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they weren't sure that marines were Immortal.


I could be a thousand years old and not know the natural extent of my life.


the natural life span of a marine could be 5000 years for all we know, but untill we can consistantly see marines dying of old age around the 5000 year(or any other year) we can't make any judgment call.


Immortality is impossable to proove.

Grey Templar wrote:
Immortality is impossable to proove.

Especially when any part of your job description says "Space Marine" or "Warp Travel" or "Tactical Squad".

Maybe its just me but I get the idea that even though their bodies don't age they eventually just get sick of space-marine-ing. Bjorn is so tired and worn out he just sleeps most of the time, and I read on Lexicanum that Dante has "grown weary of his burdens".

1hadhq wrote:
Sallie character ( can't remember the name ATM ) = 10.000+x ( but nearly immobile from age, granted the emperors mercy when they couldn't extract him under attack, so his geneseed lives on. )

The Salamander was named Gravius. Basically the only reason he had to die was because his whole body was atrophied from not doing anything for so long, were he to have been able to keep mobile/not been in a catalapcean node coma he possibly could have been fine.

and he was put out of his misery by the Apothecary only because they knew that the very act of moving him would kill him.

so they gave him the Emperor's mercy and extracted his Geneseed.

Ashryu wrote:Maybe its just me but I get the idea that even though their bodies don't age they eventually just get sick of space-marine-ing. Bjorn is so tired and worn out he just sleeps most of the time, and I read on Lexicanum that Dante has "grown weary of his burdens".

Yes, this happens. One of the Apocatheries in the Salamanders books just gets tired of watching people die in his hands so he just peaces out into the wilds of Nocturne.

Space Marines are functionally immortal. Their bodies will remain strong and youthful forever if they continue to survive. The aging process differs from Chapter to Chapter due difference in geneseed, so one Chapter may have Marines that look extremely old, whilst another may be filled with eternally youthful marines. Although, whilst the Astartes BODY is immortal and will never pack in due to age, the mind is entirely separate. Despite psycho-surgeries and mind conditioning, a Space Marine brain is still human, probably prone to the effects of an aging mind, becoming slower, tired, until a point in which the mind will just die. Obviously the Astartes have a longer life-span because of their augmentations, Dante and The Blood Angels being prime examples of how geneseed affects longevity.

Lyssander cannot recall a time that Dante was not CHAPTER MASTER. two important factors there. how old is Lysander Excluding time lost in the warp? You'd have to add this time to his reign as chapter master too . And Dante was not born into the Angels and handed the name Lord of the host. You can guesstimate if you knew when the 12 Blood Angels assaulted the battle barge 'terrorclaw'. It is assumed (by me at least) that the Sergeant was Dante. I'd Hazard he's an easy 2000yrs old. Also what is this ennui that they refer to in Dantes entry? the way that sentence reads its sounds like a coma or his organs shut down.
The only thing keeping Dante alive is he believes his destiny awaits him still , Bjorn is believed to be warded from death till he fights for one last time beside the Russ.

I think that they were, during the great cruasade blessed with immortality but after the heresey they lost that knowledge and the gene seed deteriorated and immortality became longevity.

Dante has been chapter master for 1100 years. I'd have thought that he would have been made Chapter Master after about 500 years so I guess Dante is around 1500-1600 years old. He's a good example of how an Astartes mind will age when the body survives. He is becoming weary of constant battle and service. Like Bjorn, he is simply hanging on because he believes he has a higher purpose to fulfill in the future. Geneseed is still the same as it was, the methods of implantation and harvesting is the same, although over the years there has likely been mistakes in the coding but nothing as serious as to cut the lifespan of an Astartes from infinity to quite long. It's hard to tell really as no Space Marine has survived for a sufficiently long amount of time for us to be able to say they are immortal. All we have is that it's sated they are functionally immortal.

padfoot wrote:Lyssander cannot recall a time that Dante was not CHAPTER MASTER. two important factors there. how old is Lysander Excluding time lost in the warp? You'd have to add this time to his reign as chapter master too . And Dante was not born into the Angels and handed the name Lord of the host. You can guesstimate if you knew when the 12 Blood Angels assaulted the battle barge 'terrorclaw'. It is assumed (by me at least) that the Sergeant was Dante. I'd Hazard he's an easy 2000yrs old. Also what is this ennui that they refer to in Dantes entry? the way that sentence reads its sounds like a coma or his organs shut down.
The only thing keeping Dante alive is he believes his destiny awaits him still , Bjorn is believed to be warded from death till he fights for one last time beside the Russ.

I think that they were, during the great cruasade blessed with immortality but after the heresey they lost that knowledge and the gene seed deteriorated and immortality became longevity.

I belive Lysandar was in the Warp for 1000 years(real space time anyway) so that would mean Dante had been chapter master for at least 100 years(rather short time to become Captain of the 1st company)


most likely, Dante has been Chapter master for sometime between 1100 and 1700 years. he is likely another 4-500 years older then that.

No, he has been Chapter Master for 1100 years, no room for speculation on that. We don't know how long he was a normal marine before becoming Chapter Master, but I'd guess it was 400-500 years making him 1500-1600.

in the book hours rising Loken is asked by a remembrancer if astares ever grow old he replies "don't know none of us have ever lived long enough"

iproxtaco wrote:No, he has been Chapter Master for 1100 years, no room for speculation on that. We don't know how long he was a normal marine before becoming Chapter Master, but I'd guess it was 400-500 years making him 1500-1600.

no theres plenty of room for speculation. Captain Lysander who was lost in the warp for 1000 years cannot recall a time that he did not reign supreme. So how old would Lysander be without the 1000 years( i personally don't know) I'll hazard 400 years.
so for 1400 years Lysander has known Dante to be the Chapter master of the Blood Angels. And who knows how long before Lysander came into being did Dante run his BAdass class
Again that is Just my guesstimate if someone can enlighten me on the age of Lysander we could get a more accurate number.

You can't speculate a known fact with no contradictions. Dante has been Chapter Master for 1100 years. Fact. End of. His actual age you can speculate, and as we don't know Lysanders age you can try and guess it by piecing together different snipets from the various sources. We don;t know when Lysander joined the IF, we don't know when he was lost in the Warp, we don't know when he returned. This 1000 years is purely a guess with no actual source to back it up.

'oh Montgomary, I DISAGREE!' =p

iproxtaco wrote:You can't speculate a known fact with no contradictions. Dante has been Chapter Master for 1100 years. Fact. End of. His actual age you can speculate, and as we don't know Lysanders age you can try and guess it by piecing together different snipets from the various sources. We don;t know when Lysander joined the IF, we don't know when he was lost in the Warp, we don't know when he returned. This 1000 years is purely a guess with no actual source to back it up.

This is true. 1,100 years. He is believed to be at minimum 1,300 years old, but could be much older.

Then i guess we gotta put it down to the Tellion, Marneus effect.
I'm going by the BA dex ie the newest content so you would have to say it has the most up to date information so for Captain Lysander was 100yrs old when he was lost to the warp(He cannot recall a time when Dante was not Chapter Master.) Meaning he was the captain of the veteran 1st company at 100 yrs? I might be being to picky but that seems like a steep ask and to say that it was just 'fortunate' for Dantes predeccesor to fall and he to take the place as chapter master at almost the exact time that lysander became a SM.

it may just be an oversight of GW (scratch may and input was) but none the less i well remain stoic on my belief that Dante has been Chapter master for at least 1200 yrs and would be of an age of at least 1600.

Might i just add that i still do not know what this wprd 'ennui' is that Dante is referrring to. It is used as 'the only thing keeping him from ennui is the belief he still has a final act to perform'. To me this seems like a final rest a space marine is granted after countless, to him at least centuries of bloodshed. Meaning that they do have a expiration date.

padfoot wrote:Then i guess we gotta put it down to the Tellion, Marneus effect.
I'm going by the BA dex ie the newest content so you would have to say it has the most up to date information so for Captain Lysander was 100yrs old when he was lost to the warp(He cannot recall a time when Dante was not Chapter Master.) Meaning he was the captain of the veteran 1st company at 100 yrs? I might be being to picky but that seems like a steep ask and to say that it was just 'fortunate' for Dantes predeccesor to fall and he to take the place as chapter master at almost the exact time that lysander became a SM.

it may just be an oversight of GW (scratch may and input was) but none the less i well remain stoic on my belief that Dante has been Chapter master for at least 1200 yrs and would be of an age of at least 1600.

Might i just add that i still do not know what this wprd 'ennui' is that Dante is referrring to. It is used as 'the only thing keeping him from ennui is the belief he still has a final act to perform'. To me this seems like a final rest a space marine is granted after countless, to him at least centuries of bloodshed. Meaning that they do have a expiration date.

So, you're choosing to believe that Dante has been Chapter Master for more than 1200 years, despite us knowing, for an absolute fact, that he has been Chapter Master for 1100 years.

I had no idea what ennui was either, so I used that miracle that is 'the internet' to find it.

It's stated as meaning - a feeling of listlessness and general dissatisfaction resulting from lack of activity or excitement.

It basically returns to the point I made earlier. The Astartes mind is still human, strengthened and given an amount of longevity same as the body but still greatly human. No marine is really supposed to survive for as long as he has, but obviously, they physically can. A life of war and constant burden has worn him down, just like any normal man will grow tired of a job after a whole lifetime of day in day out tediousness. He is basically close to giving up his duty, not getting close the end of a Space Marines operational lifespan.

Ennui is french for boredom but has become an english word meaning extreme weariness due caused by boredom or the passage of time.

I think really old marines get tired of living so "accidentaly" slow down on 1 parry or do something insanely brave or something like that, they dont realise it but subconciously they've had enough

I want to know how dante has fought off the red thirst and black rage for that long. They dont explain it clearly.

once a BA has lived for a long time he eventually is able to keep the Red Thirst under control and becomes less likely to fall to it.


you will notice that none of the BA HQ choices have Red Thirst and only DC Tychon has Black Rage.

this represents the impressive control these senior members of the BAs have built up over the centuries.


Mephiston doesn't have it because he has been cured of the flaw.