The Border clans invented the word “turncoat” in the 1500s. In the numerous battles with the British along the borderlands, they would wait until they could see the outcome of the battle and would literally turn their coats (or “flip their badges,” as a “coat” is a coat of arms) to change sides and ride out with the winner. It happened so often that both sides knew they couldn’t trust anybody.
Border clans also invented the methods and term for “blackmail.”
1700 years later and it stills pays to be Mason.