# life expectancy of a space marine



## AVATAR OF DEATH (Aug 7, 2008)

Hey peoples

Ok so the other day I was thinking what is the life expectancy of a space marine? what age do they die of natural courses?

Cheers

Avatar :victory:


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

I personally do not think they age. I think that the genetic ability of the cells in a space marine to continually reproduce and heal, stops aging in marines. But thats my hypothesis. Their is no real evidence that supports either sides of the theory on wether they can die of age or not


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## CamTheApostle (Oct 31, 2008)

The only Astartes that matter are immortal thanks to the blessings of their Gods. All others are merely may-flies.

:grin:


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

wohhahahaha. Very true. I'm really starting to like this dark apostle guy.


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

Space Marines are supposedly immortal, but since they're exposed to so much war, the vast majority of them die of "natural causes" anyway.


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## Grik (Jul 28, 2008)

Space Marines are for all intents and purposes immortal. Most die in combat after a century or two of fighting, but if it wasn't for that they would live forever. I mean Chaplain Cassius is like 600+ years old, Calgar is 450+ years old, the Salamanders' and Imperial Fists' Chapter Masters are both over 300+ to I believe, and Logan Grimnar of the Space Wolves and Dante of the Blood Angels are both 1200+ years old.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Right on most of those ages Grik; Grimnar is around seven hundred years old.

As Grik said, most marines do not survive long enough to make it to old age; but their body's begin to degenerate if a marine makes it to between five and six hundred and usually a marine who makes it to eight hundred is no longer capable of serving the chapter on the frontlines and instead trains future generations. (In Angels of Darkness, the apothecary in the tale of Boreas is roughly six hundred and mentions that he hopes to be able to serve for at least two more centuries before he is deemed unable to fight.)


Marines of the great crusade era were supposedly immortal, but such a thing is unknown because half of them have been dead for some part of ten thousand years (Bjorn of the Space Wolves aside) and the other half have been in the eye of terror or maelstrom for that same ten thousand years.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

damn really. Thats kind of interesting to know. I guess its better they die in battle so that the geneseed can find a younger better suiter.


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## CamTheApostle (Oct 31, 2008)

Its odd... loyalist Astartes are considered old if they live a few centuries. Yet, many of the 'traitor' legions are still those who fought during the great crusade. I wonder why?

:cough: because Chaos rule! :cough:


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## Grik (Jul 28, 2008)

darkreever said:


> Right on most of those ages Grik; Grimnar is around seven hundred years old.


I could have sworn I read somewhere that Logan was at least 1,000 years old. Sigh, guess I'll be going through all my old Codexes and books now as this will bug me all night. lol



CamTheApostle said:


> Its odd... loyalist Astartes are considered old if they live a few centuries. Yet, many of the 'traitor' legions are still those who fought during the great crusade. I wonder why?
> 
> :cough: because Chaos rule! :cough:


Mainly because time has no meaning in the Eye of Terror. 10,000 years may have passed in realspace, but in the Eye I read that time flows much more slowly.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

Grik, you may be right that Grimnar is about a thousand years old as any reference to his age (outside of the Ragnar novels) have him as being the chapter master for the last seven hundred years. However long he has been a Space Wolf is never actually made known.


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## Crimzzen (Jul 9, 2008)

AVATAR OF DEATH said:


> Hey peoples
> 
> Ok so the other day I was thinking what is the life expectancy of a space marine? what age do they die of natural courses?
> 
> ...


Heh,

I think only a select few 'lucky' space marines need to worry about that. I'd guess most of them die on the battlefield before any sort of old age sets in. That being said, my guess would be hundreds of years - at some point they most likely are hard-wired into a dreadnought.


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## CamTheApostle (Oct 31, 2008)

Grik said:


> Mainly because time has no meaning in the Eye of Terror. 10,000 years may have passed in realspace, but in the Eye I read that time flows much more slowly.


Or... It could just be that Chaos Marines are closer to the geneseed's source, making them more genetically pure and therefore more likely to benefit from the primarch.

Or... It could be that the mutations induced in the warp increase the lifespan of Chaos Marines.

Or... It could be that chaos marines more interested in living then loyalists. That is why they lose 'and they shall know no fear' simply because for them, dying mean failure and having their soul eaten.

But it is probably a combination of all of these things.


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## BlackApostleVilhelm (May 14, 2008)

i think this has already had a go over but hey what the heck. well IMO space marines are not immortal. to be immortal means that you cannot die, space marines can die and will die it is only a matter of time until an ork cleaver or something else kills them. they are all faited to die in battle which means, even if they are functionally immortal, they will die anyways. 

as for the chaos legions and why marines from the great crusade are most likely immortal it is becuase they were the first, plain and simple. this means that since the primarchs were there in the living flesh any problems with degenerative geneseed could be rooted out with the excess of tehnology the imperium had. the tech now has gone down the drain becuase of stupid superstitions and shit like that so by constantly making more of the same used up geneseed it is more prone to mutation than if you have the source of the dna present. i hope that makes sense, tell me if it doesnt and i will endeavor to explain it better.


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## Belthazor Aurellius (Jan 16, 2009)

From what I know, space marines, if they age, reach the equivalent of 50yrs old when they're 500-800 years old. So, I'd theorize that if not killed in battle, space marines could live to 1000-1500 years without bionics or sorcery...


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## AVATAR OF DEATH (Aug 7, 2008)

hmmm. Well thank you all. BlackApostleVilhelm is that in a dex somewhere? if so what one is it in I am guessing that it's in the SM one. I would be very interested in reading more of this, as it interests me.

Cheers

Avatar :victory:


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## elkhantar (Nov 14, 2008)

IIRC I have read somewhere that Blood Angels lived more than other chapters (surely has something to do with being space vampires!:biggrin but I don't find the source of that. Can someone confirm it?


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

@elkhantar- that's the Blood Angels Codex.

On that point the Blood Angels Codex is the backbone of the argument that Space Marines are NOT immortal. It specifically states that the geneseed of Sanguinius not only harbours a genetic curse but also greatly lengthens the Marine's life to longer than average.
Why would it specifically state that Blood Angels and their successors have greater life spans than other marines if Astartes were immortal?

Traitor Legions- it's been said many times that the Eye of Terror doesn't obey linear time in any fluid fashion, so whilst 10,000 years have passed in the Imperium since the Heresy ended, it may only have been centuries or a thousand years (or less) for the Traitor Marines welling in the Eye.
The mutating affect of the Warp also encourages the theory that that is what sustains some of the Traitors beyond the normal Astartes life span.
A supporting case for this being te Alpha Legion.

Of all the Traitor Legions who fled the Imperium's wrath the Alpha legion are the one with smallest percentage of Traitor Marines who have been around since the Heresy- they never fled enmasse into the Eye of Terror or the Maelstrom like the other Legions, so they've got the unenviable task of recruiting like any Space Marine Chapter in order to maintian their numbers (though it also means that the number of mutations present in the Legion will also be predominantly lower than the other Legions).

Logan Grimnar's age- according to Codex: Space wolves Pg.27 Grimnar has been Great Wolf (Chapter Master) for 500 years and is 700 years old.


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## WarBaby2 (Feb 5, 2009)

As I collected from all the codicies, I'd say the everage Space Marine lives for about 400 to 600 years (rembering to read the statement "some of them live for over half a millenium" somewhere). Blood Angels beeing the exception. It was stated in the 2nd edition "Angels of Death" codex, that Dante is the oldest, living Marine with his 1.100+ years.

The olderst Space Marines are Draednoughts, though, with some of them even fought alongside the emperor and the primarchs in the great Legions.^^

Ahm, yea, as for the Traitor Legions. It is possible that they are immortal, some of them, atleast. They would life as long as their god wills them to, I guess.


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## Dafistofmork (Jan 9, 2009)

the life expectancy of a SM is until he dies in battle, be it 1 day or 700 years. however, SMs do degrade like normal people, although with the help of bionics that is aliviated-cassius (who, as previously mentioned is 600) is about 50% robot. all the religous stuff like fasting probaly shortens there life expectancy but makes them stronger- fasting is the largest killer of new recruites.


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## Primarch Lord CAG (Dec 5, 2007)

yes only the fat survive


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## titan slayer (Jun 21, 2008)

Primarch Lord CAG said:


> yes only the fat survive


that if so funny i'd proberly last a good few years

but onto the topic i belive the reason sm live only upto 800 or 900 is becuase of the wounds they take finnaly catch up with them as a bullet through the heart would drop a marine after a few years


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## revenant13 (Feb 15, 2008)

there is already a very looooooong forum about this. but i think they cant die from age. my opinion of course.


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## Primarch Lord CAG (Dec 5, 2007)

:so_happy:hey darkreever fuck your self dont pm me just fucking ban me or shut the fuck up your the only one who bitches at me so if others have problems with me they should quite being pussy's and tell me

I'm leaving the original text in this message to show what the staff have to put up with on occasion.

Saying Shut it or Ban me to a member of staff is just plain stupid and unbelievably immature.
Darkreever was mature and bought this to the attention of a senior Mod.

Your banned for two weeks pending a decision whether or not to make it permanent chum.

_*Viscount Vash.*_


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Dafistofmork said:


> the life expectancy of a SM is until he dies in battle, be it 1 day or 700 years. however, SMs do degrade like normal people, although with the help of bionics that is aliviated-cassius (who, as previously mentioned is 600) is about 50% robot. all the religous stuff like fasting probaly shortens there life expectancy but makes them stronger- fasting is the largest killer of new recruites.


Cassius isn't 600, he isn't even 400 according to the 5th and 4th Edition Space Marine Codexes. I've presented my argument as to why Space Marines DO have a life span, as yet I've not seen any convincing arguments (with references) as to otherwise.


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## Grik (Jul 28, 2008)

Baron Spikey said:


> Cassius isn't 600, he isn't even 400 according to the 5th and 4th Edition Space Marine Codexes. I've presented my argument as to why Space Marines DO have a life span, as yet I've not seen any convincing arguments (with references) as to otherwise.



Cassius is a century or so older than Calgar. There are numerous references in SM codexes as Cassius referring to Calgar as "Young Calgar". I remember reading his exact age somewhere, but I don't remember exactly where off the top of my head.


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

Baron Spikey said:


> Cassius isn't 600, he isn't even 400 according to the 5th and 4th Edition Space Marine Codexes. I've presented my argument as to why Space Marines DO have a life span, as yet I've not seen any convincing arguments (with references) as to otherwise.


From Horus Rising...

"the astartes, like the primarchs, were immortals. Age would not wither them, nor bring them down. Thy would live forever...five thousand, ten thousand, beyond even that into some unimaginable millennium. Except for the scythe of war."

More explicit than anything in the blood angels codex.

Brace yourself for the shouts of "black library doesn't count" people.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

Oh man! Nailing it down! k: 

One of you mentioned the older codexes. Those of you who did, good job, really good work researching and remembering your facts. Your not wrong. Like i had a thread where i stated a claim from one of the old codexes. But in the more "recent edition of facts" they kind of changed a few things. So don't feel bad.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Black Library DOES count (within reason, anyone who uses C.S.Goto as a reference can go jump off a bridge) but in that instance it was more of a belief than hard fact- they BELIEVED that the Astartes and Primarchs were immortal, but considering even the oldest Astartes was only about 300 or so years old it's not really known whether the claim of true immortality was correct.


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

As I read it it's pretty much a hard statement by the author, not a belief.


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## AzraelJahannam (Jun 28, 2008)

whatwhat put the final nail in the coffin so it seems... If that is a true quotation, which I believe it is... then... well... Space Marines are Immortal I suppose. (Though I must say, Souldrinker mentions a shriveled old Chaplain who was overseeing the honor fight between Librarian Sarpedon and Chapter Master Gorgolion or whatever... And it had said that the chaplain had outlived his ability to take part on the field and was so old that he could only do ceremonial stuff (therefore space marines age and degrade over time)) But I guess Horus Rising is newer so takes precedence. Bravo on your find, my compiments.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

That would confirm that Heresy era marines are capable of living forever at best; since technology and understanding has been lost since then, that does not mean marines of the current time can do the same.


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## Chocobuncle (Feb 5, 2009)

Well by saying that the BA have greater life spans than other marines means they do age and die by our meaning of "natural causes". But I guess the average Space Marines life expectancy is 250-400 years old, Veterans like Terminators or Chapter Masters are 400-700. Commander Dante of the BA has been Chapter Master for around 1100 years if I'm correct so that means they do age and could die of old age maybe around 1000+ years if I had to guess.

*BUT* usually die in battle so it never really matters


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

my question is if those glands that make marines who they are, are reusable. In other words do they age with the Marine?


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## Chocobuncle (Feb 5, 2009)

Hmm if I had to guess, yes cause they're part of the marine like organs and they age so they'd have to age too maybe that's how mutations happen. Like cancer or Alzheimer's where they deteriorate and malfunction/mutate.


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## death-avenged (Feb 17, 2009)

I dunno but most of them die in battle like all good marines should with wounds to the fore and a pile of enemy dead. plus it would be pretty boring if you lived for longer than a few hundred years "hmm wahts today oh more fighting"


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## CamTheApostle (Oct 31, 2008)

darkreever said:


> That would confirm that Heresy era marines are capable of living forever at best; since technology and understanding has been lost since then, that does not mean marines of the current time can do the same.


Probably right. I remember in the first HH book that many of the Marines were several hundred years old and showed no signs of aging. They speculated that marines could live forever.

Also, it could be that 'primarch fresh' geneseed makes longer lasting marines. Oh, that almost sounds like an advertisement! :laugh:


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## BlackApostleVilhelm (May 14, 2008)

i have to agree with cam's post above and what i had said earlier, the closer the marines' get to the heresy the longer they live. and by this i mean that the geneseed they have is "primarch fresh" lol and the tech that the imperium had was way better than the shit they have now. great crusade marines could probably live forever if they didnt die in battle but marines now cant because of the degradation of the geneseed. and by saying that the Blood Angels have lifespans means that they die and aren't immortal. a lifespan ends they are not neverending. 

by saying a marine is 500, 800 or 1200 or so years old does not make them immortal. dante, while being the oldest marine beside bjorn the fellhanded, is not really in active duty if you catch my drift(isnt firing the gun at the bad boys, after all he has to run a damned chapter). they all die in battle so it really doesnt matter if they are immortal or not, they will die period. as for the legionaires still roaming the galaxy people will use the whole warp time excuse but regardless they still saunter out for a few hundred years and kill and slaughter and as for the iron warriors they have whole systems out of the eye under their heel and they have been around since the heresy. 

so who really knows, they could be immortal or they could not and just live a long long time, either way battle will kill them it is their fate. MHO is that the marines pre-heresy really could live forever but as the years went on geneseed corrupted and it wasnt fixed and now marines arent immortal.


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

ftr Darkreever is reponding to this quote from Horus Rising which I posted...



whatwhat said:


> From Horus Rising...
> 
> "the astartes, like the primarchs, were immortals. Age would not wither them, nor bring them down. Thy would live forever...five thousand, ten thousand, beyond even that into some unimaginable millennium. Except for the scythe of war."


The theory that geneseed has been corrupted is a little far fetched for my liking. More likely is GW have just backtracked and decided marines are immortal, to avoid the embarrassment Marneus calagr's death by alzheimers wold cause.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

whatwhat said:


> The theory that geneseed has been corrupted is a little far fetched for my liking.


And yet geneseed corruption and degredation are exactly what has been happening to some of the chapters. It is why the Space Wolves have no official successors (after the incident of the Wolf Brothers), it is the reason the Flesh Tearers and any other Blood Angel chapter are slowly dieing off (Flesh Tearers being the excetpion, in that they are dieing off faster, with only three hundred members left.) Even a chapter like the Raven Guard suffer from degrading geneseed, directly caused by the actions of Corax to boot.


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

Sorry, let me be more clear. I grant there is gene seed corruption of course, it's the idea that marines are no longer immortal because of that which I find farfetched.

I mean, if the effects of corruption are so varied as you have just shown with all your examples, why would every single gene seed succumb to the loss of immortality?


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## Fangio (Nov 23, 2008)

I dunno If I agree that they ever were immortal. The quote you used earlier, whatwhat, even though from the BL has to be taken with an element of scrutiny. Yes he said they were immortal and yes he was an omniscient narrator, but he is was only omniscient within the context of the book. I feel that he was trying to convey the awe-inspiring nature of the marines and so happily told us what the Imperial propaganda machine said.

And anyway, immortal warriors would be impractical considering we know they do get old. Who needs some old crippled marines sitting about the Battle Barge talking about the good old days when marines were men and didn't use different types of land raider or unmarine-like cannons?


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## scolatae (Aug 25, 2008)

Chocobuncle said:


> Well by saying that the BA have greater life spans than other marines means they do age and die by our meaning of "natural causes". But I guess the average Space Marines life expectancy is 250-400 years old, Veterans like Terminators or Chapter Masters are 400-700. Commander Dante of the BA has been Chapter Master for around 1100 years if I'm correct so that means they do age and could die of old age maybe around 1000+ years if I had to guess.
> 
> *BUT* usually die in battle so it never really matters


mabe by saying that the BA have longer lifespans they mean that they are more likley to survive possibly mortal wounds than other chapters because of the primarchs blood.:good:


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## whatwhat (Oct 7, 2008)

Fangio said:


> I dunno If I agree that they ever were immortal. The quote you used earlier, whatwhat, even though from the BL has to be taken with an element of scrutiny. Yes he said they were immortal and yes he was an omniscient narrator, but he is was only omniscient within the context of the book. I feel that he was trying to convey the awe-inspiring nature of the marines and so happily told us what the Imperial propaganda machine said.
> 
> And anyway, immortal warriors would be impractical considering we know they do get old. Who needs some old crippled marines sitting about the Battle Barge talking about the good old days when marines were men and didn't use different types of land raider or unmarine-like cannons?


The necessity of conveying the marines as awe inspiring is done countless times in horus rising there fore this section (which goes on longer than the quote btw) is certainly dictating that marines are immortal. 

As for knowing they get old, Iacton Qruze is described in the same book as looking old, so them being immortal is not contradictory to the view that marines degrade and age. So if you want to take Horus rising, the most recent and explicit writing on the matter, as fact... marines degrade through life but are immortal.


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## Lupercal's Chosen (May 8, 2008)

A marine for all purposes is immortal. Marines from the crusade era are immortal and dont degenerate so theoretically they can fight forever but due to the corruption of the gene seed as time has gone on "new" marines age over a period of 8-9 centuries and become weaker.



Gulliemans children all wear flowers in they're hair


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## Warped Raptor (Feb 21, 2009)

Well if a space marine ends up at his deathbed he can just be hooked up to a dreadnaught so in a way even if they aren't "immortal", mortal wounds don't necessarily mean the end of their service. :good:


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## MajorRawne (Feb 22, 2009)

CamTheApostle said:


> The only Astartes that matter are immortal thanks to the blessings of their Gods. All others are merely may-flies.
> 
> :grin:


:threaten: HERESY!


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

BlackApostleVilhelm said:


> i think this has already had a go over but hey what the heck. well IMO space marines are not immortal. to be immortal means that you cannot die, space marines can die and will die it is only a matter of time until an ork cleaver or something else kills them. they are all faited to die in battle which means, even if they are functionally immortal, they will die anyways.
> 
> as for the chaos legions and why marines from the great crusade are most likely immortal it is becuase they were the first, plain and simple. this means that since the primarchs were there in the living flesh any problems with degenerative geneseed could be rooted out with the excess of tehnology the imperium had. the tech now has gone down the drain becuase of stupid superstitions and shit like that so by constantly making more of the same used up geneseed it is more prone to mutation than if you have the source of the dna present. i hope that makes sense, tell me if it doesnt and i will endeavor to explain it better.


There seems to be some confusion between Immortal and invunerable! Immortal means you can live forever and dont age, but can still be killed!

The Reason the Chaos Marines are the same ones from the time of the Great Crusade is because time doesn't exist in the Eye of Terror/Maelstrom like it does in Real Space. In the warp time as a concept doesn't exist at all - Strict sequences of Cause then effect doesn't even occur in the warp.

The eye and maelstrom being warp overlaps is effected by this, Time doesn't flow normally, it flows extremly slowly, or could flow fast then slow etc.. The Warp is incomprehensable (spelling!) to mortal minds!

--------

There is also evidence to suggest that Space Marines do age and can die of natural causes/old age, and therefore are not immortal. For example Iacton Qruze during the Great Crusade was basically an old man in Ceramite! he wasn't as agile as younger marines, had grey hair, and was hard of hearing (for a marine) - not only that but wouldn't you expect at least one marine to have survived since the time of the Great Crusade? (not including Bjorn because hes asleep for a thousand years at a time in statis, is only awoken in times of need, and is basically insane!)


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## 1001st Son (Feb 28, 2009)

This is one of thise arguments that could go on forever and I think that, suffice to say, Space Marines would live a long time if they could, but they die in battle, so they don't. Unless their wussies and they don't fight. Or if they're Rubric Marines, who can't really die per se. Or if they head into the Eye of Terror (like the SW 13th) where time is nothing more than abstract thought.

-1001


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

What is the life expectancy of a space marine? About 5 minutes in Khorne's arenas...


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## Inquisitor_ball (May 12, 2008)

- It should be noted that while most marine chapters seem to go "senile" or have to be retiered from the active combat roster ( see the old cassius stuff) blood angels seem to have much longer lives.


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## admiraldick (Sep 9, 2008)

i don't believe that there are any recorded instances of Marines dying of anything other than wounds inflicted in battle.

the oldest Marines are those in the Traitor Legions who were present during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, however, their lives have been unnaturally extended by the power of the Dark Gods (maybe even beyond death). the oldest Loyalist marine is of course Bjorn the Fell-Handed, who was a scout in the HH, but has long since resided in the tomb of a Dreadnought. after that it is a competition between a few individuals; Chaplain Cassius, the Salamander's character who i forget the name of and now Lysander (coz he's the RoX!!!1!).

i believe that the average battle brother is expected to live a couple of hundred years before being mortally wounded, and Cassius is more like 500 (though i could be significantly wrong).



ckcrawford said:


> I personally do not think they age. I think that the genetic ability of the cells in a space marine to continually reproduce and heal, stops aging in marines. But thats my hypothesis. Their is no real evidence that supports either sides of the theory on wether they can die of age or not


i would also say that this is likely to be true. it seems quite likely that to allow SM to live so long and remain healthy and muscular they must be able to undergo cellular reproduce without significant mutation or degeneration. this would mean that, like Orks, the older a marine got, the bigger, stronger and gerenally healthier they would get. which would actually be entirely in keeping with the background that we have been given for them so far. commanders are bigger and better than basic troops, which is not a logic that can be applied to standard human military organisations.


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## Inquisitor_ball (May 12, 2008)

actualy Dante is 1100 years old , and he is out aged by the guy who was his scout sargent. ( cloten - but not the same one as in blood quest)
IIRC cassius is 900 and should have retiered. ( it actualy says that in the white dawrf with him in) HOWEVER Dante Shows no signs of aging. 

The Half -heard from the HH books was at MOST 300 - more like 200 and he was considered to have gone senile.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

It struck me that with all the discussion about Dante and Grimnar being the oldest marines, a serious contender for that title is being forgotten. Ulric the Slayer was the Wolf Priest that mentored Grimnar as a new recruit, so it might be safe to surmise that he has a few centuries more service than the Great Wolf. He was a Wolf Guard who was offered the position of Wolf Lord, but turned it down in favour of the priesthood, so he was around a long time even before he became a priest.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

The trouble with Ulrik and Grimnar's fluff is that Ulrik was a member of the Wolf Guard during the 1st Battle for Armageddon, the same battle in which Grimnar was the Great Wolf (albeit a young Great Wolf) so obviously he couldn't have mentored Grimnar before this...very peculiar, but standard GW contradictory background.

I'm sorry but as far as i'm concerned Codex trumps WD article, especially when the last 2 Space Marine Codexes have put Cassius' age at 'almost 400'.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I agree with GW often blowing the fluff, but as you said yourself, codex trumps anything, and it's in the codex that Ulric mentored Grimnar.


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## dtq (Feb 19, 2009)

admiraldick said:


> i don't believe that there are any recorded instances of Marines dying of anything other than wounds inflicted in battle.
> 
> the oldest Marines are those in the Traitor Legions who were present during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, however, their lives have been unnaturally extended by the power of the Dark Gods (maybe even beyond death). the oldest Loyalist marine is of course Bjorn the Fell-Handed, who was a scout in the HH, but has long since resided in the tomb of a Dreadnought. after that it is a competition between a few individuals; Chaplain Cassius, the Salamander's character who i forget the name of and now Lysander (coz he's the RoX!!!1!).
> 
> ...


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## Micklez (Nov 22, 2008)

dtq said:


> Arent the traitor marines partially preserved by the time warping effects of the warp in the eye of terror just like the space wolves 13th company and the dark angels fallen (who arent all receiving benefits from chaos Gods)?


It is the warp, not the Chaos gods that extends the lifespan of space marines (this is my conclusion from the fluff ive read so its probably wrong :laugh. As u have mentioned, it explains the 13th Company and the Fallen (although it is debaitable whether they are loyal or not but thats for another topic) but it also explains Squads/Strike Forces/Compainies that have been thrown off corse while in Warp Space and re-emerged the same age.


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## Inquisitor_ball (May 12, 2008)

What was the name of the dark angel who hibernated for a few millena ? He would be quite old.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Khorne's Fist said:


> I agree with GW often blowing the fluff, but as you said yourself, codex trumps anything, and it's in the codex that Ulric mentored Grimnar.


I know but it's also in the Codex that he was a member of the Wolf Guard at Armageddon (and in the Index Astartes SW article apparently he was just a Blood Claw and Grimnar was centuries older than the Codex says he is).


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## CaptainGarro (Mar 12, 2009)

First post, dont kill me.
In the vein of Immortality, Iacton Qruze and Nathaniel Garro go own to serve the Emperor despite both thier ages. 
From Horus Rising p339
"How Iacton Qruze, despite his stubborn, troublesome had broken the back of a supprise Megarachnid assualt, and proved there was mettle in him still."
And in Flight of the Eisenstien he tangles with some undead marines, and on p404
"Warriors like you Nathaniel Garro,Iacton Qruze.....who could root out any taint or future treachery: a duty to vigilance."

At this point, it seem's like these two, who actually have an arguement about who is older...lol, have a long time left on the ticker. I would argue that marines age, even horus heresy marines to about 50-60 in human years, but remain the same age after that. Commander Dante who is 1100 years old, is doing more than just sitting around filing out paper work. I mean, have you seen the guy's statline? He's not Calgar or Abbadon, but he is not slowing down much either. 
From Codex Blood Angels page 6
"Dante is renowned for personally leading Blood Angels Assualt Marine formations in unstoppable assualts."
So, personally I believe that they are functionally immortal, but are cut down by the "Sycthe of war."


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## War$m!7H (Jun 20, 2008)

As long as i get to try some of the SW beer, i'll die a happy marine lol.:biggrin:


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## Huffy (Nov 25, 2008)

marines are essentially eternal unless they suffer death by choppa or some other elegent tool of death, mayhem, and chaos


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

I think at this point the thread is circling itself again and again. Deeper in we have members who have given decent reasons either way, and now things are generally starting to devolve as there is nothing new to bring up.

I might be wrong, but I do believe the thread is generally over and done with; if you want the answer then browse through the six other pages.


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