displacerghost:

white-aster:

writing-prompt-s:

The inverse of corruption: the hero has lost, but in a way that forced the villain to face goodness within himself, which spirals out of control and turns him into a hero more virtuous than the one he defeated.

See, see, what I want to see is a villain who actually starts learning good leadership techniques.  His Rule Through Fear just plateaus, so he reads some books and is like, “wait, I can make people do what I want without having to micromanage their personal threats and keep track of their families of collateral?  Wait what?”  So he starts with his sidekicks, and his sidekick turnover time rockets through the fucking roof when he starts listening to them and giving them benefits.  He finds that he attracts the COMPETENT sidekicks instead of the bottom of the barrel, so he wants them around.  Then he figures out that if he has competent sidekicks that he can DELEGATE.  Oh sweet dark goddess, he can hand over an ENTIRE CASTLE AND SURROUNDING ENVIRONS to his second-in-command, and she can more than capably keep it running while he goes off to summon demons for a bit.  Because the sidekicks will stick around, it’s also worth investing in them.  He sends them for training, lets them in on his secrets a bit, at that works out SO WELL.

His mind is blown.  He is so excite.  He might have FREE TIME if this keeps up.

Then he’s looking at the rest of his domain going “but wait, is there more?”  He sees that his lands’ productivity is shit.  They have been shit for a long time because hey, the beatings will continue until morale improves!  Instead, he starts (slowly, wouldn’t want them to think he’s going soft) introducing changes.  He eases back on restrictions and punishments just a bit, and rewards those whose productivity improves.  A few cycles of that, and everything is working so much better.  Sure, he has to deal with people being mouthy and ambitious every now and then, but hey, it’s not like he decommissioned the torture chamber, and he finds that the other peasants are more than half likely to turn the troublemakers in, now, because they don’t want to lose their good thing.

His lands go from “that country is a horrible dystopian nightmare avoid at all costs” to “hey, that country offers some free health care, and if you do a good job, you can advance!”  It becomes a land of opportunity in a sea of serfdom and grinding misery.  PEOPLE START SHOWING UP ASKING IF THEY CAN COME LIVE THERE.

The Evil Overlord is delighted.  New workers!  Just…walking in!

Not to mention, his existing peasants?  Wow, they must be happy, because the birth rate has jumped sky high, ifyaknowwhatImean?

He slowly figures out that making people happy in all sorts of ways WORKS BETTER.  Giving women legal standing and rights equal to men’s allows women with talents to move out of the house and oh, work toward the glory of his empire, rather than being locked into one job.  Free childcare holy crap allows any woman in the home to take up an outside job or economy-feeding hobby.  Stamping out corruption and crime among his minions makes the people happier and makes peasant productivity soar because they don’t have to worry about getting raped or beaten, while at the same time their towns are safer because his minions now have time to go off killing bandits and rogue dragons and hunting down mad serial killers and shit.  Giving everyone a village council that has a say in boring, day to day governing takes all that boring shit OFF HIS PLATE.  He sends in his emissaries, tells them to work in his interest but let the peasants hash out the small shit, and 9 out of 10 that works fine.  It costs him very little and again, everyone feels INVESTED in what they do.  They are now WILLINGLY WORKING FOR HIM.

Public works projects improve roads and bridges as well as providing jobs.  Raising wages has the same effect on the peasantry that it did on his sidekicks.  Allowing limited ownership makes people enterprising and feeds the economy.  Social services allow people who get injured or sick to bounce back and remain in the workforce and society, which maintains his investment in them as well as helping morale on the family level.  Trading with his neighbors instead of conquering them is much less resource intensive and maintains his investment in his people.  Not to mention, when that one upstart country on his southern border decided that they were going to get in a snit, HIS TRADING PARTNERS CAME TO HIS AID.  Not that he needed it, but still, it was nice!

And on a personal level, remembering his SiC’s birthday that once started this incomprehensible but incredibly pleasant chain reaction that has resulted in them becoming an incredibly close and effective partnership ifyouknowwhatImean.  Which reminds him:  must decide whether his proposal gift should be skull-themed or dragon-themed.  I mean, she’s a necromancer, so obviously skulls, but is that too obvious?  And she REALLY LOVES riding on the dragons, so…hmm.  

@setepenre-set !!