Musk Dynasty

The Musk Dynasty is a social group in the late manga of Ranma ½, denizens of the Byankala Mountains. 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 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 of those various styles in the world.

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 Nyanniichuan, locking them with the Ladle, and then forcing themselves upon 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 some success -- a lineage descending from a Nyanniichuan cursed dragon produced a Musk with incredible ki powers, including flight and razor projectiled, while Nyanniichuan cursed wolves and tigers produced Musk of extraordinary speed and strength, 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 wouldn't be be made soft and weak, only being allowed to be around women again after they were deemed old enough to marry. It is never said what happened to girls who were born into the Musk. Even in the modern era, though breeding with beasts turned into girls through Jusenkyo is no longer practiced, the Musk still seperate their sons from women after they are able to eat solid foods. Because of this, some readers speculate that there may be or at least may have been some hostilities between them and the Joketsuzoku, who are a society of female warriors. This does not seem to be the case, though; while Cologne was startled to discover the Musk were still alive and had not gone extinct, she was not hostile towards Herb and Herb, 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 it's destination.

Ranma and co's experience with the Musk Dynasty came about because of the impulsiveness of the Musk's leader, Prince Herb. 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 (Herb notes that this is sheer coincidence, but he still hates Ranma for the resemblance). 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 (possibly her dimmest ones), the wolf-blooded Mint and the tiger-blooded 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 (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 -- presumably, he used Nanniichuan to cure himself upon his arrival now that he was no longer locked in female form.

The Musk are not mentioned again in any subsequent stories.