Adepta Sororitas - The Terran Crusade: Countless millions soon burned in the fires of Vandire's Reign of Blood. It was during this dark, forbidding time that a reformist sect known as the Confederation of Light emerged and denounced Vandire as a Traitor. Led by the preacher Sebastian Thor, the Confederation of Light spread its message of a church dedicated not to politics and the secular rule of the Imperium but to the compassion and mercy of the Emperor to a brutalised people only too ready to throw off the yoke of oppression.An orator of supreme skill, Sebastian Thor swayed whole worlds to his cause and turned the tide against Vandire. As Thor's crusade smashed aside those who remained loyal to the Ecclesiarch, the Space Marines and the Adeptus Mechanicus, both of whom had remained largely on the defensive during the Age of Apostasy, were finally able to join forces with Thor and close on Terra.As Vandire's madness had become all too apparent, the Fabricator-General, Gastaph Hediatrix, of the Adeptus Mechanicus roused the Senatorum Imperialis to oust Vandire from power. Vandire's answer was to dissolve the Senatorium Imperialis and declare both the Mechanicus and the Adeptus Astartes Heretics and Traitors to the Imperium.This affront made the Space Marines reconsider their neutrality toward Vandire and the Reign of Blood in general, and at the height of the Age of Apostasy in 378.M36, an elite Space Marine strike force composed of forces drawn from the Imperial Fists, Black Templars, Fire Hawks, Soul Drinkers, and the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus assaulted the Renegade High Lord Goge Vandire's seat of power -- the massive Ecclesiarchal Palace on Terra.The Space Marines, believing Vandire to be only protected by legions of zealous but ineffective Frateris Templar troops, launched one of their trademark lightning Drop Pod assaults. However, once on the ground, the Astartes found to their dismay that they had grossly underestimated the opposition. Facing them were a corps of superbly trained warrior women, clad in Power Armour and wielding Bolters, who fought with a passion remarkable even to their Astartes opponents and stood their ground to the last woman, fearless and fanatical in the belief that they were protecting the Emperor Himself.The Space Marines' assault bogged down as they were pushed back with casualties, and the attackers were forced to resort to a long, grinding and bloody siege of the Ecclesiarchal Palace complex with quarter neither asked for nor given. For solar months, Vandire's army withstood every assault. The madness only ended when Centurion Longinus of the Adeptus Custodes -- the praetorian guard of the Emperor Himself -- sought out Alicia Dominica and her most trusted companions, the leaders of Vandire's bodyguard.Longinus took them before the Golden Throne and the God-Emperor, and though no written histories tell of what transpired there, it was evident that some great truth was passed to Dominica and her fellow warriors. When they emerged from the bowels of the Imperial Palace they marched with barely-controlled fury to Vandire's audience chamber.There, they found him in the midst of yet another insane tirade, pausing only to condemn him for his crimes against the Emperor. Reportedly, Vandire's final words were "I don't have time to die -- I'm too busy!"Alicia Dominica drew her Power Sword and beheaded the High Lord. It is said that at the moment of truth Vandire's Rosarius, which had protected him upon San Leor, now failed him, its gleaming form cleaved in two by Alicia's blow. The Reign of Blood was over.