Line #95 Main/TheNumberedThings


1	->''Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,''\
2	''Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,''\
3	''Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,''\
4	''One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne''
5	-->--''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''
6
7	In this story, there are a group of [[PlotDevice whatsits]]. There are ''n'' of them, to be precise, and they form a set. But nobody likes infodumps, so there has to be a way to succinctly get across that this set of ''n'' whatsits is important. In fact, there is one simple and direct technique:
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9	Everybody in the story refers to them as "The ''N'' Whatsits". And they probably {{capital\| letters are magic}}ise the phrase, too.
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11	To be clear, simply having a set of ''n'' whatsits isn't enough to qualify as this trope - they have to be normally referred to as "The ''N'' Whatsits".
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13	[[RuleOfThree Three]] and [[LuckySeven Seven]] are particularly common values of ''n''. Compare TheNotableNumeral. High overlap with NumberOfObjectsTitle, when they appear in the title.
14
15	----
16
17	!!Examples:
18
19	[[AC:Anime & Manga]]
20	* Soul Society in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is defended by the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.
21	* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' features a mysterious group of terrorists known as the Individual Eleven in the second season. 11 random Japanese citizens who carried out various criminal acts ranging from defrauding a charity, blowing up banks, killing a popular musician who resonated with the youth, and even attempting a hit on the Prime Minister-- all in the hopes of riling up the disparaged refugee population who are being unfairly treated just because they have nowhere else to go in the aftermath of the last war. Hideo Kuze steps up to become the defacto leader of the group, but ends up breaking free [[spoiler:of the virus that was planted into their cyberbrains]] when ultimately kill themselves in a ritual suicide.
22	* The world of ''Manga/OnePiece'' has Three Superpowers, each balancing one another. Further, two out of three of them are also an example of the trope - Seven Warlords of the Sea, and Four Emperors.
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24	[[AC:Comic Books]]
25	* The premier super"hero" team in ''ComicBook/TheBoys'' are called The Seven. Even when they have fewer than seven members.
26	* Comicbook/IronMan's enemy, the Mandarin, wields the Ten Rings.
27
28	[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]
29	* In ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'', the four stage magicians go by the name the Four Horsemen.
30	* In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd'', the Nine Pirate Lords (each one ruling over a different portion of the world's oceans and seas) possess the Nine Pieces of Eight, the sigils of their office. [[NonIndicativeName Despite the name]], though, only one of the pieces (Jack's) is an actual coin; the others are seemingly random objects, including a pair of eyeglasses, a playing card, and even Ragetti's wooden eye. Joshamee Gibbs explains that the first Pirate Lords "were, to a one, skint broke" and so had to use whatever they had on hand as the Pieces. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that the Nine Pieces of Eight were designed to seal the sea goddess Calypso in a mortal form.]]
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32	[[AC:Folklore]]
33	* There is a Russian fairytale ''Seven Simeons'' about seven brothers sharing the same name and referred to as Seven Simeons by other characters.
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35	[[AC:Literature]]
36	* Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium is full of this - there are the Two Lamps, the Two Trees, the Five Wizards, the Three Rings, the Seven Rings, the Nine Rings, and, of course, the One Ring. "The Nine" is also another way to call the Nazgûl.
37	* The main setting of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is the Seven Kingdoms. The empire's main religion has seven gods, who are collectively referred to as The Seven.
38	* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime's'' {{backstory}} has the Hundred Companions, of whom there were actually 113.
39	* ''Literature/AliBabaAndTheFortyThieves'' has the Forty Thieves.
40	* ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'' has the Four Sisters.
41	* ''Literature/PrincessesOfThePizzaParlor'': The main continent where the story starts is called "The Hundred Kingdoms" by elves, since there's a lot of kingdoms and they keep shifting, so the elves just put a nice round number on it, and call it a day.
42	* In "The Queer Feet", a ''Literature/FatherBrown'' story, the plot focuses on an exclusive club called The Twelve True Fishermen. Though there are indeed twelve of them, the only fish-related thing they do is eat an exclusive fish dish in an exclusive hotel.
43	* In ''The Three Fat Men'' by Yuri Olesha, the titular villains are often referred to simply as the Three Fat Men by the characters as well.
44	* Toyed with in James Howe's ''The Misfits''. The protagonist and his best friends refer to themselves as the Gang of Five, but there are only four of them. The narrator says that it's to leave space in case they find someone else who would make a good addition to the group[[note]]although the book's epilogue seems to suggest that said fifth person never materialized[[/note]].
45	* In ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength'', Merlin refers to the Seven Bears of Logres.
46	* One of Creator/EnidBlyton‘s series features a group of child detectives who call themselves the Literature/FiveFindOuters.
47	* ''Literature/RhythmOfWar'': The Nine, who are the leaders of the nine brands of the Fused.
48	* ''[[Literature/DarkShores Dark Skies]]'': The Twelve--the twelve ruling houses of Mudamora, which together create the Council of Twelve and choose the new ruler from among themselves.
49	* ''Literature/TheBasicEight'': The Basic Eight is the name of Flannery's friend group consisting of 8 people.
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51	[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
52	* In ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'' the final group of villains the Rangers face are known as the Ten Terrors.
53	* In ''Series/Babylon5'' there are ten brothers, all named Zathras.
54	* ''Series/BlackadderGoesForth'': In "Major Star" the show put on to entertain the troops includes a comedy act called The Three Silly Twerps. As their act is not shown on screen, the biggest clue we get as to their calibre is that there are [[SoUnfunnyItsFunny only two of them]].
55	* One episode of ''Series/LastOfTheSummerWine'' has the trio attempt to cycle a route known as "the Three Pubs".
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57	[[AC:Music]]
58	* The "Big Five" American orchestras: [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York Philharmonic]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} Boston Symphony Orchestra]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Chicago Symphony Orchestra]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} Philadelphia Orchestra]], and [[UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}} Cleveland Orchestra]].
59	* "The Five", also called "The Mighty Handful" or "The Russian Five", a group of Russian composers who worked to produce a distinctly "Russian" sound and practice, and include traditional Russian music in their work: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Music/ModestMussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and [[Theatre/PrinceIgor Alexander Borodin]].
60	* "Les Six", a group of French 20th century composers dedicated to create a distinctly modern French style of classical music. Their members were Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, and Louis Durey.
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62	[[AC:Myths & Religion]]
63	* The Literature/PoeticEdda mentions the Nine Realms.
64	* Literature/TheBible describes the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Ten Commandments, the Twelve Apostles, the Seventy Disciples, and the Four and Twenty Elders.
65	* In the Christian Sacred Tradition, especially in the hagiographies, groups of saints are referred to in this manner. To name the other best-known ones:
66	** "The Three Holy Hierarchs" refers to St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom. There is a special feast to celebrate the memory of all three at once.
67	** By the Forty Martyrs, people usually mean the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, a soldier division (plus a prison guard) martyred under Licinius.
68	* Some flavours of Buddhism include the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Heavenly_Kings Four Heavenly Kings]].
69	* The Pleiades of Myth/GreekMythology, also called the Seven Sisters.
70	* St Thomas Aquinas' ''Summa Theologica'' lays out five arguments for the existence of God. They are commonly known as the Five Ways.
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72	[[AC:Podcasts]]
73	* The governing body of the Federated Alliance in ''Podcast/{{Mission to Zyxx}}'' is the Seven Best Friends.
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75	[[AC:Tabletop Games]]
76	* ''TabletopGame/BladesInTheDark'': The Six Towers is a district of Duskwall named after the grand mansions that the city's six most prominent noble families had once built there. Even though only one of the original Towers still stands today, the district name has stuck.
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78	[[AC:Video Games]]
79	* One of the most opaque plot points in ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'' is the enigmatic group known only as “the Nine.” It’s not until Year 2 of ''Destiny 2'' that it’s revealed what they’re even nine ''of''.
80	* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' uses this trope quite a bit.
81	** The Archanea games, ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Shadow Dragon (and the Blade of Light)]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem (New) Mystery of the Emblem]]'', have the Three Regalia. This is even more evident in the Japanese version, which simply calls them the Three Weapons.
82	** The Twelve Crusaders feature in the backstory of the Jugdral games, ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 Thracia 776]]''.
83	** The Tellius games, ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'', have the Four Riders of Daein.
84	** ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Three Houses]]'' has the Ten Elites, the Four Saints, and, in the DLC, the Four Apostles as part of its backstory; depending on choices made, at least some of them will also play a role in the present.
85	* The ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' trilogy features a numbered set of PlotCoupons in each game:
86	** ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' has the Eight Melodies, which Ninten and his friends must collect to sing to Queen Mary. [[spoiler: They're also your weapon against the FinalBoss, [[BigBad Giegue]].]]
87	** ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' has a different set of Eight Melodies, which Ness and his friends collect by defeating the eight Sanctuary Guardians and record using the Sound Stone. This allows Ness to go to Magicant, a land inside his mind,
88	** In ''VideoGame/Mother3'', Lucas and his companions must locate the Seven Needles, which are in various places across the Nowhere Islands. Lucas must use [[SecretArt PK Love]] to pull the needles from the ground, [[spoiler:awakening the dragon sleeping under the islands, who only listens to the person who pulls the final needle.]]
89	* ''Videogame/{{Ultima}}'' has the Three Principles, from which are derived the Eight Virtues.
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91	[[AC:Webcomics]]
92	* The gods of the Southern Pantheon in ''Webcomic/{{The Order of the Stick}}'' are each based on one of the animals of the {{Eastern Zodiac}}, and are collectively referred to as the Twelve Gods. They aren't the only gods in the setting, and the appellation is even used by gods of other pantheons.
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94	[[AC:Web Original]]
95	* Website/TVTropes:
96	** TheFourGods
97	** SevenCardinalVirtues
98	** SevenDeadlySins
99	** MagnificentSevenSamurai
100	** EightDeadlyWords
101	** Usefulnotes/The47Ronin
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103	[[AC: Western Animation]]
104	* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' loves to use this for its PlotCoupons, from the Twelve Talismans to the Eight Demon Sorcerers.
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106	[[AC:Real Life]]
107	* Several squares in Russia (one in Saint Petersburg, one in Murmansk and one in Nizhny Novgorod) are known as the Five Corners.
108	* The American states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado come together at a point called the Four Corners. Tourists commonly have their picture taken while stretched out with a limb in all four states at once.

Context Main / TheNumberedThings