The Reconciliation is the definitive occurrence in the game which signals the end of a political Term. It is a time when the Government distributes rations and, ideally, ensures that all mouths are fed for the coming Term.
The Reconciliation is the responsibility of the Overseer of Prosperity. Arguably, the sole purpose of the Overseer of Prosperity title is ensure smooth administration of this important event.
Reconciliation occurs every 25 minutes - that is, 10 days in the game.
During the 10 days prior to Reconciliation, the Overseer of Prosperity Creed members should ideally be spending their time preparing for the upcoming event - the more organised they are, the less time will be wasted during the handover period (a single day, or 2.5 minutes).
The purpose of Reconciliation is to ensure the Government’s records are correct, take account of the movement of resources and manpower during the last 10 days, and distribute new resources out to the other Creeds.
All of this is done by filling out the Reconciliation Ledger, a document which must be signed off by all members of the Curator Creed before it can be acted on.
Once the Ledger has been approved by the Curator, the Reconciliation is considered ended.
This determination is important - it may take time for Moderators to do the rest of the rationing work, but the Overseer has done their part and will not face consequences for a late Reconciliation.
If this action is completed within 2.5 minutes - 1 day in the game - then there are no issue. If preparation and approval takes longer than 2.5 minutes, however, it’s likely the Colony will face serious social upheaval as people essentially begin to starve.
Once complete, Moderators take the Ledger and, provided the Government Resources pool has enough Rations to meet the Ledger’s demands*, they go about informing all Creeds whether they have adequate Rations for the coming Term or not.
If a Creed has not been adequately rationed to, one of two things occur:
How the Overseer decides to run this recurring event is up to them - success or failure in the tight timeframes of this task will rely on organisation, cooperation and good governance.
It is recommended that the majority of the Overseer of Prosperity's time should be preparing for this important task.
* In case you missed it - tracking the Government Resources of the Colony is not managed by the Moderators, but rather the Government. Good bookkeeping throughout the game is vital to a successful Reconciliation.