A Sub Trope of Elemental Powers, but more specific or "classic" form.
Despite the idea of the "four elements" being obsolete, writers love to play with the idea in fiction. Sometimes, a writer will merely use the idea of the "four elements" for an Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors system. Other times, however, writers will base not a character, but an entire ensemble on the classical elements.
This can sometimes be used literally by giving each member of the ensemble power over the particular element. Other times, however, it can be used on a more symbolic level, by giving each person personalities associated with the element in question or by using Theme Naming to assign each person an element.
This also tends to correspond with the Four Temperament Ensemble. Traditionally melancholic ≡ earth, choleric ≡ fire, phlegmatic ≡ water, and sanguine ≡ air, though there are other interpretations.
Shows/games that absolutely need a Five-Man Band will possibly add another: western creations prefer something like Heart and eastern creations will use light or lightning, which will probably end up in the hands of The Hero.
The classical Western set was: earth, air, fire, and water.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
Fairy Tail has the enemy team of Element 4: Aria of the Wind, Totomaru of the Fire, Juvia of the Rain and Sol of the Earth.
Sailor Moon gives the original line-up of Sailor Scouts power over a different element. Sailor Mars is Fire, Mercury takes Water, Jupiter swaps Earth for Lightning and Moon of course takes Air. When Sailor Venus joins them she of course has Light.
God's Right Seat from To Aru Majutsu no Index follows this trope with Vento of the Front, Terra of the Left, Acqua of the Back, and Fiamma of the Right.
Comic Books
The Batman and The Outsiders villain team The Masters of Disaster featured characters with water, earth, air, heat and cold powers.
Reed: Water. Like liquid, he is able to change his shape and fit through obstacles that solid objects can't.
Ben: Earth. In addition to being super-strong and resilient like rock, his appearance is similar to that of a golem.
Johnny: Fire. He has the power to self-ignite, so it's fairly obvious.
Sue: Air. She has the power to become invisible and can make the air exert force, like the wind.
W.I.T.C.H. has the four elements for Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin, plus Energy for Will.
Film
The Craft Nancy represents Fire - she is the most passionate and dangerous of the girls, Sarah represents Earth - the most grounded and mature of them, Bonnie represents Air - she is the most in tune with her surroundings , and Rochelle Represents Water - she is a swimmer.
The Ghost Rider movie used this to justify villain Blackheart's Quirky Miniboss Squad's theming of Air, Water, and Earth — with the Rider himself handling Fire.
Sherlock Holmes the 4 murders in the movie can be categorized by this, the midget who worked for Blackwood was buried alive in his coffin, Sir Thomas drowned in his own bathtub, the American ambassador was immolated, and finally Blackwood plans to kill everyone in the parliament by releasing poison in the air.
In Sucker Punch each of Baby Doll's fantasies when she's dancing is based around a different element. The first one in the temple is water/ice. The World War I stage is Earth. The medieval castle stage is Fire. And the final monorail stage is Air.
Literature
Angels and Demons uses the theme of the four elements in the murders of four Catholic Cardinals and in the clues to the location of the Illuminati's meeting place.
In Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern, the four female leads could qualify. Isi is a wind ie. air speaker, Enna is a fire speaker, Dasha is a water speaker and Rin is a tree speaker, which could be reinturperated as earth
J. K. Rowling has stated that the four Hogwarts houses in Harry Potter are based off the four elements. Gryffindor is fire, Hufflepuff is earth, Ravenclaw is air, and Slytherin is water. Also according to Word Of God, the Triwizard Tournament was originally going to have four tasks with each one based on a classical element. However, Rowling had difficulty coming up with tasks for all of them. In the end, the First Task combines air and fire while the Second Task is water and the Third Task is earth.
The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel has the Four Swords of Power. Clarent is the sword of Fire, Excalibur of Ice/Water, Durendal as Earth and Joyeuse as Air. The twins also intend to learn each of the four Elemental magics though only Sophie ends up learning them all and Josh only learns Fire, Water and Air.
Super Sentai and Power Rangers often use this setup with their Five Man Bands, though with a fifth member it's a little loose with who the resident "Earth" Ranger is: the combination of elements is usually Fire/Water/Air/Earth/Wood (Kakuranger, Shinkenger/Samurai) or Fire/Water/Air/Wood/Lightning (Gingaman, Magiranger/Mystic Force).
In Mozart's Magic Flute the hero & heroine undergo ordeals of Earth, Fire, and Water; Air seems to be missing, until you realize that the Flute itself is a wind instrument.
Tabletop RPG
Champions adventure "The Coriolis Effect". Donnah Hannah and three anonymous NPC's are transformed into elemental themed villains (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) by the Black Enchantress.
Dungeons & Dragons had the Elemental Princes of Evil: Cryonax (cold), Imix (fire), Ogremoch (earth), Olhydra (water) and Yan-C-Bin (air).
And their Good counterparts. But neither set ever teams up.
Battle Realms: The 4 clans can be seen as this, the Dragon clan are water, as they are about meditation and discipline, the Serpent clan are fire, as they freely use gunpowder, and fire, the Wolf clan are earth, as they have a close connection with nature, and use stone and shale as weapons and armor, and the Lotus clan are wind, as their warlocks cast bolts of lightning, and are quick on their feet.
Breath of Fire IV kind of does this. Nina uses wind, Cray uses earth, Scias uses water, and Ursula uses fire. There are, however, two more characters in the party, with Ershin getting the most powerful spells of all elements but too little mana to use them regularly, and Ryu's dragon forms focusing on fire but also having access to wind and earth.
Final Fantasy IV has the Fire, Ice, Lightning trio of Ifrit, Shiva and Ramuh, with the Earth-elemental Titan as slightly stronger, but remakes and the sequel bump Titan down to their level of power and importance for a four-summon ensemble.
Near the beginning of Final Fantasy V, each of the four protagonists is associated with one of the four elemental crystals along with a personality trait associated with said element. Bartz gets wind and quest, Lenna gets water and kindness, Galuf gets earth and hope, and Faris gets fire and courage.
Final Fantasy X actually reduces the traditional series of elements down to just four (there had always been about eight or nine in previous games). Lightning and Ice replace Earth and Air. There's also the fifth Holy element but it's very rare and hardly ever used.
In both Golden Sun games, each of your party members maps to a specific element, and they characters of each element in the original and the sequel even look alike. But when you get access to the first game's characters in the sequel, you can put together parties of whatever you like.
Continued in Dark Dawn, where you eventually end up with two party members for each element as in The Lost Age.
Romancing Sa Ga has 4 Elemental Lords; beings that embody the elements: Pyrix (Fire), Adyllis (Earth), Strom (Water), and Avi (Air). Fighting them is optional; however, failing their Ecology Quests forces you to fight a corrupted yet stronger version of them.
Total Annihilation Kingdoms: The four factions and their monarch are base on the four elements they have control over. Elsin of Aramon-earth, Kirenna of Veruna-water, Lokken of Taros-fire, Thirsha of Zhon-air.
Wrath Unleashed: The four factions and their leaders Aenna water demigoddess, Epothos fire demigod, Durlock earth demigod, and Helamis air demigoddess.
Web Comics
Played with in 8-bit Theater when the Dark Warriors find the elemental orbs of light and divide them amongst themselves. Two were clear cut (the Earth Orb for the elf and Water Orb for the pirate), but the other two were just given to whoever.
Each one of the four kid protagonists in Homestuck is associated with a classical element (among other things). John is wind, Rose is water, Dave is fire, and Jade is earth.
Web Original
In the hybrid webcomic/browser game Demon Thesis, the four main characters find themselves gifted with these powers after a mysterious entity from another dimension starts interfering in our world. There is one exception though: Sam's powers are actually over ice rather than water.
Action League Now: The Flesh represents Earth (has strength far surpassing an ordinary Chuck-o-mation character), Thunder Girl represents Air (her super ability is flight), Stinky Diver represents Water (he's a scubadiver, no doubt), and Meltman represents Fire (what else but fire, or Heat, to have givin him his melted form?).
Galaxy Rangers: Zach: Earth (very connected to his family, very literally grounded, augmented strength, Lawful Good leader), Shane: Water (shapeshifter, friends with dolphins, names his horse after a sea god), Niko: Fire (Fiery Redhead, psionic blasts), Doc: Air (Air is the element of ideas, communication, and bullshit - and he's well-stocked on all three)
The Xiaolin Monks of Xiaolin Showdown each control one of the four elements.
It may not be intentional but in Code Lyoko the sectors seem to reflect the elements. The desert sector is fire, the ice sector is water, the mountain sector is air and the forest sector is earth. In fact sector 5 could be considered the aether.
Young Justice: T.O. Morrow created his "Reds" to have powers over the four elements: Red Torpedo (water), Red Inferno (fire), Red Tornado (air) and Red Volcano (earth).
Real Life
Electromagnetism, gravity, and strong and weak nuclear forces are the four fundamental forces in particle physics.
was: earth, air, fire, and water.
