Spartai

The Spartai, formally the Divisional Police (ᛋᛈᚨᛡᛏᛂᚾᛈᚬᛚᛁᛉᚨᛁ Spartenpolizai), is the civilian of the Zusian Empire, tasked with gathering, analyzing, and acting upon  information from around the world in the defense of Zusian interests, primarily through  and. The Spartai reports to the Security Secretary as part of the Schloßschutzraad (SSR). As such, the Spartai is ultimately under the jurisdiction of the Basilikar. The agency is headquartered in the Black House, the largest intelligence complex in the world.

The Spartai was founded in 1927 as a domestic force, the brainchild of the future Basilikar Arkadius VIII and the army intelligence officer Ernst Bäcker. Initially it was directed against political elements in Zusea, long regarded as threats to Zusian security by the imperial government. In 1929 the Spartai precipitated the Black Purge at the urging of the Basilikar, arresting thousands of suspected communists and dissolving the Communist Party of Zusea, which controlled more than 200 seats in the Räichstag at its peak. Soon afterwards the agency engaged in a fierce power struggle with the Trotzia’s private intelligence service, the Verzai, which sparked a broader struggle between the Basilikar and the Trotzia for public and institutional support in the Hundred-Days Chaos. As part of the Klickau Compromise between the two agencies, the Spartai agreed to surrender most domestic authority to the Verzai, and was granted full control over foreign intelligence. At the time this was considered a political defeat, however after Zusea stabilized following the Basilikarputsch in 1930, the vast expansion of foreign intelligence during the Endwar and initial phase of the Continental Divide assured the Spartai's prosperity and expansion.

Since Klickau, the Spartai has maintained minimal domestic intelligence capabilities, which are now mostly handled by the Verzai under the control of the Premier. However, it does help coordinate domestic HUMINT operations, and remains an influential member of the SSR. The agency's Third Special Department currently conducts worldwide, and the First Special Department maintains extensive physical networks in many countries across the globe, often tasked with infiltrating high value targets (such as presidential palaces or embassies). First Department tactics allegedly encompass "close surveillance, burglary, wiretapping, and breaking and entering." The Spartai maintains its own unit, known as the Sonderkorps, and is the only Zusian agency authorized to carry out and oversee  in service of the Security Secretary or the Basilikar. The agency also maintains extensive political divisions, including the infamous Information Department (Zusian: Datendezernat), responsible for political espionage, sabotage, and misinformation. The Information Department is also responsible for political counterintelligence, which is one of the Spartai's few remaining domestic authorities. Recently the agency has invested heavily in offensive capabilities.

Black House
The Black House is the largest dedicated intelligence headquarters in the world, covering more than 260,000 m². The building was first constructed in 1935 but underwent several rounds of renovations, the most recent of which finished in 2017. The building is located in Mothum, a suburb of Vordin, and has the largest energy consumption of any building in Zoria, mostly due to its enormous data processing facilities.

Rotenloch Prison
The so-called Rotenloch Prison is a top-secret facility operated by the Spartai, intended to house its most dangerous or important prisoners. Rumors of inhumane treatment and widespread torture sprouted in the 1950s, during which time the prison earned its inaccurate moniker, as conspiracy theorists speculated it was located deep below the wintry Rotenloch in central Zusea (in fact, its true location remains highly classified). The existence of the prison was later confirmed in the Vestau Incident in 1971, at which time the facility was also confirmed to be underground among the mountains of central Zusea. Political controversy regarding its secrecy and reports of illegal torture still surround the prison.

Cultural significance
The oldest Zusian multimedia in history, the Viktor Proska franchise, revolves around an eponymous Spartai agent, and has been credited with popularizing and shaping the image of the agency internationally since the late 1950s.