Blood Angels age

[Jarl Bloodwolf]

And also I dont think the Salamanders book is cannon so while the idea of a marine who fought in the heresy still being alive in the modern 40k universe is cool I dont think it can be used as a example for my argument ;)

[Sabadin]

Considering that some people believe that The Sanguinor has been alive since the Horus Heresy, and is inside just a marine, it's perfectly possible for another marine to live 3000 years, though highly unlikely. Also Dante's actual age could be far older than 1100, it is only known that he has been chapter master for that long.

 

And then we have Cluetin who did Dante's scout training and is still kicking around as a vet sarge.

 

So to the OP, basically yes 3000 years is perfectly ok for someone as heroic as your founding chapter master ;)

[Brother Theophantus]

At the end of the day it's your do it yourself chapter so you can have their fluff however you want. The only problem I see is that although marines are supposedly immortal the way they live in near constant battle means sooner or later they're bound to catch a bolt round or chainsword to the face. So for your guy to have survived three thousand years of battle is a touch on the statistically wild side unless he's either unbelieveably good or the luckiest man alive. Perhaps a Lysander-esqe break in the sin bin or a millenium or two in a non-battlefield role/suspended animation?

[Leonaides]

Fluff-contradiction alarm going off in my head - someone must be thinking that Heresy Era marines are immortal again. No, they are really not. Anyone here heard of how some chapters have pure/uncorrupted geneseed/progenoids still? Like the whiter-than-white Ultramarines and the Dark Angels? Well, they arent immortal are they. And their geneseed hasnt degraded so its the same as that used on heresy era marines. So heresy Era marines arent immortal either, just because they had fresher geneseed or whatever...

 

One of these days I'm gonna collect all these strange ideas about how marines are immortal, put them in a single thread and do a proper "Myth-Busters" on them. If i can actually ever be bothered...

[igotsmeakabob!!]

From what I've heard, A Thousand Sons says it in plain text that they're immortal. I don't know if the era is relevant, but has anyone else read this?

[daboarder]

nobody has pure geneseed anymore not even the ultramarines, of course I'm predjudice and lean towards the truly dark fluff from 3rd ed that stuff was some of the best ever written it really gave you the sense that humanity was doomed.

[Looted Monolith]

Im pretty sure if thier capable of living 3000+ years thier immortal

 

usealy a space marine dosnt live forever becuse he dies in the eternal conflict

 

not because he passed of old age

[Chaplain-Skylax]

I'd say the Chaos Marines are still alive due to the passage of time passing differently in the Eye and many of them being lost in the warp and displaced over time, like The Fallen of the Dark Angels.

 

However if they put in a novel that a loyal Salamanders marine is still alive from the Great Crusade times then that is an epic facepalm.

 

 

Aye, it is feasable, however they do describe that as this marine as spent such a long time stayting still he has lost all movement and to move him his legs would just snap! I fail to see how this is a face-palm as it clearly states that this marine was around when Vulcan walked among the Salamanders...

[Priest33]

If marines arnt immortal why are there still "Fallen" dark angels floating around? YOu know the ones that have been on planets chilling since the breaking of the DA legion, that didnt disapear into the warp ext ext.

 

Whilst I dont believe that marines are immortal, I do agree that they have a very extended life span if they where to sit there twiddling their thumbs. The reasion theres not a lot of "Old man Dante's" around is because most marines eventualy cop a bullet to the brain.

[SamaNagol]

You can't have read 'Angels Of Darkness'. The Fallen are all temporally displaced. Astelaan woke up on a planet 9000 years after the Heresy. They were all sucked into the warp and appeared back randomly.

[Darkchild130]

Blood Angels (and to a lesser extent Space Wolves) are unique with their longevity, this has been stated in official fluff (ie codices).

This leads me to believe that other Space marines can die of old age, round about the 500-600 year mark i'm guessing with all the Ultramarine stuff (like Cassius being real old at 400 or something).

In HH i think they just believe they are immortal, but i'm sure in one of the books (maybe thousand sons, cant remember right now) on marine notices some grey hairs on his head, or new wrinkles or something like that, at age 200 or so.

 

So my personal view (purely speculation) is that normal marines peter out around 500 years old, with Space Wolves going to about 800-900, and Blood Angels being Immortal.

Speculation aside, if you went down the "functionally immortal" route, bear in mind that without Blood Angel Regenerative properties your 3000 year old Chapter master would resemble a piece of old leather :lol: A 3000 year old ultramarine would be pretty much one giant wrinkle.

 

Sanguinius Geneseed ftw.

 

Darkchild

[Vodunius]

Now my chapter was created during the 3rd founding and the time period between the Horus Heresy and the 3rd founding is about 3000 years.

 

Where are you getting 3000 years from? The only canon date I've seen (original UM IA article) dated it as 001.m32 which is just under a thousand years. I don't like the idea of a 3000 year old marine, but I don't mind a thousand and something.

[Drachnon]

I can find very little in the form of dates or ages however I do have the 2nd edition codex here that in Dante's fluff mentions Dante being one of the most experienced commanders due to the "quite extraordinary longevity of the blood angels". I think this suggests that the BA's are a major exception and any other space marine army can probably not expect more then half their life span. But in the end you best decide on your own.

[Andrew_Beck]

Upon the very creation Emperor took out the marines from the flow of time, ergo they shouldnt die of age.

[Burningblood]

I remember from the 3rd edition BA codex that the Blood Angels are the "longest lived of all space marines." Also, in the weird, Tarentinoesque Black Templar comic series some of the Black Templar sword bretheren (their vanguard vets) are well aged men, that look to be in their mature prime. So do some of the models (a guy with wrinkles and a handlebar mustache, bald head).

Maybe the fluff has chaneged to say that all marines are immortal but I think its more likely that many marine chapters use stasis pods to enhance their longevity while BA and successors are more "immortal," and that probably comes from all the blood drinking. :)

[Leonaides]

No, they really dont. Why should a marine actually care about his longevity, except insofar as it allows him more time to perform the Emperors good work? What's the point in having a 6,000 year old scout (for example) if he's had less combat experience than a guy who was only recruited 30 years ago? Stasis to prolong lifespan isnt what marines generally do. As I write this I know someone's going to point at Lemartes, but thats a special case (more of the exception proving the rule than a general example I feel).

 

Marines age. SW examples exist - read the Ragnar books for descriptions of some of the Wolflords, some look old and weatherbeaten, like rough granite cliffs, while others (who in some cases are actually older) look more like young men in their prime. Individual marines react differently to the geneseed implantation. Some grow bigger than others, some grow older slower, but they ALL still get old. There would be no point in highlighting Logan Grimnars youthful vigour, and saying that he is the envy of marines half his age, if all marines were immune to the effects of age. There would be no point saying that Blood Angels are generally the longest lived of marines if all marines were immortal. The fluff has not changed. The fluff is relatively consistent on this point. Marines are not immortal.

[Decoy]

Not unheard of. One company of Space Wolves is still running around from before the Siege of Terra. 13th Company forever! Wooo! Ten thousand years of war and still goin' strong. [/fanboyism]

[Leonaides]

Decoy - they have 'spent' 10,000 years in the Eye of Terror. That in and of itself is enough to disregard them from any discussion on how long marines might be able to live and wether or not they are immortal. Its a bit like saying 'my piece of string is longer than your piece of string' without qualifying what sort fo string you're talking about, how you're measuring it, and indeed, how long it is. Added to teh fact that my piece of string is actually made up of blamange...

[Decoy]

And, Leonaides? It's another potential plot point. Lost in the warp, et cetera, when they reappear, even if they've only "aged" 30 years by their biological clock, the work around them has aged 10,000. It's a fairly decent way of justifying the OPs claim, and allows for lots of temporal disparity/fluff augmentation.

[Bonzi]

@OP Just use GW's tried and true plothole no jutsu...'the warp ect ect'.

 

Given that ships have been known to appear 500+ years after they set out it would be easy to say something like 'Space marine X was part of the rebuilding after the HH. While on a ship heading for (insert planet near a warp rift) his ship became lost and he spend X years battling Chaos marines on their home turf. When his ship finnally found its way back to Imperium held space he found that X number of years had passed in real space ect ect.'

 

#1. This steps around the whole age question

#2. The guy is still a pimp because he was fighting the CSM on their own turf.

#3. There are a number of precedents of this happening so it fits well with the cannon fluff.

 

As to the SM immortality thing...its disproven by the BA fluff. Our fluff specifically says a trait of our gene seed is a greatly extended life compared to an average marine. This would be completely nonsensical if all marines were immortal. What's the point of saying 'my imortality is more long lived than your immortality'?

[Priest33]

Stasis could be a good answer to it as well. Say that tehy where headed to X part of the universe and along the way their ship got lost in the WARP when it finaly exited it was x years later. The Inq then tested their faith or something and found them pure and put them back on the roster, as they where previously thought destroyed, ala Lysander.

[mcginn]

I recall having read somewhere that Space Marines lived for about 500 years, and the Blood Angels live about 1000. It had said that Space Marines seemed immortal to normal humans of the Imperium, but that was because of their extended lifespans. This is the idea that I have stuck with, if I can find where I read that, I'll post it.