Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26281589-20131112205848/@comment-24891101-20141014052406

Lack of information is generally not assumed to indicate that an institution did not exist. We are not archaeologists, surveying a site and concluding that there is no evidence of the existence of a thing at time.

There's no reason to presume that Hunters are a recent innovation. That we know nothing about the history of Hunting does not suggest that said history doesn't exist. Besides, said traditions which fed into the modern Hunter would have likewise been Hunters. The discipline is sufficiently revered that it is not modern. It has a long, rich, history, and just because previous generations were not subject to certain recent international arrangements does not mean that they were any less Hunters. Any institution will accrete bureaucracy. The opening narration and Ruby's comments suggest that Hunting dates to time immemorial.

Going by your logic, we have no evidence that Atlas' military existed before Ironwood, or that Dust shops existed before the intrepid shopkeeper founded his store. We've seen no lawyers; are we then to conclude that Remnant lacks them? Of course not. The long history of Hunting as an institution is implicit in the narrative.