[hippypancake]

so I just realized this.

Space Marines aren't immortal and they do detiriate just at a much slower rate than normal humans so this leads me to my epiphany

when a Marine becomes so old that he hinders the army what happens to him? I would expect that after so many battles if a marine lives that long they would just hook em up to a dreadnaught

any other opinions?

 

[gen.ahab]

Ever hear of desk duty?

 

[hippypancake]

Ever hear of desk duty?

:laugh: thats all I have to say but it won't let me post it for being under 10 characters so I decided to post this extensive sentence on it

 

[yanlou]

i think most marines who reach a certain age will go on a final crusade or something like that, in the novel Angels of Darkness the apothecary is on about doing something like that as hes 600 yrs old(i think im remembering it rightly).
i think its also down to the custom of the chapter, one example i can think of is the novel Salamander, where one the marines(cant remember his name) leaves everything behind and goes on a journey in the wild lands of Nocturne.
I don't many old marines are interned just because of old age, i think that's reserved for certain hero's of the chapter.

 

[hippypancake]

i think most marines who reach a certain age will go on a final crusade or something like that, in the novel Angels of Darkness the apothecary is on about doing something like that as hes 600 yrs old(i think im remembering it rightly).
i think its also down to the custom of the chapter, one example i can think of is the novel Salamander, where one the marines(cant remember his name) leaves everything behind and goes on a journey in the wild lands of Nocturne.
I don't many old marines are interned just because of old age, i think that's reserved for certain hero's of the chapter.

well my thought was that to live the thousands of years needed for your body to detiriate, through all those campaigns and warriors they would become such a high rank and then enter the dread, but you're right about the apothecary and salamander I completely forgot about them

thanks for contributing :victory:k:

 

[Giant Fossil Penguin]

Do Astartes really just deteriorate over time? From the HH novels the opinion of the Marines is that they are functionally immortal; where has this changed? I ask out of real curiosity, not trying to be snarky at all.
I know that the process of making a Marine has become debased and the true meaning lost to mindless repetition and ritual, at least for some Chapters, but has this been shown to reduce the life-expectancy from the HH-era Astartes?
I know that Dante is considered long-lived, an exception amongst even Astartes, but- actually, I'm rambling now. Could someone let me know the fluff-piece that says what life-span Marines can expect? Cheers.

GFP

 

[Serpion5]

All it really says in the marine codex is that most (or all) astartes will die on the battlefield or in space.

The HH series early books make several mentions of astartes supposedly being immortal, but there is a Luna wolf (Qruze?) who is an old terran marine and no longer takes active roles as often as he used to.

It seems to vary depending on source, possibly due to differences in chapters, or maybe just writer inconsistencies, but I don`t think there is a set lifespan for any given space marine. All we have for sure is that the BA seem to live longer, and the traitors in the EOT seem to live indefinitely.

 

[Baron Spikey]

I got to thinking, surely over the millennia Astartes have become more human- the geneseed they use has been filtered through hundreds of other Astartes, surely over time the inherent mortality of the humans that become Space Marines would result in some sort of deterioration of the geneseed.

Whereas the heresy era Marines would have had their geneseed almost directly from the font of their genetic lineage- their would be no deterioration.

 

[Angel of Blood]

Going off your theory there perhaps explains how the Blood Angels live so long? as they all get blood transfusions from the Sanguinary Priests who got transfusions from the ones before them etc leading to Sanguinius. Sure its been filtered down aswell but it's still gonna be a little more pure than the others

 

[GrizBe]

Well currently the oldest 'living' space marine is Comander Dante of the Blood Angels. He's comanded them for over 1100 years now given current fluff, so is much older then that, and he's still up and active.

I think most space marines will die in battle before they get too old and become a hinderance.

Bjorn the Fell-handed is the oldest still active Loyalist space marine,being over 10,000 years old now. But being a venerable dreadnaught, he has been known to have 1000year long sleeps.

 

[shaantitus]

Qurze was not inactive, He was still active captain of the third company of the luna wolves. And later possibly in the inquisition. Garro was of similar age. The gradual deteoriation of their legion geneseed has an effect but what that is I don't know.

 

[Serpion5]

It may not be Qruze I am thinking of. But I am sure there was an older marine who the others took less seriously because of his age.

Maybe Maloghurst? Fuck it, I can`t be bothered to check right now. I`ll do it later. Right now, I am going to sleep. :so_happy:

 

[gen.ahab]

@ GrizBe,
No, the oldest "living" loyalist marines are the members of the 13th great company.

 

[Baron Spikey]

Though they're only the oldest chronologically, maybe not biologically- time is a funny thing in the warp after all.

 

[gen.ahab]

This is true.

 

[ckcrawford]

I think that for the most part, Marines can pretty much replace old organs, and useless parts with the technology they have. So at least for the most part, Marines can last. Though, some marines like that apothecary mentioned in Salamander sometimes get a little tired from some aspect of war. In the apothecaries case, he was pretty pissed that so many men, women, astartes had died and he was pretty sad he couldn't save them. He probably along with most of his company have regrets that in neither case of their captain dieing they could save them.

 

[shaantitus]

It may not be Qruze I am thinking of. But I am sure there was an older marine who the others took less seriously because of his age.

Maybe Maloghurst? Fuck it, I can`t be bothered to check right now. I`ll do it later. Right now, I am going to sleep. :so_happy:

That was Qruze. The half heard. Just finished reading that book for the third time.

 

[Khorne's Fist]

In one of the Blood Raven novels there's a librarian who is pretty much retired and working on an archeological dig. Can't quite remember which one though. However, IIRC in the 3rd ed SW codex it was alluded to that marines just kept getting tougher the older they got. Or maybe that was just SWs.

 

[Waaagh_Bong]

this might be really off, but what about familys? has a marine ever had a family out side of his chapter?

 

[gen.ahab]

:shok::nono: God that brings up some horrible memories of some crappy fan fluff. They are basically warrior monks, for the most part. So no, they aren’t allowed to have families.