The Four Gods: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
'''The Four Gods''' are the central figures of an ancient Chinese system of astrology and geomancy which was imported to Japan and absorbed into [[Onmyodo]] mysticism, among other beliefs. In this system, there were 28 'star houses' (constellations) which ran the circumference of the sky. The Heavenly Emperor divided the sky into the northern, southern, eastern, and western quadrants, each with 7 star houses; each quadrant was ruled by a divine beast.
 
These gods were (Chinese, then Japanese names):
* Qīnglóng -- SeiryūQīnglóng—Seiryū ([[Our Dragons Are Different|The Azure Dragon]], representing Spring and Wood) to the East
* Zhūquè -- SuzakuZhūquè—Suzaku ([[Giant Flyer|The Vermillion Bird]], representing Summer and Fire) to the South
* Báihǔ -- ByakkoBáihǔ—Byakko ([[Panthera Awesome|The White Tiger]], representing Autumn and Metal) to the West
* Xuánwǔ -- GenbuXuánwǔ—Genbu ([[Turtle Power|The Black Turtle]], representing Winter and Water) to the North
* Huánglóng -- KōryūHuánglóng—Kōryū or Ōryū (The Yellow Dragon, representing the Changing Seasons and Earth) to the Center
 
Common variations of the above are Xuánwǔ actually being a two-headed turtle/snake hybrid or a [[Interspecies Romance|turtle and a snake having sex]] -- and—and Báihǔ and Huánglóng occasionally being replaced by Qí­lín/Kirin, a unicorn-like chimera.
 
Also of note is the fact that many people confuse [[The Phoenix]] with Zhūquè. While they seem similar, they are entirely different entities; in fact the [[wikipedia:Fenghuang|Fènghuáng]] (Hōō) is a closer representation of [[The Phoenix]] in comparison.
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* The [[The Grim Reaper|shinigami]] in ''[[Yami no Matsuei]]'' could summon "shikigami", helpful minor gods. Only two appeared in the anime, based off of Suzaku and Byakko. The manga, however, features the four of them.
* The four gods also appear in the anime ''[[Karasu Tengu Kabuto]]''.
* In the ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' episode "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui", the heroes use a clue about the four gods to locate one of the episode's [[Plot Coupon|Plot Coupons]]s. (The episode apparently assumes its audience knows what "the four gods" are and doesn't explain further, leaving Western audiences in the lurch.)
* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' includes mecha named after the Four Gods, each belonging to the General roughly corresponding with the God's element: Byakou (Thymilph), Sayrune (Adiane), Gember (Guame), and Shuzack (Cytomander).
* The Four Gods appear as antagonists for an arc in ''[[Angel Tales]]''.
* ''[[Koi Hime]]'' uses the "girls of the four seasons"� bit explicitly. Each girl is a daughter of one of [[The Four Gods]].
* The anime version of ''[[Dokyusei]]'' (English title, ''[[End Of Summer]]'') is more subtle. In this case, they pared the list of girls (from the game) down to four. The follow-on OAV set (not released in the US) has the school nurse reminding Wataru that he can't keep all four of them forever.
* One of ''[[Code Geass]]''' central characters is named Suzaku; his late father's name was Genbu. The characters were designed by [[CLAMP]], who are known for making references such as this.
* Seiryū, Suzaku, Byakko and Genbu are the names of Nekoyashiki's spiritual cat companions in ''[[Rental Magica]]''. They're useful for everything from shields to attacking to creating a gust of wind.
* In ''[[Inuyasha]],'' Saint Beast-inspired ninja are one of the many, ''many'' [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|Quirky Miniboss Squads]]s the team faces in yet another filler arc.
** They also face off against a group like this in the last movie, though those guys were all actually powerful.
* The Four Elemental Kings in ''[[Berserk]].''
* Four enemy characters from ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' are named after the Four Gods and each fights with an appropriate weapon and fighting style -- Seiryūstyle—Seiryū uses a longsword and reads his opponent's attacks, Suzaku has twin shortswords and copies his opponent's moves, Byakko uses spiked bracers and relies on physical strength, and Genbu has a sectional staff and uses strategic planning to play the long game.
* In ''[[The Slayers]]'', the good dragon-gods of the world, as opposed to the evil chaos-demon-gods, are based on this pattern: four gods, each representing an element, and the supreme (actually, penultimate) god Ceipheed. The evil demon gods are based on Goetic demonology.
* Each of the girls in ''[[Hyakko]]'''s [[Four-Girl Ensemble]] corresponds to one of the four gods. A broader [[Theme Naming]] based on the twelve animals of the Zodiac is present in the rest of the cast.
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** The Beyblades are named after design (Dranzer, Drigger etc.) While the bit-beasts (aka. sacred spirits) are named Suzaku, Byakko etc.
* {{spoiler|Hacchi}} has a technique named after them in the latest ''[[Bleach]]'' spoilers.
* In ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'', the global spell that swapped everyone's appearance was {{spoiler|accidentally set in to motion by Touma's father collecting supposedly mystical figurines that represented [[The Four Gods]] and placing them in each of their associated directions.}}
** And Tsuchimikado gets rid of it by {{spoiler|using accordingly-colored paper figurines placed in certain directions<ref>essentially magical feng shui</ref> to directly invoke the Gods and fire a magical [[Wave Motion Gun]] at the house}}.
* ''[[Saint Beast]]'' happens to feature...well, yeah.
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* The Four Spirit Kings Yamatohime, Genbu, Byakko and Seiryū in ''[[Kurohime]]''.
* The four royals who appear in ''[[Yes! Pretty Cure 5]]'' Gogo are a dragon, a red/pink bird, a tiger and a turtle.
* The four swords of the ancient heroes in ''[[Basara]]'' are named after [[The Four Gods]].
* The Mythical Beast Knights of ''[[The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer]]''.
 
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'' features the Directional Courts of China among the other Great Courts that changelings swear oaths to in order to avoid the notice of [[The Fair Folk]]. The courts are patterned off of [[The Four Gods]] and supposedly embody associated values (the North Court is made up of ascetics who use suffering to escape memory of their durance at the hands of [[The Fair Folk]], the East Court values material wealth and draws power from envy, the South Court consists of artists and other creatives who value ecstasy, and the West Court is made up of honor-bound warriors).
 
 
== Toys ==
* Partial subversion in the SD ''[[Gundam]]'' toyline ''[[BB Senshi Sangokuden]]'' -- the—the four gods do not appear as characters, but as symbols for the four kingdoms. Sho, led by Ryūbi Gundam, is Seiryū; Gou, led by Sonken Gundam, is Byakko (yellow instead of white); Giga, led by Sōsō Gundam, is Suzaku; and the unnamed forces of Tōtaku Zaku and Ryufu Tallgeese are Genbu (purple instead of black). Each faction has a stylised symbol indicating the god that represents it, on a corner of the boxes, while the Gundam designs would often carry elements of the gods (Ryūbi Gundam's dragon head crest, for example), even after defecting to some other faction at some point (Kochō Serpent, now a Giga general, retains the turtle motif from his days under Tōtaku Zaku's command.)
** Ryufu Tallgeese comes banded with the [http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10069166b/30/1 Tengyokugai] weapons platform, able to turn into four forms for each of the faction leaders to use. While the four forms are modelled after the companion mecha for the Gundams that Ryūbi, Sonken and Sousou are based on (Sonken/GP03 with the Tengyokugai Tiger form/Dendrobium Orchis is a fan favourite), they are officially named for the Four Gods, with little golden heads on each of them depicting the corresponding god for good measure.
** The toyline would later introduce the Tenkaisyo weapon system, based on the Four Gods (a dragon head, tiger claws, phoenix wings and a turtle shell shield), but these are all in gold rather than the usual colors.
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* The set of [[Perfect Run Final Boss]] songs in ''[[Beatmania]] IIDX 13 DistorteD,'' collectively called "Cardinal Gate", were themed around the Four Gods; each of the four songs unlockable from the start were written by artists that took their names as pseudonyms. A fifth song, by an invented 5th entity, "Kinjishi", was available after doing well on the first four. 3 of the artists (Suzaku, Genbu, and Seiryū) have released songs after DistorteD.
* One level of ''[[Killer7]]'' requires Smith to [[Solve the Soup Cans|slide four screens together]] to lower a bridge. Each screen represents one of the four gods, and is located at the proper compass point.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'', you can summon and fight four incredibly powerful powerful monsters based upon these deities, sharing their names and likenesses (well, ''FFXI'' equivalents -- Seiryūequivalents—Seiryū is a differently-colored version of a smallish dragon, and so on). Most players refer to these as "Sky Gods". (Although older players sometimes still refer to them as "Shijin".) There is a center god as well but it's a Kirin rather than a dragon.
** Kirin is notably of the Earth element and like the original center dragon god, is the powerful of the five.
** Ōryū is also in the game as an [[Dishing Out Dirt|earth-based]] [[Our Dragons Are Different|Wyrm]]. His fights are completely unrelated to the gods in [[Floating Continent|Tu'Lia]].
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* The four gods appear as the bosses of each major world in ''[[Makai Toushi SaGa]]'' (''Final Fantasy Legend''), each guarding a sphere that allows you to continue climbing the tower, and Kōryū (called "Ko-run" in the English version) is also present as both a random encounter monster type and a form that Monster player characters can turn into. They reappear in [[SaGa 2|its sequel]] as forms that Monster player characters can turn into. In a slight variation, each one also represents one of the [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors|four western elements]], with Genbu as Earth, Seiryū as Water, Byakko as Air, and Suzaku as Fire.
** The four elemental schools of magic in ''[[Romancing SaGa 3]]'' are named after the Four Gods.
* Four of Maria's subweapons in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series are based on these four -- anfour—an overhead fire attack with birds, a running lightning cat that hits repeatedly, a flying dragon that hits for ice, and a turtle shell shield. The Item Crashes for these, where applicable, summon the actual Gods, and she also uses their power to revive Richter and grant him invincibility if he's defeated at the start of ''Symphony of the Night''.
** On top of that, in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, there are serveral locked doors that grant access to hidden areas, and the four keys are named (and colored) after the four gods. [[Anachronism Stew|Not something you'd expect in a vampire castle in 12th century Europe...]]
* In Altus' ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: Devil Children'' series (known simply as DemiKids outside of Japan) the Four Gods can be obtained by fusing through the Relic System. You have to get their Soul to resurrect them, otherwise they will simply be zombies (Byakkozom, Suzakzom, Seiryuzom, Gembuzom).
* Occasionally a [[Dating Sim]] or anime based off one will have a set of four love interests each aligned with a direction and/or season (directly or by personality). Generally this involves the [[Tenchi Solution]] (they've decided to share, or at least not compete). This situation is inspired by ''[[The Tale of Genji|Tale of Genji]]''.
* The [[MacGuffin|MacGuffins]]s in the early part of ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' are sacred paintings imbued with the powers of the four gods.
* In ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Alpha'', its sequels, and ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Original Generation 2'', RyuOhKi (Seiryū) and KoOhKi (Byakko) are ancient guardian [[Golem]]-gods which absorb a pair of [[Humongous Mecha]] and gain the ability to [[Combining Mecha|combine]] into [[Glass Cannon|RyuKoOh]] or [[Fragile Speedster|KoRyuOh]] (they can [[Transforming Mecha|switch forms at will]]).
** ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Alpha 3'' introduces equivalents for Genbu and Suzaku, which merge with the other two to form the [[Game Breaker|devastatingly powerful]] Shin RyuKoOh/Shin KoRyuOh.
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** The Four Gods and Huáng​lóng are also in ''[[Strange Journey]]'', where they have their Chinese names. The Four Heavenly Kings also return.
** In ''[[Digital Devil Saga]]'', the Four Gods and Huánglóng return. The first four are simple extra bosses who appear after killing Ananta; Huánglóng appears after killing the four others as a brutally vicious [[Bonus Boss]].
* Referenced in the ''[[Wild Arms]]'' series -- inseries—in almost every game of the series, the player characters can summon four different "Guardian" creatures that correspond to the Four Gods, in addition to other "Guardians".
* The Four Gods appear as [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]]es during the post-game segment of ''[[Ganbare Goemon]]: Mononoke Dōchū Tobidase Nabe-Bugyō!'' You're able to [[Gotta Catch Them All|capture them]] after going through the [[Bonus Dungeon|Celestial World]] and [[Boss Rush|defeat them along with the rest of the game's major enemies]]; they have the advantage of performing unique [[Combination Attack|combination attacks]] when paired up with certain main characters.
* ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'' contains the boss "Heat Genblem." Three guesses what it's supposed to be.
* In ''[[Gotcha Force]]'', there are 4 Robots that can merge together to total 4 different combinations, each one named after a different one of the four gods.
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