A.N. Thanks for checking this out. This is a Civ 1 fic. Specifically a Civ 1 fic. Dang, I feel like a Pokémon Genwunner now... Not that there's anything wrong with the later games; or that you need to have played the original to understand this. I moved onto the newer versions myself, eventually. But Civ 1 was a huge part of my childhood, and this fic will, hopefully, capture at least some of the wonkiness, but also the sheer epicness and grandeur of that game. That old game. That grand game. That very first game of... CIVILIZATION! (Cue theme; all caps courtesy of Sid Meier).

Enjoy.

Chapter 1: In the Beginning

Good afternoon. You don't know me. Well, probably not; but you can find me if you know where to look. Can't see me, though. Ever. This is Civ 1, and I'm the Intelligence Advisor.

It's surprisingly unglamorous how you found a civilization, don't you know. First, you get a tribe. A pretty big tribe, admittedly, 10 000 people, give or take some kids. That's how much people's in a Settler. That's how many people the Americans were when we started. I know this because I'm the Intelligence Advisor, and I also do Demographics. So anyway, you get a tribe. Then you get a Leader; those can be really hit-and-miss. Of course, they're all pretty powerful, but some of them are just stupid. If you get a good one, though, you're set. Ours seems promising. Joe Washington is what he calls himself. Get it? No? Neither does anyone else. But he seems to find it pretty funny.

Then you get the Advisors. Military Advisor. Pretty self-explanatory. He was in charge of the tribe before Leader Joe showed up. Pops up all huffy and puffy in his spear and helmet to tell the Leader when we need units. Science Advisor. Self-explanatory too. Pops up to ask the Leader what to research. Honestly, he doesn't look like much of a researcher right about now... But he was kinda old and didn't have a weapon, so I guess it's cool. The other two are a bit tricky to find, but they're there. Trade Advisor was that bastard who back when we were a tribe always exchanged stuff for food, and then exchanged food for stuff, but always just ended up with more stuff. Attitude Advisor was just sort of a cool guy, even with his weird hair.

They got together when Leader Joe showed up, and decided that it was about time we stopped wandering. Probably helped that Science and Trade got together and came up with Irrigation and Roads, too. Apparently, you can dig ditches, and bring in water, and water makes plants grow. Also, if you cut through a forest and always walk in the same places, you can walk easier... Crazy, I know.

Not that we've done any of it yet. It's a work in progress. We told Leader Joe that we should find a good place to settle the tribe, but Leader Joe said we shouldn't really waste time, and so we just sort of settled where we were when Leader Joe showed up. It's not a bad place to be honest. Used to be great for hunting back in the day! Gets a bit cold in the winter, but there's nice good grassy fields all around, and a nice long river that goes up North into this bay. There's plains to the South, too, and some forests around the North entrances of the bay, but that's way too far to bother.

So we settle. First thing we build is a palace for Leader Joe. It's not really much, just the biggest hut in the village, but he seems to like it. Then, we divide up the land in the city so that everyone has farms, and everyone can eat. There's enough people that we even do the same with a bit of land on the river.

Farms are this great new thing where instead of looking for plants with food in them, you just sort of clear the land and make it a whole plain of plants with food in them. And instead of hunting, you just keep animals and feed them. Apparently, it works even better with Irrigation, but we don't have any, so what do I know, I'm the Intelligence Advisor, I just count stuff. There was also some Resources around, wood and stones for building and minerals and whatnot so, I guess, some of the people decided they were good with looking for those, and since there was so much extra food from the farms, they could do that and not starve. Everyone's really happy we're not wandering anymore. Everyone's got a lot more free time. There's even people in town setting up shops to make stuff out of the Resources, like, new tools and things out of copper and wood and stuff, and people selling stuff up and down the river.

And that's where I come in. Trade said that with all this new stuff, it was only fair Leader Joe take a cut. And... well, before we settled, I kept records for the tribe. Like, I'd remember how many people there were, and where we were, and all that stuff. Trade said that with Leader Joe, I needed to do that now, except not for the tribe, but the Civilization. Trade said it was really important, because we needed to keep track of the food, and of the Resources, and of the Commerce people were making with their shops selling stuff up and down the river.

There's apparently a lot of extra stuff. So Trade wants to take a cut for Leader Joe and then go ask Leader Joe what we're going to do with the extra Commerce and Production.

Maybe Trade isn't such a bastard after all. We'll see. Anyway, that's how I became Intelligence Advisor.