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I don't have a copy of the hardcover rulebook, or the space marine codex, so I'm not sure on this, but how old can a space marine be? Do they ever die of old age? just wondering...

Well in Horus Rising, black library basically says marines are essentially immortal. The tragic irony is that they will never live to see eternity as they will with out exception die in combat.
I dont have any page references because I was listening to it on cd But I hope that answers your question. They will not die of natural causes, the oldest living space marine is Bjorn of the spacewolves. However he is interred in a dreadnought because he was grievously wounded so I am not sure if he counts really. Logan grimnar is something like 800 years old iirc

Well it's more likey that a Space Marine will die in battle before they die from old age.

The current oldest Space Marine is Dante of the Blood Angels, he's been alive for 1100 years. Of course, you also have guys like Abaddon who've been around for 10,000 years (However, he's warped and sustained through Warp Energies.)

Iranna.

Ya, I meant just die of old age, and Abaddon and any other CSM don't count on account of warp energy....

bombboy1252 wrote:Ya, I meant just die of old age, and Abaddon and any other CSM don't count on account of warp energy....

In that case, you won't get an answer; I don't believe it's ever happened!

Iranna.

Most of the authors in the first half dozen or so HH books (or thereabouts) gave some variation of "they won't ever grow old, but can die of injuries" angle. One of them even said they might live 1000-5000-10K years. Modern 40K seems to take a different tack - Astartes can live to centruies easily, but beyond that tends to be exceptional (there's a handful of Marines who get close to or beyond 1000 - Dante, the White consuls dude from Dark Creed, Logan Grimnar, etc.)

There may be a reason for that discrepancy. One of the things some of the fluff (and the HH novels in particular) emphasize is that Space Marine biology/physiology has a certain level of "maintenance" to it - hormones and chemicals and such have to be monitored, adjusted, perhaps even replenished to keep them operating at peak condition. It could be that their ability to "maintain" that sort of peak has declined over the years (it would suit the "lolzgrim" attitude of everything else in decline) and so they no longer can keep them functionally immortal. Recently going through some notes on the HH series, I also considered its possible that gene seed has mutated over the millenia, regardless of all attempts to keep it pure. WE know that some Chpaters have lost the use of some glands or organs, for example, or had the properties of one or anotehr organ mutated in some way - it's quite possible that whatever capacity for the gene-seed to counteract aging simply isn't as effective. They still age more slowly than humans, but they age faster than Crusade-era AStartes. It probably doesn't help that the processes for creating marines have atrophied over time either.

While the warp can be used to extend life as well (EG Fabius Bile) I suspect the main reason most Traitor Marines are still around is because they tend to spend most of their time in the Eye of Terror, save for occasional brief raiding. The extreme sort of time distortions you get in the Eye means that time can pass much more slowly inside it, so its occupants will of course age more slowly.

bombboy1252 wrote:I don't have a copy of the hardcover rulebook, or the space marine codex, so I'm not sure on this, but how old can a space marine be? Do they ever die of old age? just wondering...

Conflicting sources. Some have them as mortal, feeling the effects of the aging process, others have them as immortal. The oldest we know of is Dante, he's at the least 1500 years old.

I might have read wrong, but I though Dante was 11000 years old.

JohnnoM wrote:I might have read wrong, but I though Dante was 11000 years old.

Lol, I think you might have. He's been Chapter Master of the Blood Angels for about 1200 years or something like that.

He actually isnt chapter master though... The chapter master guy is (the guy with the giant chainsword)


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I read the blood angels codex real quick and it states that Dante is at least 1100 and is know to be far older.

The guy with the chainsword is chapter master of the Flesh Tearers I thought. Dante is the Blood Angel Master and much more of an immortal golden boy.

Marines are NOT immortal, but most live so long they might as well be. As stated most will die in battle before they can live very long anyway. It is noted that marines performance does decrease with age, leading to most of the eldest members of the chapter making up a chapter council, responsible for non front line duties (eg recruitment, administration ect). These are rarely mentioned as they're not important to the fluff as a whole. It is also worth mentioning different chapters have different lifespans. The oldest member of the Ultramarines (Cassius) is 400 years old, where as Dante of the Blood Angles is 1100 years old (dreadnoughts dont count, they spend most of their lives "asleep" anyway). Chaos marines have only lived so long as the chaos gods decide they are too useful to die of something as mundane of old age.

On Dante's page it says that Dante is basically sick of living, and he knows that hes been living for way to long.

JohnnoM wrote:He actually isnt chapter master though... The chapter master guy is (the guy with the giant chainsword)


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I read the blood angels codex real quick and it states that Dante is at least 1100 and is know to be far older.

You're thinking of Gabriel Seth, the Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers. Dante is the Chapter Master of the Blood Angels, of which the Flesh Tearers are a successor.


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vodo40k wrote:Marines are NOT immortal, but most live so long they might as well be. As stated most will die in battle before they can live very long anyway. It is noted that marines performance does decrease with age, leading to most of the eldest members of the chapter making up a chapter council, responsible for non front line duties (eg recruitment, administration ect). These are rarely mentioned as they're not important to the fluff as a whole. It is also worth mentioning different chapters have different lifespans. The oldest member of the Ultramarines (Cassius) is 400 years old, where as Dante of the Blood Angles is 1100 years old (dreadnoughts dont count, they spend most of their lives "asleep" anyway). Chaos marines have only lived so long as the chaos gods decide they are too useful to die of something as mundane of old age.

Several sources disagree with that first statement. Horus Rising, The First Heretic, and the Night Lords series all have them as immortal. Like I said, conflicting sources.

The Adeptus Custodes, which are the Space Marines of Space Marines, are believed to be biologically immortal.

They aren't Astartes.

Actually, their genetic modifications pre-date that which made the Space Marines... and yet, their numbers have remained constant since the Emperor's Ascension, lacking anyone with the skill or knowledge to replicate the process. They also are capable of (and, in fact, originally did) using the same equipment that Space Marines do.

They're pretty much better, in every way, than a Space Marine... which makes them, as I said, a Space Marine's Space Marine.

Keep in mind during the HH era Astartes didn't know how long they would live themselves. They'd only been around 300 years or so at that point. It seemed like they would be immortal and see the end of war.

In one of the salamanders books( think it was) they find a marine that's quite a few thousand years old. Bad thing is, he's been sitting in a big chair most of that time so his entire body has atrophied.

Psienesis wrote:Actually, their genetic modifications pre-date that which made the Space Marines... and yet, their numbers have remained constant since the Emperor's Ascension, lacking anyone with the skill or knowledge to replicate the process. They also are capable of (and, in fact, originally did) using the same equipment that Space Marines do.

They're pretty much better, in every way, than a Space Marine... which makes them, as I said, a Space Marine's Space Marine.

They aren't Astartes. Each Custode is individually created.

Oh, and they aren't. Blood Games beckons.

bombboy1252 wrote:I don't have a copy of the hardcover rulebook, or the space marine codex, so I'm not sure on this, but how old can a space marine be? Do they ever die of old age? just wondering...

thakabalpuphorsefishguy wrote:Well in Horus Rising, black library basically says marines are essentially immortal.

The characters in the Heresy novels really haven't been around for long enough to test that proposition, so it remains one character's assumption.

Psienesis wrote:The Adeptus Custodes, which are the Space Marines of Space Marines, are believed to be biologically immortal.

Likewise, an assumption. We haven't met Valdor, nor any other Custodes, in M41.

Though it's very, very out of date, Bill King's excellent Deathwing novella ends with Captain Ezekiel/Cloud Runner choosing to remain on the Plains World to die of old age rather than return to his brothers in the Dark Angels, which suggests that, at least without futuristic medical care, Astartes can age and die.

It's kind of hard to dismiss the 'immortality' thing without knowing how whatever it is in their genetic make up allows them to be immortal to begin with and why. We know they still operate broadly on the same biologicla principles humans do, only enhanced and made more efficient (more redundant organs, better blood, etc.) I would guess that the "anti-aging" element is tied to their healing and regenerative properties somehow - the same things that allow them to close wounds and knit bones probably facilitate their bodies fighting the effects of aging in various ways as well.

But all that stuff does not come free. Astartes need food to survive, and if the HH series is to be believed their superhuman biologies periodically need maintenance as well. If, for whatever reason, a step in that process is skipped, or if they lose an essential drug or chemical needed to optimize the way a Space Marine's body operates, then the mechanism will operate at less than optimum efficiency. (In other words, at peak efficiency the Astartes body can effectively freeze the aging process, but if it operates at less than peak the Astartes can start aging again. Space Marine healing/regeneration has limits, after all.)

I always thought that time passed slower in the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom, therefore the Heresy was only a few hundred years ago to the Traitor Legions. The bonuses Chaos worship entitles them to would have some part in it though.

This is a little off topic but...

"Time moves differently in the warp" isn't a good way to judge age.

Time is only relative to ones self. Technically, If anyone in the 41st millenium wanted to see the Emperor during the heresy, all they would have to do is park their ship 10k light years from Terra, look back and watch.

The more I read up on time and space the more confused I become over how easily we all seem to accept the idea of planet to planet travel. I know I'm just knit-picking about sci-fi inconsistancies but, it's kinda funny when you think about it.

bombboy1252 wrote:I don't have a copy of the hardcover rulebook, or the space marine codex, so I'm not sure on this, but how old can a space marine be? Do they ever die of old age? just wondering...

They are immortal ( don't mind the Ultramarines the movie ), but they are destined to die in combat one day.
Dante is 1000 years old.
Bjorn is in Dreadnought and he was still alive and kicking ass when the Emperor was walking among Astartes, so that's around 10.000 years.

Bjorn doesn't count. He spends most of his time basically in stasis not to mention he doesn't really have much of a body anymore. Besides, he's turning quite senile and losing gripe on reality each and every time become harder to wake.

I could live as long as Bjorn inside a dreadnaught and, though I'm a pretty awesome guy, I'm no Space Marine.

Marines have never been immortal, at least not before Black Library authors (once again) butchered the fluff*.

Blood Angels are noted having longer lifespan than other Space Marines (This has been the case for many editions.) That makes sense only if the Space Marines have limited lifespans.
Chaplain Cassius is seen as ancient, and is under four hundred years of old. As Ultras are as standard as Space Marines get, I'd assume maximum natural lifespan of an average Marine to be 450-500.

* (And obviously people during Heresy could have not known for sure how long Marines lived, as they had not existed more than few centuries at that time. They might have thought they were immortal, but were obviously mistaken.)

Brother Coa wrote:

bombboy1252 wrote:I don't have a copy of the hardcover rulebook, or the space marine codex, so I'm not sure on this, but how old can a space marine be? Do they ever die of old age? just wondering...

They are immortal ( don't mind the Ultramarines the movie ), but they are destined to die in combat one day.
Dante is 1000 years old.
Bjorn is in Dreadnought and he was still alive and kicking ass when the Emperor was walking among Astartes, so that's around 10.000 years.

Dante has been chapter master for more than 1100 years, he is significantly older than 1000.

How old was Iactron Qruze at the time of the Heresy? I assumed he was only around 300 years old and he was considered senile and well over the hill.

There is no definite lifespan since most Space Marines die in battle, Dante is like 1000.
Honestly, A Space Marine's Combat Abilities determine how "Immortal" he is.

EDIT: Grammar Nazi was here.