History Main / ThemeTable

* The concept of "fundamental attributes" in role playing games. These are "[[UsefulNotes/RolePlayingGameTerms stats]]" attributed to every character in a game. There may be more stats than the basic ones, but you can generally tell what someone will be doing in the game based on the base stats. It's usually a shallow sort of thematic representation, since not every physically strong character will fight the same way, but you can reasonably assume they'll fight. Some games go further, making players choose their moral and legal alignments, their family, their hometown, and whatever else the designer deemed relevant. If the entire character creation process is composed of choices like that, as in e.g. TabletopGame/BurningWheel, it's called a "life path".

** In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'', there was a lot of consolidation as the 3 new chosen inherited both virtues from the pairs, and would change their element depending on which one they invoked. The 6 new kids, however, all ended up pairing of for the FusionDance.

* ''Literature/{{Pendragon}}'': 10 territories each with its own Traveler, technology, turning point. Gets mixed up later on, though.

* If you live in America, you might be aware of your state's date of founding, origin of name, capital city, official state flower, state animal, state rock, state vegetable (yes really), etc. Now they've come out with state quarters, which contain some symbol significant to the state in question on the back.

** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' each champion comes from a different race in a different region, has their own Divine Beast, a signature weapon (and weapon style), theme song, color, and a particular superpower associated with their region's element. They were also each murdered by their own EvilCounterpart Ganon Blight that uses a bastardized version of their element/power/weapon.

** In season two there was a lot of consolidation as the 3 new chosen inherited both virtues from the pairs, and would change their element depending on which one they invoked. The 6 new kids however all ended up pairing of for the FusionDance.

* ''Anime/{{Symphogear}} GX'': Each of the [[FourIsDeath four]] [[QuirkyMinibossSquad autoscorers]] has their own [[FourElementEnsemble element]], [[FourTemperamentEnsemble temperament]], [[ColorCodedCharacters colour]], [[TarotMotifs tarot suit]], [[ThemeNaming archangel they take their name from]], and dance style.

* ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'': Every Flame Haze has: [[RedBaron a title]], a contracted Crimson Lord, [[RedBaron a title]] of the Crimson Lord, a vessel for it (although it doesn't come up often), [[TechnicolorFire fire colour]], and sometimes trademark spells and Treasure Tools.

* Chinese dynasties or would-be-dynasties would often try to prove their legitimacy by associating themselves with one of five ElementsOfNature (earth, wood, metal, fire and water), each of which was associated with a specific color, citing signs and portents as evidence that their chosen element was in ascendancy and the element representing the last dynasty was weakened.

* Much of historical occultism works this way, creating elaborate lists of symbolic correspondences. The [[FourElementEnsemble classical]] [[ElementalRockPaperScissors elements]] would be associated with colors, seasons, compass directions, bodily organs, [[FourTemperamentEnsemble "humours"]], astrological signs, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element etc.]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': Each of the Straw Hats have their own [[AnimalMotifs animal]], number, [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color]], smell, [[ItMakesSenseInContext season island]], food, family member role, GenderFlipped outlook, nationality, inner brain, flower, blood type, bathing habits and birthday.

* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': And by extension, ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' does this. All seasons have 5+ rangers, each with a colour, a token, [[HumongousMecha a zord]], and [[WeaponOfChoice a weapon]] at least, but with variations dependent on the series (some have associated elemental powers, associated animal motifs, and so on).

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': Six Toa, each with an Elemental Power, a [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience matching color]], a CoolMask [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman with another power]], and a WeaponOfChoice. This holds true to varying degrees for most other characters as well, with a group of six in the same six colors as a bare minimum.

* In ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', every member of [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Organization XIII]] has their own unique element, [[WeaponOfChoice weapon]] and [[RedBaron title]].

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Each hunter[=/=]huntress has an associated colour, SwissArmyWeapon [[WeaponOfChoice of Choice]], and [[FairyTaleMotifs fairy tale/folk tale/legend]]. Furthermore, groups of four are sorted into teams which each have their own associated colour.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': 4 young chums, each with a color, a symbol, a typing style, a classical element, a WeaponOfChoice, a musical instrument, a [[FourTemperamentEnsemble humour]], a [[TheChosenOne specific title]] corresponding to their role in the game, a personal world in the Incipisphere from which each must reach Skaia, the remains of a deceased creature or family member, and a single guardian who seems to know something about the AncientConspiracy. Oh, and an African-American celebrity.

Taking motifs UpToEleven. Every major player has the same sort of objects associated with them. Say, a group of heroes where every member has their own animal spirit, weapon, and elemental alignment. Or every country has their own gem, compass direction, and celestial body. That sort of thing.

* Creator/AleisterCrowley's books ''777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley'' contains a huge table of such correspondences spanning several dozen pages and an even longer section of footnotes with additional details that don't fit on the table.

* Much of historical occultism works this way, creating elaborate lists of symbolic correspondences. The [[ElementalRockPaperScissors classical elements]] for instance would be associated with colors, compass directions, bodily organs and [[FourTemperamentEnsemble "humours"]], astrological signs, etc.
** And taking it even further, each astrological sign, for instance, can be aligned with a color, mythological figure, gemstone, metal, time of the year (obviously), two sister signs and one opposing sign, parts of the human body, and geographical places, and one or more Tarot cards (and don't even get ''started'' on Tarot cards.)
** One of Creator/AleisterCrowley's books, ''Liber 777'' literally consists of a huge table of such correspondences (covering several dozen pages) and an even longer section of footnotes giving additional details that don't fit on the table.

** And now there are ''[[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters 28 more of them]].'' (twelve A-trolls, twelve B-trolls, and four A-kids)

* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' - every Sailor Scout has a planet, a gemstone, an astrological sign, a color, a secondary color, a particular title, an element, a special weapon, a MeaningfulName, and they're also paired off as partners (Sailor Jupiter and Mercury, Venus and Mars, Uranus and Neptune, Pluto and Saturn, and Sailor Moon with Tuxedo Kamen or Sailor Chibimoon.)
* Everyone who gets a ''pactio'' in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' gets not only an artifact, but a card with their dominant color, virtue, celestial body, title, and number. The girls' numbers are the same as their number on the class roster; Negi's is 496, the sum of said numbers.
* In ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'', every Flame Haze has: [[RedBaron a title]], a contracted Crimson Lord, [[RedBaron a title]] of the Crimson Lord, a vessel for it (although it doesn't come up often), [[TechnicolorFire fire colour]], and sometimes trademark spells and Treasure Tools.
* Especially in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', each of the 7, (and later 8) chosen had their own partner Digimon, Virtue, Color and Element. They also all paired up with each other nicely, (Tai/Matt, Sora/Mimi, Izzy/Joe, TK/Kari)

* ''Manga/RozenMaiden'' - Every Rozen Maiden doll has a number (the order in which they were created), as well as an "artificial spirit" with its own name. They each also have a signature attack or weapon.
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', each of the Straw Hats have their own [[AnimalMotifs animal]], number, [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color]], smell, [[ItMakesSenseInContext season island]], food, family member role, GenderFlipped outlook, nationality, inner brain, flower, blood type, bathing habits and birthday.
* Each of the [[FourIsDeath four]] [[QuirkyMinibossSquad autoscorers]] in ''Anime/{{Symphogear}} GX'' has their own [[FourElementEnsemble element]], [[FourTemperamentEnsemble temperament]], [[ColorCodedCharacters colour]], [[TarotMotifs tarot suit]], [[ThemeNaming archangel they take their name from]], and dance style.

* Each of the [[FourIsDeath four]] [[QuirkyMinibossSquad autoscorers]] in ''Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear GX'' has their own [[FourElementEnsemble element]], [[FourTemperamentEnsemble temperament]], [[ColorCodedCharacters colour]], [[TarotMotifs tarot suit]], [[ThemeNaming archangel they take their name from]], and dance style.

* A significant fraction of the magic in ''Literature/TheCosmere'' is organized around theme tables, and both ''Franchise/Mistborn'' and ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' series include literal tables at the end of each novel.