Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-25396609-20150304031758/@comment-4010415-20150304070043

Pretty much, what I ended up coming up with is that the kingdoms' governments see the hunters as disposable and use them as pawns that they can sacrifice, not caring if they die because there will always be more graduating from the academies. A hunter figured this out and quit, vowing to take revenge and bring these ancient ways to an end (Cinder? Or... it'd be cool if Summer was Cinder's boss).

So, how does this big bad intend to bring down this ancient practice? By tearing the kingdoms down through war. Hence Die, Time to Say Goodbye, and certain lines in This Will Be the Day. Also, this is how Cinder managed to get the White Fang to team up with her group. The White Fang wants to change things and they're willing to resort to violence to do it, just like the big bad.