[ WP ] The hero was killed , the princess was sacrificed , and the evil king rules the land . For the average citizen , though , things have taken a turn for the better .

for the first time in decades, there was a bumper crop and nobody would go hungry in the winter. taxes were much lower now, thanks to the new king. oh, his enemies called him evil, mostly because he cared more about efficiency than honor. but he knew how to run a kingdom properly. he had actually freed many of the serfs as well. 
 
 the army was larger than before, which put a stop to all the bandits- either the bandits joined the army, or they were put to death. the roads were in better shape, because the army was kept busy in peacetime patrolling the roads, which they then repaired where needed. 
 
 when another hero tried to rally the people behind him, he was run out of town- the last time a so-called hero raised a levy of peasants, they all died. and if the hero won, well then the taxes would go up and social policy would backslide again. the king had centralized power, reduced the number of nobility taking a cut of the taxes, and thus really saved everyone a lot of trouble. a hero would just divide it all up again. 
 
 yes, the princess had been sacrificed, but the kind was kind enough to allow his people to follow whatever religion they wanted. the dark god that the princess was sacrificed to simply did n't care. supposedly, as long as there was a sacrifice every 10 years, the king would n't age. and as long as he was doing a good job of making life better for his subjects, why worry about it? and with three wives, he was certain to have another princess within a decade. 
 

