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Dante is not the oldest Space Marine. Dreadnoughts are older.

The C'tan were formed at the start of the universe.

Khorne was born in roughly the middle ages, and he was the first to be born of the Chaos Gods.

UrbanCowboy wrote:C'tan Unknown

It's plainly stated they were born with the universe itself. Nothing else can actually be older than the C'tan.

UrbanCowboy wrote:Tyranids At least 10000 years Pre Fall

By far. Considering sub-light travel between a dozen galaxies would put them in the billions of years old on travel time alone. Even more when considering time spent consuming said galaxies and actually evolving into what they are right now.

However, they don't count, as they're en entire race. I guess you could count the Hive Mind though.

Void__Dragon wrote:The C'tan were formed at the start of the universe.

Khorne was born in roughly the middle ages, and he was the first to be born of the Chaos Gods.

That is correct if the Lexicanum is to be held to be the final authority.
I looked at this and of all places, the Necron Codex describes the fouling of the Warp which was once a tranquil sea. The fight against the necrons turned the warp into a turbulent realm filled with the dark warborn emotions that would gain in strength until they grew strong enough to become sentient beings. These are the three old chaos gods. The direct reference to this is on page 26 of the Necron codex. Granted the emergence of hostile warp entities fuelled by the negative emotions of mortals does not mean that the greater powers were instantly sentient or that they were necessarily among said entities. However I would argue that the probability is there. Thus I somewhat concede that you may be right about the the entities and that one can question whether sentience would be the true birth of a being or if they were alive beforehand, like Slaanesh when he/she is described as being in embryo before the fall. That discussion clearly leads directly into abortion and all the controversy there, which we simply can not resolve here.

As to the Dreadnoughts, you are correct as to them being the oldest sentient space marines around. I was mistaken.

Oh and Loki, the nearest galaxy that we currently know of is a dwarf in Sagittarius that is 60000 light years away.
Assuming you could cover 600 light years a year, you could cover the ground between there and here in 10k years.
There is also the theory that they are being attracted by the astronimicon so they would have been traveling here after it was activated 10k years before they appeared.
Given that the Tyranids are slower than conventional warp travel, and going off of White Dwarf 139/140, it would still be easy for them to arrive here in time as that WD says that warp travel on average takes 12-48 hours to go 500 LY. Granted that is on average, but that still means that tyranids would have to be epically slower than warp drives to have not made it in under 10k years. I will not argue that the Nids are not billions of years old, merely that they can not be pegged on a timeline apart from probably at least 10k years. And I was considering them as one huge organism.

UrbanCowboy wrote:Pheonix Lords The Fall

The Phoenix Lords' armour has been around since the Fall... but has been inhabited by a succession of different Exarchs.

I still don't think Abbadon counts because of the daemonic gifts. Being gifted by nurgle is like being a zombie, and we all know zombie's aren't alive.

It's not so much the Daemonic Gifts... Many of the Chaos Marines still running around (daemonically gifted or no) fought in the Heresy. And the 4 surviving Chaos Primarchs are obviously a little older than the Legions that were formed using their Geneseed... But In the case of the Marines at least, they're only still as chipper as they are because of the way time flows in the Eye of Terror. They've been around for more than 10000 years... but they're not actually that old. Bjorn would have actually lived more years than his Chaos contemporaries.

Then again, he spends large amounts of time in stasis in between battles. So you probably need to cross some years off his span as well.

Regarding the Vect theory, I can argue that the DE codex mentions that there are older Archons than Vect who remember the fall and still perpetrate the same acts that doomed their race. Many Haemonculi would also be older than Vect, though none of these characters are elaborated upopn, save Urien Rakarth (if I've spelt it correctly). He is much older than Vect and is probably the oldest mortal DE character that is acknowledged.


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insaniak wrote:It's not so much the Daemonic Gifts... Many of the Chaos Marines still running around (daemonically gifted or no) fought in the Heresy. And the 4 surviving Chaos Primarchs are obviously a little older than the Legions that were formed using their Geneseed... But In the case of the Marines at least, they're only still as chipper as they are because of the way time flows in the Eye of Terror. They've been around for more than 10000 years... but they're not actually that old. Bjorn would have actually lived more years than his Chaos contemporaries.

I would also have to agree with this, as for example the Night Lords 10th in Soul Hunter have been around since the Heresy and to them in has only been 100 years or so since the Imperial Palace siege, while most of them despise Chaos. Abbaddon also wouldn't be the oldest Chaos Legionary, he just wields the most power as Warmaster. During the Great Crusade, there were many older Terran Astartes that had been part of the Legions since their founding and may well be older than the primarchs. Erebus would be a good example if I'm not mistaken.

UrbanCowboy wrote:

Void__Dragon wrote:The C'tan were formed at the start of the universe.

Khorne was born in roughly the middle ages, and he was the first to be born of the Chaos Gods.

That is correct if the Lexicanum is to be held to be the final authority.
I looked at this and of all places, the Necron Codex describes the fouling of the Warp which was once a tranquil sea. The fight against the necrons turned the warp into a turbulent realm filled with the dark warborn emotions that would gain in strength until they grew strong enough to become sentient beings. These are the three old chaos gods. The direct reference to this is on page 26 of the Necron codex. Granted the emergence of hostile warp entities fuelled by the negative emotions of mortals does not mean that the greater powers were instantly sentient or that they were necessarily among said entities. However I would argue that the probability is there. Thus I somewhat concede that you may be right about the the entities and that one can question whether sentience would be the true birth of a being or if they were alive beforehand, like Slaanesh when he/she is described as being in embryo before the fall. That discussion clearly leads directly into abortion and all the controversy there, which we simply can not resolve here.

Those were very likely Daemons.
Earlier sources (I don't remember where, probably Slaves to Darkness/ Realms of Chaos) give the Chaos Gods' birth-ates, with Khorne being in the Middle Ages, Tzeentch during the Renaissance, Nurgle when the Black Death was sweeping through Europe, and Slaanesh just before the start of the Great Crusade.
If you want to get a bit more in depth, you could argue that Khorne has existed for as long as the concept of violence has, but the chaos super-entity of violence did not become Khorne until the Middle Ages.

It's been said that the Chaos gods, due to 'living' in a timeless place, have always existed. It's just our perceptions of them that have changed.

Wulfen Andy wrote:

Coolyo294 wrote:Eldar are the oldest, but Huron is definetely younger then Bjorn and Abbaddon.

So which of the Eldar would be the oldest? Because race wise humans and eldar are both very old!

Race timeline in 40k:

1. C'tan and Old Ones
2. Necrontyr
3. Eldar, Orks, Jereko (created to fight the C'tan and Necrontyr)
4. Man
5. Dark Eldar, Craftworld Eldar, Exodites
6. Space Marine (created after the fall)
7. Tau

Huron Black Heart is a relatively recent space marine from a chapter founding in one of the middle foundings so cannot be that old.
The C'tan are the oldest LIVING being in the universe.

Probably a big old Slann sitting in his swamp

Mr Morden wrote:Probably a big old Slann sitting in his swamp

If the question presumes organic, (nominally) mortal beings, that would be my best guess too.