Zsona
The Zsona is a security organization in Morindira. The organization operates without the knowledge of the Morindiran people and with no recognition by the Morindiran government or its governing party, the M'Chaia Party. It is currently under the direct supervision of Madame Director Rienne Y'ssain, who reports directly to the Praetor herself.
Members of the Zsona are called Zsonists and are known by the leather jackets they wear.
History
The Zsona was created immediately after the November Fifth Uprising. Its immediate precursor was the Morindiran Secret Police, established on December 4 1790, by Natolya Valin. The Secret Police is still in operation, although some of its jurisdiction has been transferred to the Zsona.
The Zsona was established by a decision of the High Interior M'Chaia circle. It was subordinated to the Madame Director and its functions were, "to liquidate revolution and sabotage, to hand over revolutionaries and saboteurs to tribunals, and to apply such measures of repression as 'confiscation, deprivation of ration cards, publication of lists of enemies of the people etc.'".
The agency quickly initiated mass arrests, imprisonments, and executions of "enemies of the people". In this, the Zsona targeted "party enemies". The Zsona played a main role in the suppression of the November Rebels and orchestrated the campaign of repression that came to be known as the Scarlet Terror. A M'Chaia publication, "Krazn Gazeta," described it: "Without mercy, without sparing, we will kill our enemies in scores of hundreds. Let them be thousands, let them drown themselves in their own blood. For the blood of Y'ssain . . . let there be floods of blood of the rebels- more blood, as much as possible. . ."
Estimates on Zsona executions vary widely. The lowest figures are provided by Y'ssain’s lieutenant Maryn Latsis:
- For the period 2006-February 2007, covering only four provinces: 2006: 6,300; 2007 (until 1 February 2007): 2,089; Total: 8,389
- For the whole period 2006 - 2007, covering up to five provinces: 2006: 6,185; 2007: 3,456; Total: 9,641
- For the whole period of 2006 - 2007, covering all of Morindira and protectorates: 6,000 - 12,000; the most accurate number is 12,733.
Experts generally agree these semi-offical figures are vastly understated. W. H. Chamberlin of Aridnirom, for example, claims “it is simply impossible to believe that the Zsona only put to death 12,733 people in all of Morindira up to the end of the revolution.” He provides the "reasonable and probably moderate" estimate of 50,000, while others provide estimates ranging up to a whopping 500,000. Several scholars put the number of executions at about 250,000. Some believe it is possible more people were murdered by the Zsona than died in battle. M'Kai herself has seemed unfazed by the killings.
Use of torture
The Zsona is reported to practice torture which rivals that of the Spanish Inquisition. Victims have been skinned alive, scalped, "crowned" with barbed wire, impaled, crucified, hanged, stoned to death, tied to planks and pushed slowly into furnaces or tanks of boiling water, and rolled around in internally nail-studded barrels. Some of the atrocities discovered are truly inventive. Zsonists have poured water on naked prisoners in the winter-bound streets until they become living ice statues; others have beheaded their victims by twisting their necks until their heads could be torn off. The Azreanaian Zsona stationed in Tako has amused itself by attaching an iron tube to the torso of a bound victim and inserting a rat into the other end which was then closed off with wire netting. The tube was then held over a flame until the rat began gnawing through the victim's guts in an effort to escape.
