Impalement

Vlad takes the throne in 1456 and governs by terror on purpose.

Impalement, a stake through the body, stood upright, a death that could take days, becomes his signature.

Ottoman soldiers, merchants who ignore his trade rules, his own nobles, thieves, anyone who crossed him was fair game.

And in 1462, outside his own capital, he left a field of stakes that a Greek historian writing at the time counted at about 20,000 bodies.