Spanish Inquisition

Unlike their Imperial counterparts, the Spanish Inquisiton does not shove Inquisitorial retinues up your ass whenever you commit the slightest of offences. The were a combined political/religious party formed by the monarchy in response to the threat of treason and suspected apostasy among some of the (formerly Jewish) Catholics.

While they killed many people, the amount is far less than some of their detractors claim; while the Spanish Inquisition did some terrible things much of their reputation comes from a combination of Protestant historical records (back when there was animosity between Catholicism and Protestant denominations of Christianity) and further exaggerated by anti-Christian and/or anti-religious critics. The Spanish Inquisition kept detailed records of their trials during the several hundred years they were in power; approximately 50,000 people were tried by the Spanish Inquisition and of these 1,500 people were sentenced to death (with some escaping before the sentence was carried out so the Spanish Inquisition merely burnt them in effigy).

While they have a reputation for torture, they actually had regulations on how far the torture could go; no removing body parts and nothing that resulted in death. The first head of the Spanish Inquisition made frequent use of torture, the Pope at the time went to the King and Queen of Spain to try and rein him in. Despite this the Spanish Inquisition are known to have been fairer, and used torture less often, than the secular courts at the time. There were several cases where people were on trial in secular courts for lesser crimes and blasphemed in the court room just so they could be tried by the Spanish Inquisition instead.

Victoria Lamb makes some pretty badass Spanish Inquisitorial models.

The Spanish Inquisition is not to be expected.