Musk Dynasty (AST)

The **Musk Dynasty** (麝香王朝) is an ancient clan of Chinese martial artists who are residents of the Bayankala Mountains. They sought to perfect the arts of form mimicry, emulating the movements of wild animals in their fighting styles.

## History

The Musk is an ancient and formidable people whose history is linked with the Joketsuzoku though both sides have different versions of how the initial divide happened. They may have had dealing with the Moon Kingdom. When they first began using Jusenkyo the Moon Kingdom warned them to stop but they refused. To prevent war between the Amazons and the Musk, the Moon Kingdom allied with the Amazons. The Dark Kingdom attacked the Musk just before they assaulted the Moon Kingdom. As a result Sorora tok their capital and surrounding lands into its own pocket dimension to protect it.

## Laws

Like the Joketsuzoku the Musk have their own set of laws.

When it comes to Jusenkyo due to their past the Musk see the cursed form as the true form when the individual is lock.

## Clans

### Dragon Clan

The royal line tracks its lineage to dragons. The dragon kin do not age much once they hit adulthood. A dragon kin of thirty would look the same as one over a thousand. Herb is said to be the latest heir, the 10th generation of such, preceded by countless true dragons before that. While it is true the other clans of the Musk, save the Fox clan, gained their abilities from taking transformed animal brides, the dragon clan had their abilities far longer than that. As the tale goes, in the distant past, a man of great virtue impressed a Celestial Dragon. So impressed was she, she aided in the development of a new human kingdom under his rule, and even gifted him a child said to carry on his will into successive generations. This child was the first Dragon Lord of the Musk. The dragon clan has been the ruler of the Musk through all its time. Members of the clan show incredible power, as well as genius level intellects.

Known members:

* Herb
* Garnet (father of Herb), aka Garlic, current Lord of the Musk
* Mandrake (father of Garnet, deceased)

Sorora herself appears to be of the dragon clan, but her exact status is unknown. The clan appears to be instilled with the knowledge to cast a particular summons spell for her, and while our tales never explicitly name the progenitor dragon, Sorora's name is long held in our history as an advisor to the Dragon clan. She clearly is very powerful though, apparently able to read Herb's thoughts to a degree, and even threatened to blast him into the nearest star on their first encounter, a threat Herb believed legitimate.

### Wolf Clan

The wolf clan is known for the increased speed of its members, and their fighting style that takes advantage of this.

Known members:

* Mint

### Tiger Clan

The tiger clan have gained an immense amount of strength and endurance from their tiger ancestry making them formidable opponents.

Known members:

* Lime

### Snake Clan

The snake clan is described by Sissithississ as one little interested in politics and generally keeps to themselves. They are descendants of a mixture of poisonous and constricting snakes, something their fighting style represents. They are also quite strong and have developed resistances to more common poisons. They also have a pension to talk with elongated 's' sounds, although this appears to not be due to biology but rather just an accent they have retained over the generations. They are shown to have an amazing sense of smell allowing them to track others by scent, although this is exercised through the use of their mouth rather than purely their nose.

Known members:

* Sissithississ, leader of the clan

### Fox Clan

Perhaps the most dangerous clan of the Musk, the fox clan are in fact magical Kitsunes, and composed in truth nearly entirely by individuals born women. They were introduced to the clan not long after the Musk started using Jusenkyo to augment their warriors. It was already showing negative signs on the population, decreased control and mental acuity. Mandrake saw the kitsune as the perfect excuse to abolish the practice. Hiding their true nature he told the Musk that the kitsune were using foxes for similar reasons as them, but repeated exposure to the spring water had locked them out from having male children. Naturally, for a society heavily focused on their males, that was very unwelcome news.

The kitsunes have extensive magical powers, although since many are now hybrids they are far more limited. Most members, however, do possess shapeshifting ability allowing them to take many forms. Peach has even demonstrated she can take the form of a tiny insect, or living crystal. They have also shown other abilities including charms, warping of space, limited mind reading, in addition to simpler feats such as energy blasts. They are, however, very vulnerable to contact with the magical disrupting effect of Ranko who was able to easy disable Peach, one of their strongest member, with just a few seconds of contact.

Each clan in the Musk tends to have certain specialties. The Fox clan is rumored to be the Black Ops, if you will, of the Musk. They also possess extensive political power. The clan has their proverbial hooks in nearly every other clan save only the dragon clan, which the marriage between Herb and Lemon would have corrected. Not one clan can say that it is not linked to the fox clan. Every one has one or more members of the fox clan married into them. This is strange simply because it is customary to marry outside the Musk, not within it. Marriages within are rare.

Known members:

* Lemon
* Eyebright (father of Lemon), leader of the clan
* Peach
* Palm (mother of Lemon)

For generations members of the fox clan have been under a curse that not only prevents them from have male born children, but also makes it so that they can never find happiness with a female either, even in male form. This is why the rule that member’s who aren’t married off will be splashed with water from the Nannīchuan is seen as a fate worse then death.

### Leopard Clan

Known members:

* Culantro
* Culantro wife