Interlude: Eternal Ordeal

Leaving the darkness behind, escaping their whispers and the countless demands for vengeance that followed close behind, Konrad Curze stood firmly upon Terra.

It sounded impossible. After all, he had left the world of the living forever. Though he still retained a few minor privileges, that fact could not be changed.

He had shed his mortal shell, while his essence had been tempered amid the tides of Chaos and passed through a gate that should never have existed. Put simply, he was no longer permitted to appear in the material realm unless someone performed a sacrifice on an enormous scale.

The scale would have to be unprecedented. Otherwise, a being blessed by the gods like him could never be permitted to pass through The Veil.

If someone truly did such a thing, the sight would surely be beautiful.

But back to the point—how, then, was he standing on Terra?

The answer dated back many years, to a man named Goge Vandire.

In the thirty-sixth millennium, this man had unprecedentedly served as Ecclesiarch of the Ecclesiarchy, Master of the Administratum, and High Lord of Terra at the same time. According to later investigative reports, Vandire had spent four full centuries achieving this.

His methods included, but were not limited to, bribery, coercion, intimidation, and assassination—his madness brought him equally immense rewards. For an entire century afterward, Vandire stood at the center of the Imperium's power.

Not even the Sigillites or the Regent, Sanguinius, had come closer to that position than he had. Naturally, his already fallen and mad mind became even more terrifying.

Vandire began publicly executing political dissidents, even those who had long been respected and charitable. He demanded that all Rogue Traders obey Imperial law and select a representative to return to Terra every year to present him with