Question about inquisitors

[chaplain belisarius]

Hi,

 

Im just wondering how long inquisitors actually live for (not counting death in combat).

 

Is about 300 years fairly common? or would that make the inquisitor very old and venerable?

 

thank you in advance! :)

[Valkyrion]

They are just normal humans, so around 150.

 

There are ways to increase your life mind, I think eisenhorn was on some sort of youth drug and Ravener Hawking will probably survive for as long as his brain allows and it's suggested in the GK dex that a daemon could give Coteaz a bit of a life spurt if he wanted. Quixos, eisenhorns nemesis, got to around 800 IIRR but he was a proper chaos addled loony.

 

So, if your inquisitor needs to be 300 years old for whatever reason then he can be, but he will be old.

[chaplain belisarius]

ok..thanks for the reply! I think they use juvenat treatments to extend their lifespan-but wasnt sure what the life expectancy of an inquisitor is! :)

[thade]

Inquisitors have tremendous resources at their disposal, so whereas a normal human life span is extended to maybe 150 (by hyper trivialized medical processes of the future...so advanced yet so easy that they still jive with the whole "Worship the Machine" scene), a human with regular 'maintenance,' cybernetic enhancements, and the rejuv processes available can really push the ticket hard. 600 years is not out of the question. You get to that point where statistically you've lived for so long that some kind of freak accident would kill you (which for modern day humans is somewhere around 400 years I think) but they can replace virtually every organ with a machine.

In short, they can live a rather long time.

[jeffersonian000]

Aging in the 40k universe is inconsistant across the genre.  We have examples is regular humans living full and healthy lives reaching an active age of 300, yet a Space Wolf Rune Priest dying of old age at 300.  As with all things 40k, anything and everything is possible, and nothing too implosible to be ignored.

 

SJ

[RolandTHTG]

Yarrick I believe was described as around 300 when he was 'retired' to an advisory position on Armageddon (Just before the 2nd war) So he is still active in the modern time line at over 360 years old.  

 

So I'd put a juvenat human old age at around 300 (when he was pushed into retirement) but able to still be battle field active until at least 400, with the best stuff. 

[happybounce]

You guys haven't read Eisenhorn???  Come on, Inquisitor Commodus Voke is pushing 300 when he finally gets it!  Hell he might be older, I'm at work and it's been a while since I read the books.  

 

Also in the Dark Heresy core book one of the Inquisitors from the Calixis sector that is mentioned is over 300 as well, and still kicking ass.

[chaplain belisarius]

thanks guys...so basically i can say whatever i want and its valid? plus due to "the vagaries of warp travel" he can be 300 years old but still in his prime?

 

Im working on some fluff at the moment (inquisitors-along with chaplains, commissars and arbites are some of my favourite things about 40k)

[thade]

Do you want the Inquisitor you're designing to be simply as old as possible? Or just old (and/or experienced enough) that people don't question him based on those facets? Or old enough to have experienced a timeline you've devised? What's the motivation here? :)

 

I'd make him like 90, assuming he was trained as an Inq. from perhaps his 40s after accomplishing some noteworthy stuff as...whatever role would set his foundation for you. :) Maybe be was an administrator or a very high ranking Imperial Navy officer or something. Somebody with connections that's been demonstrated as a fierce loyalist...and caught the eye of an existing Inquisitor. By 90 or maybe 100 he'd have experience with the special resources he's granted and able to claim with his new role, but age isn't really an issue for him.

 

Hopefully that rambling is of some assistance. Obviously you need not do as I would here, but you may want to answer some of the same questions I did in my off-the-cuff character build there. :)

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Inquisitor live as long as plot demands. I'd say you'd be stretching it past 300 though, barring CHAOS!11! helping out (as implied by Coteaz). Humans won't resort to wholly artificial bodies (not even AdMech will do it, due to uncomfortable parallels with Dark Age tech), and juvenats can only go so far. Some Inquisitor go as far as cloning too, but again its only going to go so far. 

 

For Space Marines, it's literally until they get forcibly killed. Blood Angels are supposed to have the longest lived veterans (not to mention Dante). Technically though, if a Marine is skilled enough and doesn't suffer from something that overwhelms his augmented organs (decapitation, getting torn in half, losing large chunks of their critical organs to energy weapons/infection from blades or gunshot wounds), he's functionally immortal. Irony is though, most don't make it past 200 usually, and every day is spent either preparing for or neck-deep in the most brutal conflicts in the Imperium. Not much of a life really. 

[chaplain belisarius]

im just thinking id take my age and times it by ten or so but 300 is OLD! I want my i nquisitor to be proven, capable and in his prime...im thinking about 100-150 should do it?

 

thanks for the replies guys:)

[thade]

I seem to remember a discussion in Amicus (or the UM forum?) some years ago where the question was asked, "who is the oldest living space marine?" and while Bjorn was an obvious answer, the second was some very old lone Ultramarine that had been stationed on a quiet planet for thousands of years. That kind of stuff may just be an author getting a little free with their license, could be a misread or a mistake, or it could be heretical lies spread by Tzeentchian cultists. But the foundation is there. Marines very well could live forever, which is the whole reason they can 'survive' the internment into a Dreadnought.

 

I think a 150 year old Inquisitor is probably well respected and established; that seems like "prime" age to me. You know, provided his age and resources are all Imperium tech and not some weird device or artifact he found and is using on himself. <3 (I mean, that would probably fly provided he only revealed that fact in the proper company...namely, not in my company. ;) )

[Grand Master Caloth]

Esp since Commisar Ciaphas Cain is over 200 when he is telling his memoirs in his series, and while he was dating an Inquisitor, doesnt necessarily mean he had the access to the really good rejuvants... Tho he IS a Hero of the Imperium...

[Reclusiarch Darius]

 

im just thinking id take my age and times it by ten or so but 300 is OLD! I want my i nquisitor to be proven, capable and in his prime...im thinking about 100-150 should do it?

 

thanks for the replies guys:)

100 is more than enough. You need to remember, Inquisitors travel all over the Imperium. So, their age is distorted by both warp and realspace dilation from moving around such a huge space as the Imperium. 150, you'd be talking sector Lords or their immediate successors.