The name comes from cardinal gems👁 Image
, a dated mineral classification that designated the given stones as precious by rarity and religious use.
A common combination of the trope is just rubies and sapphires, as they're both corundum. Emeralds can sometimes come into play to create a Chromatic Arrangement trio, and/or diamonds due to their high value and vast range of hues. Amethyst was historically considered to also be a cardinal or precious stone, but lost most of its value around the eighteenth century when large deposits were discovered in Brazil and Urugay; nonetheless, some works include it as a fifth gem in the set.
Subtrope to Gemstone Motifs and sister trope to Mineral MacGuffin. As this trope exclusively covers the given gems' linked significance, examples where these gems are included among other stones do not go here. May overlap with Color-Coded Stones and Classical Elements Ensemble, since the gems are often assigned the four main elements.
Compare Gold–Silver–Copper Standard, a more conventional connection between rocks, and Emerald Power, which is on a sole gemstone.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Land of the Lustrous: The cardinal gems as a category are among the sturdiest of the Lustrous, and are usually the best fighters. Most of them team up with each other, with Yellow Diamond in particular allies and friends with Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and Pink Topaz (within the same family as Ruby and Sapphire).
- Magic Knight Rayearth: The three girls are symbolized by gemstones that match their signature color and element; ruby for Hikaru (flame), sapphire for Umi (water), and emerald for Fuu (wind). They also have attacks with the gems' names incorporated.
- Sailor Moon: The villains in the second season, Sailor Moon R, are the Black Moon Clan, a noble family comprised and based on gemstones. Their leader is Prince Demande (Diamond), followed by his younger brother Blue Saphir and underlings Green Esmeraude and Crimson Rubeus.
- YⱯIBA: The First Class soldiers of the Pyramid are named Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, and Emerald. The guardian Jewel is a combination of all four.
Literature
- The Elenium: The volumes of the series are The Diamond Throne, The Ruby Knight, and The Sapphire Rose.
- Gamearth Trilogy: The 4, 6, 8, and 20-sided dice the protagonists use have in-game representations as the Stones of Power: Air diamond, Water sapphire, Fire ruby and Earth emerald, respectively.
- Harry Potter: The house point hourglasses of Hogwarts are filled with color-coded gemstones: rubies for Gryffindor, emeralds for Slytherin, sapphires for Ravenclaw, and (yellow) diamonds for Hufflepuff according the Word of God.
- The Jewel Kingdom: The four protagonists are princess sisters who each rule a quarter of the Jewel Kingdom that represent the cardinal gems. Each girl also has an Alliterative Name with their respective role: Roxanne with rubies, Sabrina with sapphires, Emily with emeralds, and Demetra with diamonds.
- The Ruby Red Trilogy: The books are Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, and Emerald Green.
- Tolkien's Legendarium: The Rings of the Elves are set with diamond, sapphire, and ruby. Played with, as, while the ruby ring is named after the element of fire, the diamond and sapphire rings are based on water and air, respectively.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: The 5th edition of the game has the elemental gems, four gems connected to four elements. The Red Corundum (another name for ruby) summons the fire elemental, the Yellow Diamond the earth one, the Blue Sapphire the air (not water, surprisingly enough), and the Emerald the water elemental.
- Magic: The Gathering: The 'Moxen', a series of artifacts that can be played for free and generate mana, include among their number the Mox Sapphire, Mox Ruby, and Mox Emerald, which respectively generate Blue, Red, and Green mana; there are also medallions that correspond to each gemstone that reduce the cost of spells of that color by 1. Mox Diamond, which adds one mana of any color, requires you to discard a land card or pitch it into the graveyard. Downplayed with the other two artifacts, the Mox Pearl and Mox Jet, which are not cardinal gems, but are meant for White and Black Mana.
Theatre
- Jewels is a 1967 ballet by George Balanchine. It consists of three parts: Emeralds, Rubies and Diamonds. The costumes of the dancers are green in the first part (which evokes France, elegance and comfort), red in the second one (which evokes the US, liveliness and wit) and white in the last one (which evokes Russia, order and grandeur).
Video Games
- Child of Light: The game features the Oculi, a type of special gemstones that grant magic and other additional abilities to the player. The base set consists of three stones of elemental magic: Sapphire adds water, the Ruby fire, and Emerald adds lightning magic. Diamond and Amethyst also appear in the game, albeit as unrelated gems; Diamond increases speed, and Amethyst increases damage.
- Cow Evolution by Tapps Games: The currencies of Mars and Pluto are respectively rubies and sapphires.
- Epic Battle Fantasy: The three sacred jewels in Epic Battle Fantasy 4 and Epic Battle Fantasy 5 are the Ruby of Death, the Sapphire of Dreams, and the Emerald of Life.
- Eternal Darkness: In order to find Pious Augustus's missing enchanted gladius, the player, in a single playthrough, must obtain three effigies made of gemstones: Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, each gemstone representing an Eldritch Abomination:
- Karim obtains the Ruby Effigy in his chapter, and the player must pick it up when controlling Roberto in the latter's chapter.
- Roberto, in his chapter, can obtain the Sapphire Effigy.
- Lastly, Mike, in his own chapter, can find the Emerald Effigy, and will only obtain the other two if the player found them within the respective chapters.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: The "Spiritual Stones" Link collects in the first half of the game are the Kokiri Emerald, the Goron Ruby, and the Zora Sapphire.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Downplayed. Out of the four elemental gems, only two are included in this trope: rubies associated with fire and sapphires associated with ice.
- Pokémon: The mainline games of the third generation are Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald while one of the mainline games of the fourth generation is Pokémon Diamond.
- Twinkle Tale: The game's backstory explains that the world was born with three colored lights, whose conflict created a fourth white light that was stronger than the others. To stop their fighting, the white light sealed all of them within gems; the red light into a ruby, blue into a sapphire, green into an emerald, and white into a diamond.
- Wizard of Legend: In the game, some of the gemstone relics are associated with elements: Neve's Ruby is associated with fire, Neve's Sapphire is related to water, and Neve's Emerald is to earth.
Western Animation
- Barbie: In one of the segments in the direct-to-video series Kelly Dream Club, Kelly and her friends receive special gems to become fairies after completing a quest in the fairy world. Kelly uses a diamond, Chelsie uses a sapphire, and Keeya uses an emerald. To reinforce the theme, the fairy they become friends with is aptly named Ruby.
- Steven Universe: Rubies and Sapphires are two types of gem with different ranks. Rubies are low-ranking soldiers with fire powers while Sapphires are high-ranking nobles often guarded by the former gem with (uncontrollable) ice powers and the ability to predict the future. Amethysts, Emeralds, and Diamonds are also present in the gem empire, although linked far less asides from both of the latter two being of high positions. Played with by Garnet, a fusion of a Ruby and a Sapphire.
Real Life
- In the gem-collecting world, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires are also called "precious stones", meaning they must be see-through and faceted to be considered truly precious. Other stones like pearls, opals, and jade are sometimes classified as valuable stones but are more commonly classified as semi-precious stones. These make the four gems the most valuable stones in jewelry.