Musk Dynasty

The Musk Dynasty an ancient community of Chinese martial arts masters, at one point claimed to have existed for 14,000 years, who went to extremes to emulate the movements of wild animals. They are residents of the Byankala Mountains and appear late in the manga. Herb is the current head of the dynasty.

History
An extremely old society, the Musk are stated to be the descendants of a fanatical group of male martial artists dedicated to mastering the various styles of kung fu inspired by animals such as the monkey, tiger, dragon, and wolf. Discovering the existence of Jusenkyo, this group settled on a plan in order to make themselves or at least their descendants the greatest masters in the world of those various styles.

It is unknown where they acquired the items in question, but somehow the Musk managed to obtain two mystical artifacts that could affect the magic of Jusenkyo: the Ladle of Locking would produce cold water that would trap a Jusenkyo victim in their cursed form, while the Kettle of Opening would produce hot water that could undo the effects of the Ladle of Locking. With these items, the Musk settled near Jusenkyo and began a generations-long breeding regime, capturing animals of the style they wanted their offspring to master, plunging them into the The Spring of Drowned Woman (Nyanniichuan), locking them with the Ladle, and then mating with the newly created "beastwomen" in order to produce sons who would inherit some of the traits of their mothers' original species. Though the practice would be discontinued by the modern day, it evidently went on for generations and seemed to have had success. The royal line tracks its lineage to transformed dragons, which is the source of Herb's thorough ki mastery as well as flight. while Nyanniichuan cursed wolves and tigers produced Musk of extraordinary speed and strength, in the forms of Mint and Lime, respectively.

The Musk Dynasty was, and to an extent remains, a very misogynistic culture. Women were seen as weaklings fit only for producing children, and their sons were taken from their mothers after being weaned so that they would not be be made soft and weak. They are only allowed to be around women again after they are deemed old enough to marry, all in order to strive for the pinnacle of the mastery of martial arts. It is never said what happened to the mothers once they have "fulfilled their duty", or to daughters born into the Musk. Even in the modern era, though breeding with beasts turned into girls through Jusenkyo is no longer practiced and the Musk simply interview skilled female martial artists in the vicinity of their village, they still seperate their sons from their mothers after they are weaned.

Cologne believed that the Musk Dynasty had been destroyed many years ago. While she was startled to discover that the Musk were still alive and had not gone extinct, she was not hostile towards Herb and he in turn, was not only respectful to her but deliberately sought her out for advice. At some point in their history, the Kettle of Opening was lost somehow and ended up in Japan, though Cologne was able to point Herb towards its destination.

As he would soon be arranged to be married, Herb decided that he should see what a naked girl actually looked like first, taking the Ladle of Locking and a monkey to Jusenkyo. There, he dunked the ape in the Nyanniichuan, where she emerged looking almost identical to Ranma's female form. While Herb was awestruck by his first sight of real, nude, female flesh, the irritated monkey grabed the Ladle of Locking and used it to splash Herb with water from the Nyanniichuan, simultaneously cursing him and locking him into cursed form. Though Herb retrieved the Ladle, the Kettle was somewhere in Japan and, so, disguising her newfound gender from her people, she took two of her followers, Mint and Lime, and set out to retrieve the Kettle and be cured. Thanks to an incident involving Akane, Lime and Ranma's boisterous protection of Akane, Ranma found himself on the receiving end of the Ladle of Locking. Desperate to reclaim his true form, and looking for a rematch, Ranma chased after the Musk, accompanied by Mousse and Ryoga Hibiki, who plotted to murder Ranma and blame it on the Musk, as well as to use the Ladle to lock themselves in their natural forms, failing to realize it made cold locking water, and finally fought a climatic battle. In the end, both Nyanniichuan victims were unlocked and Herb returned to China with his followers. He presumably used Nanniichuan to cure himself upon his arrival now that he was no longer locked in his female form.