Namekian

A namek or a namekian, is a fictional race in the manga and anime Dragon Ball and its sequels Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. They are humanoid with slug-like characteristics, including green skin and antennae. They are among the most important races in the series.

History

In the era of the Dragon Ball series, there were just over 100 nameks alive on their homeplanet; they had been killed off a generation before by a great storm, but not before a small handful (such as Kami) could be transported off world. Only Saichourou survived and he gradually began to repopulate the planet.

During the Freeza Saga, their homeworld Planet Namek, was destroyed by Freeza as a last-ditch effort to kill Son Goku in their battle; Freeza could survive in space whereas Goku could not. All of the nameks were temporarily transported to Earth, where they lived for nearly a year before being resettled on New Namek.

What we know of pre-series namek history is very limited. It is clear that they were a well-known spacefaring race at some point in the not-too-distant past as the saiyans who came to Earth immediately recognised Piccolo as a namek. It is extremely unlikely that they would be so well-known, of the many alien races introduced over the course of the series, if they were only a primitive farming culture on a single planet. It is also known that nameks had higher technology because Kami was spirited away to Earth in a small space capsule (with namek-language voice recognition) prior to the genocide.

Up until the arrival of Raditz, Piccolo and the other nameks on Earth were considered demons due to the evil nature of Demon King Piccolo and his spawn. Kami's status as a namekian was not generally known, though he would not have been considered a demon. When Kami originally came to Earth, he lost all the memory of his homeworld, and thus, neither he nor King Piccolo knew that they were aliens. Excepting Piccolo Jr., the offspring of King Piccolo were not considered namekians. It is possible that King Piccolo's evil caused his own offspring (Tambourine, Cymbol, Piano, and Drum) to be mutated and malformed, so much so that they didn't even resemble normal namekians.

Physiology and abilities

Nameks are humanoid with slug-like characteristics, including green skin and antennae. They require only water for sustenance and are adapted to a world with three suns, with at least one up at all times. They do not have gender and reproduce asexually by spitting out an egg. The offspring are not genetic copies of the parent, rather it appears as if the parent has some control over what type of child will be formed; this is carried to the extent that they may be mutated and not closely resemble others of the species. ^[1]

In the series, namekians demonstrate a wide variety of abilities, many of them magical in nature. These abilities are seen mostly by important characters, such as Piccolo, so it is unknown how many are common to the species versus the individual. It is likely that the vast majority of them are restricted to fighter-type nameks, as none of the normal nameks displayed the ability to use them when facing the crisis of Freeza's invasion.

Regeneration: Namekians are an extremely resilient race and capable of healing themselves and regenerating body parts instantly, even if only their head survives. This does not make them completely invulnerable, though, as it takes a large amount of reserve energy to perform and it is possible for a namek to die with his body more or less intact after a battle.
Body flexibility: A namekians body and limbs are also extremely flexible. They can elongate their arms and legs at will. With considerable effort, they are even able to grow many times their size.
Awakening potential: A somewhat mystical ability used by Saichourou, he was able to raise the power level of individuals by awakening their potential. It's not just a normal power boost; it makes the person as powerful as they possibly could be at that point in time, assuming they already aren't. If the individual is already at their max, and they already meet their potential, the technique will do them no good.
Object creation: Namekians can create items like clothing out of thin air. It is likely this ability is what is used for their most potent skill, the creation of Dragon Balls. It was noted in the series that only members of the "Dragon Clan" of nameks were able to create the balls, but it is unclear whether their creation is a learned skill or innate to the species, as Kami created them based on a racial memory of sorts.
Fusion: Namekians have a form of inverse reproduction where they are able to permanently join themselves with other members of their race. When this is done one of the namekians serves as the base and gains the skills, memories and many of the personality traits of the other. It is unknown what happens to the soul of the absorbed namek, whether it also merges with the absorbing nameks soul or goes to the afterlife. ^[2]
Fission: The reverse of fusing, a single namekian can also split into different copies of itself. One instance of this ability being used was when a nameless namekian purged all the evil with himself by casting it off into a separate being, resulting in the good natured Kami and the demonic Demon King Piccolo. Both namekians were able to read each others thoughts, and if one died the other would as well.
Soul control: Both Kami and the Demon King demonstrated the ability to manipulate the very soul of beings. With Piccolo, he was able to prevent the souls of those he killed from going to the afterlife, forcing them to remain in limbo for eternity; with Kami, he was able to incarnate his soul into another being, essentially possessing them. It is also likely that in namekian fission, the soul is shared between the two new namekians.
Healing: Dende is shown with the ability to heal other beings of virtually any injury.

Super Nameks

After Piccolo merges with Kami, he powers up to levels well beyond of the existing namekians. Thus, he is called a "Super Namek".

In the movies, some extremely powerful namekians found the ancient secret to becoming said Super Nameks. In this form, they are extremely aggressive and very different from their agrarian counterparts. These super nameks were banished from the planet using the Dragon Balls. The only example shown of such is Lord Slug.

It is doubtful that Super Nameks are a fundamentally different type of namek in the same way that a Super Saiyan is completely different from a normal Saiyan. Super Saiyans are an entirely new form of Saiyan, a result of an important metamorphises. But Super Nameks, as far as can be discerned, are simply very powerful nameks, and the term "Super Namek" is only a nickname.

Namek castes

Combat castes ^[3]
- Fighter-type: Fighter nameks are the most powerful of the nameks, dwarfing other nameks in combat ability. Nail and Piccolo Junior are the only two of this type seen.
- Warrior-type: Described in the Daizenshuu, these are nameks who are profecient in combat, but not at the same level as Fighter-types. Note that this variety only appears in the Dragon Ball Z anime.
- Soldier-type: Described in the Daizenshuu, these are nameks who are profecient in combat, but not at the same level as Warrior-types.
Support castes
- Healer-type: These nameks can heal the wounds of others ^[4]
- Dragon clan: These nameks are the only ones capable of creating / manipulating Dragon Balls.

Only plot-important nameks are shown or described as being one of the above castes. It is unknown if the other nameks in existence belong to one of them or to other unmentioned castes.

List of Nameks

Notes

^ Within the namek culture on their home planet, it seems as the right to reproduce is restricted only to the Great Elder. Demon King Piccolo used a somewhat corrupted verion of this process, creating several demonic, non-namekian minions to serve him. When he did create an actual offspring (Piccolo Jr.), he was able to pass on all of his memories, personality and likely his very soul into it, making it virtually a reincarnation. This might explain why Piccolo Jr. matures so rapidly; he goes from an egg to a young adult namek in three years, whereas other nameks (such as Dende) are more like humans in their growth rate.
^ The absorbing namek will not obtain any caste specific abilities from the other. This is shown when Piccolo, a fighter-type, is unable to restore the Dragon Balls, even though he had fused with Kami, who was a member of the dragon clan.
^ The Daizenshuu states that the first batch of three namek's who fought Freeza's men were soldier-types and the second, anime only, batch of three were warrior-types. The anime states that all combat-capable nameks (including Nail) were of the same caste and that Nail was far more powerful because he was the best of them. In the manga Saichourou states that Nail was the only namek born a fighter-type.
^ Dende is the only namek shown to have this ability and it is proved later that he is a member of the dragon clan. This might therefore not be a caste, but a unique ability to Dende. A bit of confusion arises from this as it is also stated that Piccolo can not heal others because he is a fighter-type, insinuating that the ability is restricted to or from various castes.