Aslan Hierate

The Aslan Hierate is the interstellar, multi-sector government of the many Aslan clans. Aslan society centers on the clan. Within the Hierate, the family structure of the Aslan and the governmental structure are the same. A council of twenty-nine clan leaders chosen from amongst the most powerful clans performs the highest governmental functions. The Trokh name for this council is Tlaukhu, which has a literal translation of thirty-five (Aslan numbering is in base-8, this is 29 in base-10).

"The 29" (as they are called) have quasi-religious status and represent the essential unity of the Aslan race. To be chosen one of the 29 is the highest honor to which any Aslan can aspire. The 29 meet continuously on the Aslan homeworld, Kusyu (Dark Nebula 1919) to adjudicate inter-clan disputes and decide matters of group policy. No member of the 29 speaks for the Hierate as a whole, nor does the whole 29.

There are no Hierate military forces; each clan has its own, and they rarely act in concert with those of other clans. The Hierate itself can call upon military forces only insofar as the clans themselves agree to provide such forces. Even the minor forces conveying the 29's decisions are actually under the control of individual clan leaders.