Banner-State

The term Banner-State, in Vaestic contexts, typically refers to the portion of a Banner-Empire that falls formally under the direct leadership of the Standard-Bearer-Emperor. The term is not indigenous to Vaestism, and belongs properly to the common Messenian sociological usage of 'Banner' to refer to a partnership of more or less autonomous states, with the constitutionally superior entity being the Banner-State and the others referred to as Marshalates.

Since in the Vesnite understanding the ruler is sovereign over both the territory of the Banner-State and all of his Marshalates in his capacity as Emperor, and over the subjects of the Banner-State and those of his Marshals in his capacity as Standard-Bearer, no direct native equivalent to the term Banner-State exists; when referring to imperial territories directly administrated by the Emperor's staff, various legal terms or paraphrases are used in different jurisdictions and contexts. In Terophan, for example, the designations 'imperial' and 'imperial-royal' are used. Even these terms, however, are far from direct equivalents, as there is no unified notion of a state in the territorial-legal sense implied by Messenian usage.

Some Orientalists, preferring to tack closer to native terminology and concepts, reject the usage of Banner-State to refer to the territorial-political unit at the heart of the Banner-Empire and instead use the term much more broadly in the sense of the typical Vaestic sovereign unit of Banner-Empire. This is particularly common in historical analysis of the development of the Banner-State.