Long ago before Dragon Ball, a young Namekseijin landed on Earth in a spacecraft. When he crash landed, he must have hit his head or something that forced him to forget his early childhood. Somewhere along this line, he made a set of seven dragon balls, the "Black Star" dragon balls, to be exact. Whatever happened to these from this time until DBGT is unknown.

Many years later, the Namekseijin was picked as one of the successors of the current (at that time) Kame-sama. However, in order to take the job, he had to rid himslef of the tremendous evil within him. Kame-sama removed the evil in him, but it was so strong that it has its own individual: Piccolo Daimao. The two were spiritually linked, if one of them were to die, the other would too.

Kame-sama has ruled as the god of the Earth for centuries. His helper, Popo, has been with him for most (if not all) of this time. Whenever Kame-sama needs the dragon balls, Popo is the one who goes out to find them. Popo must cheat though because he ususally finds them all in a few hours, while the rest of the Z Senshi could be out there for years. Kame-sama also made a new set of dragon balls, the ones that are seen all the way until Dende replaces Kame-sama in the Cell Saga.

Kame-sama lives high, high above the Earth in his tower. From there he can watch all the people on the planet. He doesn't have too much influence on the characters or the story, aside from Movie #1 and the Garlic Jr. Mini-Saga. But he helps out in his mysterious ways from time to time (god works in mysterious ways, Kame-sama is a god,... aww forget it...).

Kame-sama and Piccolo fuse back into one being in the Cell Saga, forming an extremely powerful Namekseijin, but Piccolo's in control with all the goodies from Kame-sama. Since the Z Senshi needs those dragon balls, Gokou teleports to New Nameksei and returns with the successor, Dende.