Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - Age of Apostasy (M36): Foreshadowed by the deep political divisions that had defined the Nova Terra Interregnum, a new age of dissent and power struggles consumed the Imperium in the 36th Millennium. Zeal eclipsed reason, and misrule reigned supreme. The word of the Emperor was subverted wholesale by corrupt ideologues, each struggling to usurp total control of the Emperor's realm for themselves.This era is known as the Age of Apostasy, a time of brutal Imperial civil war and tyrannical repression, and is considered to be one of the bloodiest eras within the Imperium's history after the Horus Heresy. Around 200.M36, the Age of Apostasy is marked by the start of the Reign of Blood, when the High Lord Goge Vandire, an insane tyrant, became both the ecclesiarch of the Adeptus Ministorum and the master of the Adeptus Administratum through bribery, blackmail, coercion and murder.During Vandire's Reign of Blood, multiple Wars of Faith were fought as Vandire attempted to gain full political control of the Imperium. The Reign of Blood lasted for 70 Terran years before a messenger delivered the news that heralded its end. On the world of Dimmamar, a man named Sebastian Thor and his ancient sect of the Imperial Cult, the Confederation of Light, denounced High Lord Vandire as a traitor to the Emperor.The Confederation of Light was the rebirth of an ancient sect of the Imperial Cult that had once stood as a rival to the Temple of the Saviour Emperor that became the heart of the Adeptus Ministorum. Its doctrines were more moderate than those of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor, and promoted a version of the Imperial faith that sought individual salvation through faith in the God-Emperor and good works in His name rather than the pursuit of political and material power for the church which had come to define the doctrines of the orthodox Ecclesiarchy.As an accomplished orator, Thor was able to sway billions to his cause, stirring up a galaxy-wide rebellion against Vandire's rule. Eventually Vandire was besieged on Terra by several Space Marine Chapters and Astra Militarum regiments. The Space Marines' fleet unleashed a massive orbital bombardment which caught most of the Traitors in the open. Goge Vandire was assassinated by his own bodyguards, the women warriors known as the Brides of the Emperor, who were convinced by the intervention of the Adeptus Custodes themselves that they had been tricked into betraying the Emperor by Vandire.In the aftermath of the Reign of Blood, Sebastian Thor became the new ecclesiarch and the Ecclesiarchy was reformed along the lines of the theology of the Confederation of Light. The Imperium's state church now promised to pursue a more spiritual rather than secular agenda and maintain a balanced political course in which it shared power with the Adeptus Terra rather than seeking to dominate all within the Emperor's realm. Some resistance among believers in the old Temple of the Saviour Emperor orthodoxy remained, and these individuals went on to form a hidden resistance to the reformed Imperial Creed known as the "Temple Tendency."The Brides of the Emperor were transformed into the sisterhood of the Adepta Sororitas, and its Orders Militant, the Sisters of Battle, became the armed forces of the Ecclesiarchy and the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's new-formed Ordo Hereticus. The Ordo Hereticus was intended to root out the internal enemies of the Imperium, watch over the Ecclesiarchy and prevent the emergence of another Goge Vandire who sought to serve his own selfish ends rather than the will of the Emperor.The event known as the Plague of Unbelief in 310.M36 is also considered part of the Age of Apostasy of the 36th Millennium, although it occurred several solar decades after High Lord Goge Vandire's death and Sebastian Thor's ascension to the position of ecclesiarch. Many false prophets appeared throughout the anarchic Age of Apostasy, some little more than madmen leading rebel armies, others spiritual demagogues who commanded entire worlds and sector-spanning armies.The most powerful of these was the Apostate Cardinal of Gathalamor, Bucharis, whose heresies reached such proportions they first provided the name for the Plague of Unbelief, not to be confused with the Curse of Unbelief, a potent arcane disease spread by servants of the Chaos God Nurgle in the 41st Millennium and better known as the Zombie Plague.The Plague of Unbelief came to an end after the heroic sacrifices of the Imperial saint known as the Great Confessor, Dolan Chirosius, who willingly martyred himself on Gathalamor. Chirosius' example proved so potent a display of faith in the God-Emperor that the entire population of the world rose up and cast down Bucharis, restoring Imperial rule and the orthodox faith of the God-Emperor.In 754.M36 the Imperium was struck by the Web of Intrigue Disaster. There is no further information in Imperial records concerning this event.In 989.M36, as the Eye of Terror and other Warp rifts visibly expanded, the Tech-priests servicing the Golden Throne demanded an increase in the number of psykers needed to fuel the Emperor's growing appetite to successfully power the Astronomican. The Black Ships increased in number and the frequency of their voyages to collect their tithes of psykers from across the Imperium. According to some records, from this time onwards four times the number of psykers are sacrificed daily to maintain optimal levels of power to the Golden Throne and the Astrnomican.