Saiyan Race

History - The Saiyans are a group of barbaric aliens who shared a planet with a race known as the Tuffles. The Saiyans lived in the arid wastelands, while the Tuffles lived in great cities, employing advanced technology. One day however, the Saiyans attacked, vowing to conquer the Tuffle's great cities, and to extinguish the race. This sparked a ten year long war. When the Saiyans arrived on Planet Plant, they were welcomed by the Tuffles. The Tuffles used the Saiyan race as slaves. This is how the saiyans belived this happened.

A Tuffle belives the Saiyans first arrived in mysterious space-pods, and attacked the Tuffles in cold blood. He states they were lead by Vegeta's father, and upon the rising of the full moon, the Saiyans assumed their Great Ape transformations, and completely wiped out the Tuffle race in a single night.

The only history of the Saiyans predating their conflict with the Tuffles was that pertaining to the Super Saiyan legend. The Original Super Saiyan appeared approximately 1,000 years prior to the events on planet Namek, and is described by Vegeta as a Super Saiyan who could only retain his status in the transformed state. He appears to have lost control and gave in to his destructive primitive desires and destroyed himself with his own power. Where the surviving Saiyans migrated to was never revealed, but eventually it is evident they somehow found their way to Planet Plant.

Around Age 731, about a year following the Saiyan victory over the Tuffles, the planet was conquered or annexed by Frieza's empire and the Saiyans (like many other races) were drafted to serve as soldiers in Frieza's military under the Planet Trade. Due to the Saiyans' innate strength and penchant for violence, they were considered to be useful mercenaries and assisted in the conquering of many planets, or if assignment called for, eradication of the planet's population (even Saiyan children were considered powerful enough to conquer some of the weaker planets, such as Earth. Eventually, seeing how quickly some of the more gifted Saiyan warriors were gaining power through battle, Frieza grew concerned with the potential of the Saiyan race and thought that they would grow strong enough to face him or even become the fabled Super Saiyans, able to defeat him in battle.

Thus, the maniacal warlord destroyed planet Vegeta in Age 737, nearly eradicating the Saiyan race. Only four pure-blood Saiyans are known to have survived the destruction: Kakarot (Goku), Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz as they were not on the planet at the time. Once the latter three discovered that their planet was destroyed, Frieza lied to them that an asteroid had hit their world, and offered them continued employment in return for eventual wealth.

Tail's - All pure-blooded Saiyans are born with tails, monkey-like in appearance and covered in brownish fur. The tail is a particularly sensitive area for Saiyans who had not trained it. When grabbed or injured, it causes great pain to the owner, and temporarily immobilizes the whole body. However, Elite-class Saiyans trained themselves to overcome this weakness. However, it is possible for Low-class Saiyans to train their tail's as well, The tail is very prehensile, and can be used to grasp things, much like primates do. The tail also serves to help young Saiyans with balance. Saiyan's will have trouble standing, let alone walking or running, at first. When Vegeta's tail was cut off, his balance was unaffected. (Possibly due to the elites' tails being wrapped around their hip, enabling them to adjust to their balance should they ever lose their tails.)
The tail also provides a unique gift in that it allows a Saiyan to transform into an Great Ape if exposed to the Blutz Waves of a full moon. If the tail is removed, this power is lost. All Saiyans have the ability for their tail to grow back, unless it is permanently removed. It seems to grow back for unknown reasons. Tails also provide a boost in Super Saiyan transformations.

Saiyan Personality - Saiyans tend to share common personality traits, even at young ages. Being war-like people; they share an innate enjoyment for conflict and fighting; choosing violence over peace with other races.Saiyans are typically very aggressive and hard-headed, with short explosive tempers. Saiyans appear inclined to be arrogant at times, leading them to allow enemies to gain advantages in battle just for fun. It appears, They have a tendency to let their emotions get the better of them when roused in stimulating situations - resulting in them at times making rash decisions. They also appear to lack sympathetic emotions as though by choice rather than by nature as shown by their relative lack of fear of death and uncaring attitude towards family members. Most Saiyans also possess a keen fighting sense and understanding of battle, which allows them to acquire many new skills, such as overcoming the weakness of their tails, learning to detect ki, and achieving new fighting forms and transformations.

Saiyan Abilities - Saiyans naturally possess exceptional strength - far greater than that of other humans and alien races - and are quintessentially built for fighting. They are capable of easily lifting ten times of their own weight, The naturally high gravity of Planet Vegeta (10x that of Earth) develops their strength further making them incredibly strong at young ages. Even weaker Saiyans are capable of conquering most planets alone. Through tough training, Saiyans are able to reach new levels of power, and the more intense training and fights they go through, the stronger they become.

If a Saiyan survives a near-death experience through extreme injury to the body, then, when the body recuperates, the Saiyan grows much stronger than they were previously, their body adapting to compensate for the damage dealt. The duration of recovery does not seem to hinder this ability as Saiyans have healed through natural, technological and mystical means and still gained substantial increases in strength. Saiyans also appear able to heal from injuries at a faster rate than normal humans and possess a greater deal of durability to damage, Saiyans also possess a natural affinity to the manipulation of ki energy allowing them to utilize flying and energy-based attacks with incredible ease as well as unlock great depths of power when needed, or lending energy to others in battle when it is actually necessary. Lost energy is regained by the Saiyan in a very short span of time, regardless of the amount of energy lost. Sometimes, the energy the Saiyan regained is multiplied, as noted by their power level. One of the best examples of this ability are the fights between Vegeta and Zarbon. In their first encounter, Vegeta was able to dominate Zarbon, but after Zarbon transformed, he was unable to defeat him. However, after the near-death experience, Vegeta was able to fight and kill Zarbon even in his transformed state. Saiyans put a heavy emphasis on strength and fighting ability when it comes to importance in their society. In fact, they will excommunicate Saiyans who do not show potential to assist in their violent ways, even alleged "royalty,"

Speed - The Saiyans also have great speed and agility. They also have much faster reflexes than an average Human; reflexes so fast that they can avoid a bullet or energy beam without much of a problem. Super speed can easily be seen in their fighting skills; their movements occur in fractions of seconds which are not visible to average Human eyes. Their agility is also substantial in their battles and training. These movements can be improved by training, transformations, and other methods. These natural powers of speed and reflex make nearly all Saiyan hand-to-hand combat very fast.

Appetite - Saiyans are also noted for being ravenous trenchermen with seemingly insatiable appetites. Due to their enormous strength and intense aura, the Saiyans' energy and nutritional intake needs are a great deal higher than Humans. They are often known to eat plate after plate of food, resulting in many dishes piling up, often eating more food than logically possible. It is known that they have no preferences when it comes to food, although they appear to prefer meat over anything else.Despite advice to the contrary, Saiyans tend to eat large quantities of food immediately before a big fight. They do not seem to suffer the cramps that Humans do by doing that; in fact, it seems to improve their game

Ageing - Lifespan - Growth - Saiyan's lifespan is about the same as an average Human (70 to 90 years, with exceptions, of course). Unlike Humans, Saiyans remain in their youth and prime much longer.As far as growing is concerned, this differs by Saiyan as it does with Humans. Most full-blooded Saiyans appear to grow in spurt phases,While slow growth does occur, it is just that-- slow. Saiyans appear identical to that of a human baby and in their early years, and appear to grown at similar rates. At 12 year's old a saiyan will usually look like that of a 7-8 year old human child. Saiyans appear to undergo one final growth spurt between the ages of roughly twenty to thirty, when the body seems to finalize its physical maturity. Growth in muscle mass can clearly be seen, with even some height gained.

Smell - Saiyans have a very keen sense of smell.IT is like that of a dog.

Fighting - Saiyans have an inborn need to fight. Most Saiyans will spend their lives training to become stronger so that they can prove themselves in battle. When Frieza hired the Saiyans as his planet pirates, he knew of their amazing fighting skills and used that to his advantage. However, Frieza began to notice how powerful the Saiyans were becoming and began to fear that one day one of them would overwhelm him as the most powerful being in the universe. This eventually lead to Frieza's destruction of Planet Vegeta and all the Saiyans on it. Saiyans like Goku and Vegeta are frequently seen training and improving their fighting skills to keep up with each other's skills and the appearance of new, more powerful foes.

Unique ability -

Zenkai - Zenkai is an ability that is genetically exclusive to Saiyans. The ability is a genetic trait that allows a Saiyan's power to increase substantially after recovering from near fatal injuries. This trait is not exclusive to pure-blooded Saiyans as the lack of hair growth is, as even clones with partial Saiyan genetic data have this ability as well.

Zennkai Example - For example, when Vegeta recovers from his fight with Goku, his power level went from 18,000 to 24,000, and another was received after being nearly killed by Zarbon's transformed state and healed, which the Daizenshuu estimates to have augumented his strength to roughly 30,000. After Vegeta was again near-fatally injured after fighting Recoome, his strength strangely skyrockets enough to have an even power struggle with Frieza's first form (stated to be 530,000), and another, final Zenkai increased his power enough to see Frieza's movements and Death Beams at first, before he begins to put in even more effort. While the dub incorrectly infers that Zenkais only occur with Elite Saiyans, Goku, whom Vegeta and Nappa repeatedly refer to as low-level trash ("clown" in the dubbed anime), receives them many times. This is confirmed by how Krillin states that it was weird how Goku always seemed to grow ever stronger after recovering from fighting devastating battles against powerful foes, how Goku is able to learn and tap into the power of Zenkai's during his gravity training (which in total boosted his power from "over 8,000" 90,000 in the Namek saga, as 180,000/2 = 90,000), and how Goku's powers again receive an enormous boost after recovering from his battle with Captain Ginyu in the rejuvenation chamber. Like with Vegeta, his Zenkais are never seen afterwards, no matter how injured he became and healed.