Grodok the last

Grodok, by all accounts, was a generally unpleasant man. He self identified as an anarchist and misenthrope, but one would never know it from his legacy. It is widely held that he was an exceptionaly talented and savvy ruler. These rumors are obviously false to anyone familiar with his writings. He was relentlesly working to drive the kingdom into bankruptcy and turmoil, but failed to do so in every conceivable way. Similarly, the popular opinion is that his name "the last" was intended to imply that nobody could ever follow in his footsteps. In actuality, his intention was that there would "be no kingdom to rule when I'm done with it". He changed his own title, which is frowned upon when it is a normal citizen doing it, but since he was the ruler, it would be rude of him to not do it. He was not aware of this, and thought he was just disgracing the kingdom.

Major policies and acts

 * Wealthy citicens act. One of the first policies enacted by Grodok was to decree that all wealthy citicens would be burdenened by crushing, opressive, and arbitrary taxes.  In his memoirs he wrote "I shall take all of the kingdom's money and burn it in a giant pile!"  The effect of this scheme was to halt, and reverse inflation.  It also encouraged income equality, and reduced the societal importance of money.  Citizens eagerly gave to charaties and the less fortunate to avoid to upper tax brackets.  When citicens collected enough wealth to get near the income bracked covered by the act, they would celebrate a "Day of gratuitous giving", in which they would buy lavish goods and services from the least wealthy citicens in town, and use them to throw a party in their honor.  Grodok's approval rating went from 15% to 85% in less than a year.  Even the small number of the formerly-weathly (who were specifically singled out by the act, and forced into finantial ruin), had to admit that things were "way better now overall
 * Severe wounds Thursdays. The (poorly worded) act declared that all citicens would "have a pint of blood forcibly taken from them every Thursday".  Again, Grodok's personal reasons for this were so that he could "bathe in the blood of the masses".  Fortunately for the populace, a pint of blood from every citicen was sigificantly more than he could fit in his bathtub.  Grodok tired of these baths anyway, and never cancelled the policy.  He told his advisors to "get rid of it", assuming they would pour it into the sewers.  His advisors were not clear on this point and unsure how to handle the excess. It was instead used in the flourishing healthcare industry.  The medical facilities were always well stocked, and hundred of thousands of lives were saved in the first month alone.
 * Blacken the Kingdom. Grodok had a plan to rid the land of "every last drop of nature or beauty" by paving the open spaces of the kingdom.  His intent to empty the coffers of the Kingdom was made difficult by the taxation introduced on the wealthiest citizens in "Wealthy Citizens Act."  The efforts merely resulted in the best, most reliable transportation network that Castle World had ever seen. The jobs created by this massive public works effort lead to prosperity and good will across the land.