This being the Earth Dragon God, was created by Piccolo's good half (Kami Sama - God). Piccolo came from the Namek family who conceived the original Dragon (Porunga), so, when he came to Earth as a child (due to terrible weather problems in Namek, Piccolo was sent by his parents), he had the urge to create a similar dragon (he did not do this consciously, for he had no memory of his planet). In the beginning of dragonball we are told that once, a long time ago, there was no Dragonballs, you just needed to ask your wish to the Dragon, who would sit at a palace, but due to Man's greed and violence, God decided to conceive a way that only the most worthy could have their wishes granted, so he created the Dragonballs, which would be dispersed all around the Globe, making it difficult to gather all of them (especially without a Dragonball Radar, which was first constructed by Bulma). Shenlong, appears, when all the Dragonballs are united and the words "Ide yo, Doragon!" (Come out Dragon) are said, after a big "light show" the dragon comes out and grants the first wish asked of him (no matter, who says it). Though, being said in the beginning of the series that all your wishes could be fulfilled, the Dragon one limitation (besides only giving one wish!) he can't grant the same wish twice; this is a bit of a problem (especially in the second series), as deaths are common among the heroes, and nobody could be revived. Despite of some stranger requests (like the first time the dragonballs were gathered, where Oolong asked for some panties), in general, the more frequent requests are Immortality (normally the request of villains) and bring back people to life. The power of the dragon relies on the power of it's creator (this seems a bit of a problem, because if so, why can't Piccolo bring back people to life ? - the Dragon seems to be a parallel manifestation of his own power; example: a man can create a Formula 1 car, but he, himself cannot run at 300Km/h ) and if the creator dies the dragon dies too (making the death of Piccolo a problem). During the Cell Saga, Piccolo and Kami Sama finally fuse (this being a Namek only fuse) in order to fight Cell; so a new God is needed, and Dende is the chosen one; after some time in the job he decides to give the Dragon a power up, making him able to grant 3 wishes. The Ultimate Shenlon is yellow, and several 10's of times bigger than the normal Shenlon, but he can only grant 1 wish. There is a chance that the Ultimate Shenlon could even resurrect the same dead person two times or more. But, the power released by the appearance of Ultimate Shenlon is so great that it causes the Earth to self-destruct 1 year later. This is why the Ultimate Dragon Balls need to be gathered again -- to counter this energy and prevent the Earth from exploding. Further, this is why Piccolo would rather die, than remain alive and risk having the Ultimate Dragon Balls used a second time.

With the defeat of Super #17, #18 asks Gokuu to use the Dragon Balls to summon Shenlon, and wish for Kuririn to be resurrected again. However, everytime a wish had been made, "plus" energy had been used and "minus" had accumulated in the Dragon Balls. Finally, the Balls crack, letting out all that minus energy. The result is the appearance of an older, uglier, cigar-smoking Evil Shenlon -- Aka Kokuen no Ryuu (Black Smoke Dragon). This marks the beginning of the Evil Dragons storyline. Kokuen swallows the Dragon Balls, and then spits out 7 evil dragons that fly off in separate directions. Each dragon must be defeated so that the Balls can repair themselves and return to normal.

After Goku defeated the seven evil dragons, Shenlon refused to grant any more wishes. When Goku finally convinced him to grant one last wish, to resurect everyone who died in the battles, Goku left with Shenlon. After visiting Goku's old friends, Goku and Shenlon disapear.

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