''colossal'' mountain. The people naturally try to adapt.
** Played with regarding the largest nation in Creation. [[TheEmpire The Realm's]] ruling caste, the Dragon-Blooded, is made up of people who embody the various elements, but who aren't actually elementals (those are a separate thing). The played with aspect comes up in that they aren't divided politically by which element they embody; their divisions are based purely on politics.

* Used by the ''Toys/{{Gormiti}}'' toys and [[WesternAnimation/GormitiTheLordsOfNatureReturn TV show]].
* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': Mata Nui and Metru Nui were each divided into seven regions, six of which corresponded to the elements of Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Stone and Ice (the seventh was a neutral zone in the center). Voya Nui and Bara Magna mix things up a bit: Voya Nui has similar regions but all the inhabitants share a single settlement; while Bara Magna has the regions and color-coding, but none of its peoples have innate elemental powers and most do not have cultural traits unique to their regional tribe (those that do, the Rock and Sand tribes, can attribute their traits to being led by a different race rather than being from a certain region).

* In ''Franchise/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.
** Other races connected to elements (some of which are more abstract than anything) include the Gerudo (desert/[[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway spirit]]), Yeti (ice/snow), the Wind Tribe (air/wind), the Sheikah (shadow), and the Twili (Twilight).
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has the Elemental Plane, another dimension (or dimensions, it's not clear) dominated by elementals of certain types. The Firelands, for example, are inhabited by hellhounds, fiery scorpions and turtles, magma elementals of several shapes, sizes and levels of intelligence, and so on. While that doesn't exactly fit this trope, in the Cataclysm expansion, the elemental place(s?) have begun to intrude on Azeroth, setting the scene for elemental invasions and stuff.
* 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.
** ''Dark Dawn'''s massive twist is that [[spoiler: Adepts exist outside the known elements... but we're promptly introduced to the [[CastingAShadow Umbra Clan]] of Tuaparang]], so this trope ''still'' applies.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonConquest'' features seventeen Kingdoms, each of which is associated with a Type from Pokemon. Amongst these are traditional elements, but also more "out there" types like Ghost and Dragon.

* ''VideoGame/{{Ryzom}}'' has strong hints of these in each of the four Homin Races you can play as. The Zoraï rely on water to procure their racial ShockAndAwe spell and create their magnetism tech, the Matis need a strong connection to the earth to fuel their plant technology as well as their racial poison spell, the Fyros are the most obvious with their love of PlayingWithFire, tying into their racial spell, and the floating cities of the Trykers require heavy reliance on the winds for power.

* A sci-fi example is ''WesternAnimation/ShadowRaiders'', The Cluster's solar system has five planets; Rock, Fire, Ice, Bone and Water, with their inhabitants looking a lot like the element describing the planet (with the exception of the people of Bone, who look like reptiles).

* ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'', though it's more of an Elemental ''Worlds'' thing there.

[[caption-width-right:350: [-[[MakingASplash Water.]] [[DishingOutDirt Earth.]] [[PlayingWithFire Fire.]] [[BlowYouAway Air.]] Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...-] ]]

[[quoteright:333:[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Opening_Avatar_World_Map_5686.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:333: [-[[MakingASplash Water.]] [[DishingOutDirt Earth.]] [[PlayingWithFire Fire.]] [[BlowYouAway Air.]] Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...-] ]]

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':