Daman

"Though their reign as the gods was more beneficial to the evolution of the universe than the Kais', few memories of them persist to this day"

- Antenocte

The Damani is a bipedal amphibian-mammilian species native to Krakatan. They were created by Iantos, the god of creation, and they were amongst his favorite species. Because of this, they were blessed with great intellect and ability. The Daman were the first mortal race to reach Other World. From there, they ruled over the universe, declaring themselves as gods. Later, their numbers dwindled from the duplicitous actions of a lesser god, Amoon, and they were forced to find a successor race before disease and sterility could render them extinct. Their chosen race was the.

Within a few years of handing the mantle of power to the Kais, they were considered extinct. However, after the Ledas was sucked into a mind-prison that Korin possessed, he was acquainted with Verlate, the last surviving Damani. Thus, in actually, the Daman were EW, or extinct in the wild for millions of years until Verlate's later suicide allowed them to be reclassified as EX, or extinct in terms of the endangered scale.

Origins
While not the oldest race in the galaxy, the Daman began populating Krakatan as early as 200 Million Before Age. Due to a lack of centralized religion, they developed rapidly and experienced multiple economical and industrial revolutions. By the 195 Million Before Age, they had gained space-faring technology that allowed them to traverse through the galaxy. As they began categorizing various species they came across, they began detecting a realm known as otherworld. Quite quickly thereafter, through use of their technology, they gained access to the place.

Of course, the Daman found this to be where everyone went after they died, and constructed various planets to watch over the universe from this point. While these would later become the four planets of the Kais (such as King Kai's planet), they were at first populated by Daman. A council resided on New Kratakan (which would later be renamed the sacred world of the Kais), and began making decisions for the entire universe.

While populations of Daman spread across the galaxy, and some even remained on their homeworld of old Krakatan, their species began dwindling. Perhaps it was due to the difficulty of mating, or the affairs they were all caught up in, but by the 181 Million Before Age, the Daman had been reduced to a population of close to five hundred. By this point, they had abandoned many of their technological studies, and were instead obsessed about ruling as gods in otherworld. Here, they decided which species should evolve (and when, where, how), not to mention, which should be allowed to gain space-faring technology. After the incident reported in Forever Alone, the Legate, Verlate, who was amongst the most powerful and highest ranking of her species, was sentenced to eternal damnation in a mind prison. After she was sealed in the prison, the power of the Daman waned completely, and their species faded out of time. Through the coming years they were utterly forgotten.

The high judge, Sertung, who sentenced Verlate, eventually became the last surviving Damani in otherworld, as his underlings died of diseases and old age. He picked the Kais to replace them, after deeming them to be genetically the most similar to the Daman. After going to their planet (which was mostly destroyed in Forever Alone), he found the seed of a Kaiju Tree. Along with the few surviving Kais, he returned to otherworld, and New Krakatan and planted the seed. He later trained some of the surviving Kais in the ways ruling before perishing himself. His last deed before dying was to rename new Krakatan to the Sacred Planet of the Kais. As the Daman were not considered gods, but merely hyper-sentient beings, dying still had an effect, and were relegated to either Heaven or Hell. Their successors, the Kais, would break this tradition after over 180 Million years of just rule. Simply put, the Daman didn't rule for long enough or make a big enough impact to deem them godly, despite their technological achievements.

Other Daman not living in otherworld died out by the time of Sertung's death. While the last few survivors had looked into various ways to keep their species alive, such as technologically assisted mating and cloning, none proved to be effective, as their populations had just gotten too small. The race was fully wiped out, sans Verlate in her mind prison, by the end of the 180 Million Before Age.

Legacy
The Daman were the first technological race in the universe, and by far the earliest space-faring one. They developed numerous breakthroughs, such as intergalactic space travel and gravity manipulation. Their ability to reach the otherworld is a feat no other race has since managed to accomplish (without dying or getting Kai assistance). Their spreading of technology throughout select races also heavily influenced the universe's evolution.

They were known by most extant races at the time, though mostly as overseers and onlookers. Rarely did the Daman get involved with specific species. Because of this, few records existed about them throughout time, and their existence was often considered suspect. The Kais themselves did not keep any written record of the Daman, so they were forgotten.

All Damani outposts were either plundered or destroyed long before the Planet Trade Organization existed, thus no record of them was kept. Only their homeworld of Krakatan eventually remained as a record that the Daman had ever existed. Because it was outside of the boundaries, it was not known to have continued to exist. The planet was also under lockdown, having a powerful energy shield coating the planet and orbital turrets protecting it, thus preventing anyone from trying to loot the place. These were still active by the end of Dragon Ball Z.

Appearance
A Damani male is about seven feet tall, black skinned (with dark green undersides), and hairless. They possess two eyes, which stick out slightly from their oval head, where a normal creature's ears would be. They have two arms and two legs, which have four digits apiece. On the back of their legs, below the knees, they have a small claw. Uniquely, they have thumbs on both their hands and feet even though they are bipedial. Daman can also replace lost limbs, such as arms, fingers, or legs, but they cannot regrow from more serious injuries, such as damage to the torso or cranium. They do not possess ears, but instead have receptors throughout their skin that can be used for hearing. Because of this, Daman cannot sweat normally, instead having to release heat through their mouths and slits down their backs.

Female Daman are similar to their male counterparts, except that they are usually grey-skinned; and on their undersides, colored light green. Females do not tend to claws on the back of the legs like males do; females that do are considered to suffer from genetic errors.

Mental Traits
As Daman have evolved, their culture has placed a priority on logic and reason; thus, emotion is rarely exhibited, except in extreme circumstances. Because of this, the species has shown tendencies to bottle up emotion (particularly anger), which when later released, is done so rather recklessly. Many Daman do not have proper control over emotion, and to prevent it from clouding their judgment, they either wear restrictor bands (which restrict emotional output), or take drugs to limit their ability to express emotion. While not all Daman comply with this (some simply restrain emotion when around others), very few show emotion in public.

Daman are very arrogant creatures as well. This can be explained due to their role as self-made gods, with each successive generation believing more and more that their species is special. They do not take to slights well, and have demolished entire species for wronging their Legates. However, they are a just society, and have a very compassionate morality. While they do tend to be arrogant, this does not mean they can see no evil or wrongdoing in their own societies. Any unauthorized tampering or exploiting of species is usually met with swift execution. As Daman use a judge/jury system for most cases, this reflects upon the species' belief in fair, but harsh punishment.

Lifespan
A Damani could live for upwards of 4000 years, regardless of gender. They become sexually mature at only 20 years of age, though the mating process is tiresome and uncomfortable (due to a great amount of time that it takes males to ejaculate under sexual stimulus), leading many to not engage in it for hundreds of years after becoming available. While technology was made to further and ease the mating process, it often did not work, and made males disinterested in seeking children.

Technology
Daman technology is the pinnacle of technology in the universe. They are considered to be Tier 0, essentially more advanced than the Planet Trade Organization or the Mrovians. They possessed extremely quick galactic travel, teleportation grids, the ability to manipulate gravity, and the ability to create planets. While they were able to clone and had some genetic studies, Daman were mainly employed those in efforts to force evolution in other species. While it is known the Daman had the capabilities to create a Dyson Sphere, it is unknown if they ever did. Their planet's solar system shows no signs of one, and none have been discovered elsewhere in the universe. Perhaps they lacked the manpower and resources to create one; though, the former seems slightly more likely.