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I've been doing a lot of 40k reading and a question that has occured to me is how do the space marines keep their numbers up? I realize that the progenid glands are harvested when possible, but are they making more or what? Sometimes the progenoid glands are destroyed or the body is unable to be recovered. Over time, this would eventually lead to them disappearing completely. So what am I missing here?

the organs are harvested by the apothacaries , some chapters , notably the Raven Guard have some missing.

there are some banks of geneseed kept , using dark age technology to grow , the current Imperium doesnt know HOW they grow , but they do.

Synthetik wrote:the organs are harvested by the apothacaries , some chapters , notably the Raven Guard have some missing.

there are some banks of geneseed kept , using dark age technology to grow , the current Imperium doesnt know HOW they grow , but they do.

They recruit people from worlds that prove themselves worthy of being a space marine train train train die die die half the recruits are promoted to neyphotes and then some of them that survive become space marines.

Asherian Command wrote:

Synthetik wrote:the organs are harvested by the apothacaries , some chapters , notably the Raven Guard have some missing.

there are some banks of geneseed kept , using dark age technology to grow , the current Imperium doesnt know HOW they grow , but they do.

They recruit people from worlds that prove themselves worthy of being a space marine train train train die die die half the recruits are promoted to neyphotes and then some of them that survive become space marines.

I had tha tpart, but my question was more hoe they replace the progenoid glands that are destroyed or couldn't be recovered.

Synthetik wrote:the organs are harvested by the apothacaries , some chapters , notably the Raven Guard have some missing.

there are some banks of geneseed kept , using dark age technology to grow , the current Imperium doesnt know HOW they grow , but they do.

Thanks, that's the answer I was looking for. I'm assuming those banks are extremely well protected. Wouldn't want those to get captured.

every progenitor gland provides material for two space marines, that is how they can maintain a positive gradient in the numbers of space marines.

Thanks, that's the answer I was looking for. I'm assuming those banks are extremely well protected. Wouldn't want those to get captured.

Most of the time they are, but if youre a sneaky Chaos champion known as Huron Blackheart, well...

Through normal use each generation would double the number of geneseeds assuming nothing went wrong. In practice they still get enough of a surplus over the chapter's needs to tithe the rest for testing, safekeeping against misfortune, establishment of new chapters. If the Imperium wants to hurry things along they can do that thing where they grow people in tubes and implant geneseeds for the sole purpose of harvesting the redoubled geneseeds.

Blackhoof wrote:every progenitor gland provides material for two space marines, that is how they can maintain a positive gradient in the numbers of space marines.

More accurately put, inside every space marine there will be 2 progenoid glands. When the marines die, both are harvested 2 new marines can be created. One is in the neck and the other within the chest.

Progenoid glands collect the genetic information necessary to create a new set of organs to be implanted into an aspirant.

One Progenoid is located in the neck. It is harvested when it matures, guaranteeing at least one marine.

The other Progenoid is within the marine's chest cavity, and is much more survivable for this reason. It can't be removed until death, again, for obvious reasons.

The neck Progenoid is harvested first, then the chest one after death. This is "supposed" to be how its done, but pretty much all publications have both Progenoids being removed only after death.

The genetic information collected by each Progenoid are used to grow a new set of organs for new aspirants, and the cycle goes on.

how it works is like this,

a Marine has 2 Progenoids.

when harvested, each can make a full set of implants for 1 new space marine(including 2 new progenoids)



so a single marine can make 2 marines who can make 4 new space marines and so on.


now this process takes a while so they really don't like losing Geneseed, but they can recover(as long as there are apothecaries alive to do the job)


the Neck Progenoid is likely removed while the marine is still alive, so that in case the other is lost the chapter won't have lost genetic material. the Chest one is removed after death and is a bonus allowing the chapter to actually increase in numbers.

It used to be that you could remove the progenoids before death - one (the neck) after 5 years and the other (chest) after 10 years but I think that has changed now to make it more important to recover dead marines?