For most of mankind's existence, there was a frontier. Those who didn't fit in always had one option: Cross it. Leave. Walk away and live outside ordered society. That gave the rest of us a way to deal with the misfits and the outlaws: Banishment. Throw them out, or just let them go.
For our ancestors, living in small tribes, the border was always close. Crossing it meant leaving for unsettled lands. Those who did were the first explorers, the first to settle in Europe or Asia or Oceania or the Americas. For them, land was plentiful. They picked the best places, the fields of milk and honey.
As mankind grew, those fertile lands were all occupied by regulated societies. Crossing the border came to mean either moving to another country or going to lands that were too rough, hard, or dangerous for any settled country to want.
And still the world became more crowded. Even the harshest places were claimed by some government. Crossing the border came to mean going from England to France, China to Japan, or the U.S. to Canada. No longer did it mean leaving structured society to trade security for opportunity, regulation for risk.
Finally, about a hundred years ago, regulated societies won. All lands, no matter how rocky or dry or cold, became patrolled, regulated and governed. The wild men, the misfits, the outlaws and the eccentrics lost their final refuge.
Now, that has changed. Once again, there is a place for misfits. Wild and brutal, beyond the reach of any government, it's the last hope for those who have no other option.
Once again, there is a badlands.
