The worlds of the Banners Sector were sufficiently far from the Aslan Hierate that few had been incorporated into the structure of the Hierate. This did not mean that the Hierate paid no attention to the region however. With two Aslan states, one of cultural Aslan, the Woal Warliyir, and one bastardised (in Hierate eyes), the Aoiftu Roakh, the Hierate had much to interest them.
The sector also contained many uninhabited or sparsely settled worlds which could provide resources to the clans back in Hierate space, and with pressure the Woal Warliyir might become an outpost of the Hierate.
As a consequence the Hierate placed enormous pressure on the Woal Warliyir to allow Hierate, particularly Tlaukhu bases to be established in Warliyir territory. The Warliyir generally refused to bow to pressure and no bases were established, the Warliyir in most respects maintaining a fierce independence. Just prior to the onset of virus the Hierate tried a different tack, and began supplying at minimal cost large numbers of older vessels, both military and civilian, to the Woal Warliyir, the aim being to provide a technological dependence on the Hierate for spare parts, repairs etc. To some extent the Woal Warliyir succumbed to this new policy. The Woal Warliyir's best technology was of TL13 while that of their rival the Aoiftu Roakh, and the heavily populated human system of Tuthmosis, only jump-2 from Warliyi, both boasted TL14. The Hierate provided both TL13 and 14 vessels and equipment to the Woal Warliyir. Virus intervened however before any real dependency arose.
In addition to their interests in the Woal Warliyir the Hierate had also colonised a number of systems directly. Three in the Htai'asta subsector, three in the Warliyir subsector itself, and a further six systems in the Hkaihwya subsector. The long term aim would have been to use these systems as stepping stones to both greater influence in the region and as bases from which to expand further.
