Namek
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A Namek or a Namekian, is a fictional race from the Planet Namek in the Animes Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT.
Namekians have green skin, large pointy ears, two antennae on their foreheads, and pink ribbings on their arms, stomach, and shins, but otherwise they have a humanoid form. They are an ancient race, and have many magical abilities, such as when Piccolo creates Son Gohan's first martial arts gi at the start of Dragon Ball Z. They are also the creators of the Dragonballs, which grant wishes - clearly magical.
Although not as strong as the Saiyans, Nameks are capable of being formidable opponents. However, Nameks are typically a peaceful species, and their societies are lead by wise elders and sages. Still, there are a few exceptions. In the past several Nameks found the secret "ancient knowledge" to becoming Super Nameks. The power went to their heads and they became violent and tyrannic. The peaceful Nameks banished the Super Nameks from the planet using the magic of the Dragonballs. Today, the only known Super Nameks are Piccolo and Lord Slug. (Note that this information is specific to the movie and not canonical to either the anime or manga series.)
During the Freeza Saga, the Nameks lived in a number of small villages dotting the planet. Each village had a population of children, adults, and elders. The guardianship of the Dragonballs was divided up between six Namek Elders, each entrusted with a Dragonball. The seventh Dragonball was kept by the wisest and eldest Namek of all, Guru. After a terrible apocalypse occurred on the planet, Guru was the only survivor, and he would later go on to repopulate the planet. Thus, all present Nameks are direct descendants of Guru. How this is possible is explained in the next paragraph. Also, Namek society is vaguely caste-based. The general population of Nameks come in two types: healers and fighters. Fighters can utilize their mystical powers in combat, wheras Healers can use their magic to heal the wounds of others. Dende is one example of a Healer, while Piccolo is a fighter. Other Namek fighters are seen during the Freeza Saga.
Nameks have a very alien physiology. For one, there are no female Nameks; all Nameks appear to be male. Nameks reproduce by vomiting up eggs, which later hatch into young Nameks; making them asexual. Namekians are probably genetically encoded to have different abilities. For instance, Nameks can naturally fuse with one another and become one. When this happens, two (or perhaps more) Nameks can become one, combining the traits of both into one individual. This results in a much stronger being, who has the personality traits of both Namekians combined, although sometimes one may dominate. This happens with Piccolo and Template:DB:LDBc, and later Piccolo and Kami. In both cases, Piccolo seemed to be the dominant personality, and retained all of his memories and intelligence, while the other two were completely assimilated within him. However, Piccolo was heavily influenced by them, and started taking on some of their traits.
In addition to fusing, Nameks are also capable of dividing themselves into separate beings. Piccolo does this when he trains in the wilderness. He concentrates, and splits himself up into two or more copies, and basically spars with himself. Now, this may be simply a magical technique of Piccolo's, rather than a natural trait of his species, but he isn't the only one to do this. When Kami first comes to Earth, he expunges the evil within himself in order to become the Guardian of the Earth. The evil manifests itself by forcifully dividing itself from Kami, and then forms into yet another Namek, the original evil Piccolo. The original Piccolo (who will be referred to as 'King Piccolo' for the remainder of this page, as to avoid confusion with the younger Piccolo) was a direct clone of Kami, and was in the incarnation of all of his evil and darkness. Later, when Son Goku defeated King Piccolo, the evil Namek spawned forth Piccolo right before he died. He infused his own life essence into his offspring, so that Piccolo had all of his memories and knowledge. Thus, Piccolo is not merely the son of King Piccolo, but is the very continuation of King Piccolo's spirit. When Piccolo finally fuses with Kami (as described in the above paragraph) to fight Cell, Piccolo finally becomes whole again (since he carries the life force of King Piccolo within him, and then joins with Kami, forming the original Namek who came to Earth ages ago).
Up until the arrival of Raditz on Earth, King Piccolo and the other Nameks on Earth were considered demons. (This was largely due to King Piccolo and his spawn being incarnated evil. Kami's status as a Namekian was not generally known, though he would not have considered himself 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. King Piccolo considered himself the Demon King. Besides Kami, who resided on his floating island high above the Earth, all Nameks during that time were offspring of King Piccolo (and, by extension, Kami) and had names which were based on musical instruments. The original Namekians on their homeworld all had names which were (in Japanese or in English) puns on snails or similar invertebrates.
Finally, it should be noted that Nameks are capable of incredible degrees of regeneration. Even if entire limbs are severed, a Namek can regrow them instantly. The limits of this are not known, but when Piccolo becomes transformed into a statue by Dabura in the Buu Saga, Goten and Trunks accidently knock him over and shatter him. When the spell wears off, Goten and Trunks fear that Piccolo is dead, but he soon appears, good as new. Piccolo explains that, as a Namek, he can regenerate himself as long as his head isn't damaged. Also, when Dr. Gero created Cell, he used Piccolo's DNA to grant Cell the amazing degree of self-healing that he can do. Cell is capable of reviving himself from a single cell, and since he inherited this ability from Namekian genes, the Nameks must have similar ability.