I thought about a novel with the classic setting of the Hero and Demon King in some-like "The Simple Job of Only Perishing to the Hero" but with a diferent MC... i don't even know what type of MC... i imagine the Demon King changing the whole Government logic and making it a Chinese type of empire. I imagine the Demon King Making a speech saying: Spoiler -"My people we the demon-kin are in this world bottoms rank, we are the plaything of the gods making the humans and all races always tramp us, but why? because we are stupid. why do we fight with each other? when the demon general Asmodeus betrayed the demons and helped the hero to kill the demon general Yuki-onna, why? because he puts his personal hate before the future of the demon-kin." -"I am the demon king, i shall protect all demon-kin that shall exist in this world and from this moment i shall be The Demon Emperor, Emperor of all demons and betrayer of the gods." As the words of the demon finished lighting fell from the sky and hit him. [Title lost "Demon King"] [Title gained "Demon Emperor"] [Race destroyed "Demon King"] [Race gained "Demont Ruler"] [Title gained "Gods Hate"] [Title gained "Joy of the Demon God"] -"From this moment forward all demons all equal, all killing is prohibited and a true government shall be created" Creating a government with 10000 officials and 500 ministers. And by the time the Hero reaches the demon continent the continent is a whole different place with flying ships, magic weapons(canons and the like), city shield to protect the city from any siege level attacks and all of the continent is cleaner than even the human continent. -- Thanks for reading my setting.
What kind of government does it currently have? Maybe it has a republic and that's why instead of making the country better they are too busy being bureaucratic. lol Like how they can build a bridge within a year in China but take a decade to do in the US. There are three criteria to make a likable: proactivity, competence, and sympathy.Each of these are like a scale and you adjust how proactive, competent, and sympathetic your MC is. It's a model that Brandon Sanderson talks about. You can get more details here: https://writingexcuses.com/2014/03/30/writing-excuses-9-13-three-prong-character-development/ Whatever the story, make it different enough from "The Simple Job of Only Perishing to the Hero" so that it's your own awesome story. Go wild with it!
In fact, logically speaking with a realistic setting it will be difficult to change a species that since the moment it was born had the instinct to follow the "strong" to become a bureaucratic Empire.