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Aren't the Primarchs supposed to be as big compared to a Space Marine as Space Marines are to normal humans? I've always used this image as a referance for the size compareson even though Horus is in Terminator armor so it makes him larger then normal.

I'm just curious about wether or not the Traitor Primarchs grew once they became Daemon Princes and how they compared in size to the Loyal Primarchs.

It's a tricky one, some Primarchs apparently towered over their Space Marine sons like Dorn, Horus and Mortarion. Magnus was supposed to be the biggest of the Primarchs. Alpharius and Omegon were about as tall as a larger Space Marine as their general could pass for them.

I think that image you have is a good representation of Primarch and Astartes.

It varies because they have different builds and body types. Though I haven't heard of any of them being shorter than an average space marine, they aren't too much taller either.

9-11 ft. Emprah probably 'round 13.

Official height for SM listed by FFG on 40k radio as 7' to 7.5' in armor. Emperor probably around 9 feet, dreadnoughts at about 14 to 15 feet.

I think the emperor could use his prodigious psychic talents to make himself however large/powerful he wanted to be.

As for primarchs, some stood head and shoulders higher than their sons (horus, the wolf king, magnus), while some I think were about the same size or slightly larger (alpharius, probably more).

Big enough to make humans wet themselves in fear.

Mr Nobody wrote:Big enough to make humans wet themselves in fear.

we have the winner

Kasrkai wrote:9-11 ft. Emprah probably 'round 13.

Sorry, no. Empy is about 10 feet max, as space marines are ~8, 2 feet taller than a tall human, and primarchs are ~9, a full head over a space marine.

This is clear to see from the Horus Heresy artbook.

Unless there's either starvation or over-nourishment in whichever group of people they're being put next to. People during the Renaissance were about five feet tall. In the Middle Ages they ranged from four and a half to six feet on average, depending on where they lived and how wealthy they were. I'm guessing the Emperor is pretty damn well fed, and people aren't getting shorter.

Just for the record, it wasnt really that Alpharius was that much shorter than his brother Primarchs. It was that his Space Marine sons were for some reason taller on average, so it helped bridge the gap in size between them

ph34r wrote:

Kasrkai wrote:9-11 ft. Emprah probably 'round 13.

Sorry, no. Empy is about 10 feet max, as space marines are ~8, 2 feet taller than a tall human, and primarchs are ~9, a full head over a space marine.

This is clear to see from the Horus Heresy artbook.

WELL PARDON ME. The HH books as I have read say the Primarchs were a good head taller than marines yes, and that the emperor towers over all. A foot isn't exactly towering, that's how I read it.

It says that marines are an average of seven feet in the CSM codex. And if Horus was as tall to them as they were to humans then they were probably around 8-9 depending on the primarch. The pic of the Emperor fighting Horus makes them look around the same height though.

Ronin wrote:Just for the record, it wasnt really that Alpharius was that much shorter than his brother Primarchs. It was that his Space Marine sons were for some reason taller on average, so it helped bridge the gap in size between them

Yup from the IA article, but the Alpha Legion from the Index Astartes article are quite different from those portrayed in Legion.

I've had this same discussion on various sites. I am not saying that Alpharius is a like a metre shorter or a midget compared to his brothers, but I believe that he is the shorter of the Primarchs, he's the youngest of the Primarchs and his awesomsauce didn't just go into one Primarch, but two.

Until a the day comes when it says Alparius was bigger than Russ et al, i'm a believer in the shortest Primarch theory.

Unarmoured Space Marines are about 7ft. The wargear adds maybe 6" to that. Terminator Armour adds another foot to the natural height.

I've always seen it as...

6' Guard/humans
7' Unarmoured Astartes
7'5" Power Armoured Astartes
8' Terminator Armour
8-9' Primarchs
9'-10' The God-Emperor of Mankind

The problem is, all the information is conflicting. Some books describe armoured Marines as 'two metres tall' which makes them about 6'5" which is naff all, people are often taller than that...

Not overly big at all, judging from the front cover of the Prospero Burn book, where Leman Russ is at the front of his army. You can see there he is at most 'only' a few inches larger than his followers, say at (considering SM's are normally 6'5"), Leman Russ should be around 6'8" to 6'9". That is much more say believable range in sizes, that meant primarchs may well have a comeback in playable models without looking like Ogryns in the tabletop

I picture your average guardsmen being roughly 5.5-6 ft tall. If a space marine is 8-9 feet tall, then your space marine is roughly 150% the size of a regular guardsmen. Since the primarchs are to space marines what space marines are to regular people, I'd assume them to be about 12-14 feet tall, keeping that ratio the same.

I could also be argued that since spacemarines came from the gene seed of their primarchs, they should be almost same height, with the primarch just slightly above his 'sons' for emphasis on his importance, not overly large to make his sons look like dwarves or midgets.

Roughly speaking...

Marines (in armor) 8'
Primarchs 9' to 10', with some notable exceptions being taller than that (Magnus!)
Emperor... has it ever been said that he towers over Primarchs?

I don't think it has.

His Psychic Presence accounts for some of this, but it wouldn't surprise me if he was in the 6' to 7' range, actually.

Chaos space marine primarch gammadin is much bigger than normal a space marine. He is head and sholders larger. His mass was described as being 76 % metal and larger than a dreadnought. His armour was fused to his body and has better armoured than land raider.

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:
I'm just curious about wether or not the Traitor Primarchs grew once they became Daemon Princes and how they compared in size to the Loyal Primarchs.

The rest of this thread is pretty grossly inaccurate about marine heights in general (specifically they are listed as almost exactly 2m tall in their armor, with little variation in height). Primarchs are giants compared to them.

But on the subject of the daemon princes, at least the big 4 are grew substantially. Their miniatures were about half as tall as Warhound titan.

What are you saying?

Two metres is only six feet six inches. That would make an SM out of armour about the same height as a tallish ordinary man.

That simply can't be correct.

As an aside, there's some debate as to how tall the Emperor actually was as, due to his psychic ability, he seems to be able to completely disguise his appearance and change his stature at will.

brainscan wrote:Chaos space marine primarch gammadin is much bigger than normal a space marine. He is head and sholders larger. His mass was described as being 76 % metal and larger than a dreadnought. His armour was fused to his body and has better armoured than land raider.

Gammadin isn't a Primarch, he's a renegade Chapter Master. At no point was he described as any of those things. He's partially ascended but he's still almost knobbled by a Nurgle Marine Champion. He's just a big Traitor Marine.

A primarch should be twice the size of a space marine as a seated space marine looks a primarch on one knee in the eyes.

Aren't most SM 3 metres tall in armour in armour? So 10ft? So a primarch would have to be like 13-14ft

Sigh... will you people please open the CSM codex to page 26 and read the first paragraph. It clearly says they are seven feet tall. Sweat Jesus

Chosen Praetorian wrote:Sigh... will you people please open the CSM codex to page 26 and read the first paragraph. It clearly says they are seven feet tall.

Is that in or out of Power Armor?

I know I've read that they're 3 meters tall somewhere. I'm going to search it out.

The average healthy human male in 40k should be between 5 foot 10 inches & 6 foot 4 inches about 1.78m-1.93m
The average healthy space marine should be between 6 foot 7in & 7 foot 7 inches about 2m-2.31m
Magnus the tallest space marine on record was supposedly 12-14 feet tall
For comperison an Ogryn is 3m (9 foot 10)
An Ork Boy is 2m tall (6 foot 7 inches)
An Ork Nob is 2.5m tall (8 foot 2 inches)
As a real world comperison Neil Fingleton, currently England's tallest man is 7'7.56" (2.3256m) & a suprisingly good example of what a real space marrine would probably look like.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but how does space marine armour add height? I'm assuming when we talk about terminator armour adding a foot, we're measuring from the soles of the feet to the top of the body thats actually above the head, but how does power armour add a significant amount of height? They don't have platform boots.

Im not disputing that armour adds height, seeing as thats what all the fluff says, I'm just curious as to how.