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The Namekians, or Nameks, are a pivotal race within theDragon Balluniverse, renowned for their unique abilities and significant influence on the series' lore. Recognized by their green skin, antennae, and pointed ears, these humanoid beings have been central to many key events throughout the franchise.
Traditionally believed to originate from Planet Namek in Universe 7, recent revelations have unveiled a more intricate backstory, deepening our understanding of their origins and cultural significance. Here we will delve into their origins, abilities, and the most well-known members of the race.
What Is A Namekian?
Visually, Namekians aregreen-skinned humanoids with antennae, pointy ears, and a complete lack of hair. All members of the racelook ‘male,’although, sincethey reproduce asexually, they don’t really have a gender, with most of them simply identifying as male.
The biology of a Namekian allows them tosurvive solely on water, with regenerative abilities that let themheal any non-fatal wound, including near-instant growth of new limbs. Said limbs are also quite stretchy, improving their reach or even using their armsas ropes to tangle opponents.
Namekians can alsopermanently fuse with other Namekians; the outer appearance is of the dominant one. This increases their strength more than the sum of their parts — not as much as a Fusion Dance, but nearly comparable.
There is one known case of a Namekian ‘defusing’ into an evil and a good side, but it isn’t known if all Namekians can defuse or if it was an ability exclusive to Kami.
Some Namekians caneven turn into ‘giants,’although it isn’t a particularly useful form. It might even bean ability exclusive to Piccolo, since its use in the actual series is sparse at best, with its most notable user being Lord Slug, a movie-only character.
Culture
Namekian communities are divided into one of two clans,the Dragon and Warrior clans. The Warrior clan is in charge ofprotecting the community, but their peaceful way of life and lack of conflict make themill-prepared for universe-spanning dangerslike the Frieza invasion.
The most powerful clan, however, is the Dragon clan, since it is wherethe leaders and healers come from. Members of the Dragon clan arenaturally good at healing others, and they are also capable ofcrafting the mythical Dragon Balls.
Both clans might be able to use magic to create objects, even if the Dragon Balls are exclusive to the Dragon clan.
The Dragon Balls only function whentheir overseeing Namekian is alive, like the Guru in Namek or Kami on Earth. Thepower of the wishes,size of the spheres,andnumber of wishesall depend onthe power of the Namekian that made them.
Origins And History Of The Namekians
Each Dragon Ball sagaadds its own set of rulesand information on various aspects, and they sometimes contradict each other. As such, we will cover whateach relevant series revealsabout Namekians, without delving too much into movies, since they are widely considered non-canon.
Dragon Ball Daima
In Daima, it is revealed thatmany species came from the Demon Realm, but not all of them: Earthlings and Saiyans are confirmed to have evolved after the creation of the universe (the one outside the Demon Realm).Namekians are among the early Demon Realm races, with their home realm being specificallythe Second of the three worlds.
The Second Demon World hasa green skybox, greenish water, and lands of blue grass, which will later come to definehow a Namekian planet is meant to look. Here, Namekiansperfected the art of Dragon Ball crafting, with the first set everbeing made by Neva.
Once the outside universe was created,Namekians journeyed out of the Demon Realmdue to everyoneusing them for their Dragon Balls. The only one to remain was Neva, likely due to his link to the Demon Realm Dragon Balls. How he is still alive after millennia isn’t explained.
Dragon Ball Super
The biggest addition to Namekian lore by Dragon Ball Super arethe Super Dragon Balls, planet-sized spheres that can grant reality-bending wishes. Its creator,Zalama, isn’t confirmed to be a Namekian, but he is likely to be some form of deity of the race.
Beyond that, we do learn ofNamekians from Universe 6(the main cast is from Universe 7), and other than being a different shade of green,they seem to function the same. The ones we meet, Saonel and Pilina,fused with their entire planet’s populationfor power; while a notable feat, it isn’t something we haven’t heard of before.
Dragon Ball
While most of what we know of Namekians doesn’t show them as space explorers,they did develop technology for space travel(or more likely, wished for it with the Dragon Balls). This is consistent with Daima andtheir exodus from the Demon Realm, and also how you can sometimes findlone Namekians in worlds populated by other species.
The ones that travel off-world tend to be Dragon clan, at least from the few examples we have.Both halves of Kami are known to be Dragon Clan, as well asMonaito from the Dragon Ball Super manga.
