Void__Dragon wrote:It varies, as it does with humans.

On average, outside of the armour marines are 7 feet tall I think, 8 in.

Cannot check any codex for verification at the moment though.

Lynata wrote:

Void__Dragon wrote:Who do you think they are, guardsmen?

Touché!

Concerning some of those sources - keep in mind that Black Library books cannot create canon; each "average height" given in various licensed works is, at the end of the day, part of that individual author's interpretation.
May suck concerning continuity, but GW has adopted the "Star Trek" way of dealing with their setting. On the other hand, things like those multilasers etc make me feel glad it's that way.

“Keep in mind Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 are worlds where half truths, lies, propaganda, politics, legends and myths exist. The absolute truth which is implied when you talk about “canonical background” will never be known because of this. Everything we know about these worlds is from the viewpoints of people in them which are as a result incomplete and even sometimes incorrect. The truth is mutable, debatable and lost as the victors write the history…
Here’s our standard line: Yes it’s all official, but remember that we’re reporting back from a time where stories aren’t always true, or at least 100% accurate. if it has the 40K logo on it, it exists in the 40K universe. Or it was a legend that may well have happened. Or a rumour that may or may not have any truth behind it.
Let’s put it another way: anything with a 40K logo on it is as official as any Codex… and at least as crammed full of rumours, distorted legends and half-truths.
I think the real problem for me, and I speak for no other, is that the topic as a “big question” doesn’t matter. It’s all as true as everything else, and all just as false/half-remembered/sort-of-true. The answer you are seeking is “Yes and no” or perhaps “Sometimes”. And for me, that’s the end of it.
Now, ask us some specifics, eg can Black Templars spit acid and we can answer that one, and many others. But again note thet answer may well be “sometimes” or “it varies” or “depends”.
But is it all true? Yes and no. Even though some of it is plainly contradictory? Yes and no. Do we deliberately contradict, retell with differences? Yes we do. Is the newer the stuff the truer it is? Yes and no. In some cases is it true that the older stuff is the truest? Yes and no. Maybe and sometimes. Depends and it varies.
It’s a decaying universe without GPS and galaxy-wide communication, where precious facts are clung to long after they have been changed out of all recognition. Read A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M Miller, about monks toiling to hold onto facts in the aftermath of a nucelar war; that nails it for me.
Sorry, too much splurge here. Not meant to sound stroppy.
To attempt answer the initial question: What is GW’s definition of canon? Perhaps we don’t have one. Sometimes and maybe. Or perhaps we do and I’m not telling you.”
-Marc Gascoigne

Void__Dragon wrote:

Lynata wrote:Obviously a Marine can only walk or stand with his legs spread apart as to not crush his giant adamantium

Actually, in a related topic, how tall were the Primarchs, on average?

They were said to tower over Space Marines, but I don't know how much.

It depends on a primarch, Alpharius and Omegon were the shortest ones, tall approximately as or little more than a Space Marine, Ferrus Manus and Leman Russ IIRC were towering over the Terminators.

Lynata wrote:*snip*

Lynata wrote:

IvanTih wrote:BL stuff has to adhere to the defined elements of the 40k setting, that's why we have Heretic Tomes after all.

That's the problem, for there are two things:

- authors DO make mistakes which do not get corrected by editors (Ecclesiarchy having its own battleships, Terminators doing backflips, Multilaser-Marines, D-cannons firing projectiles, Schola Progenium not being gender-divided, ... etc pp)
and
- novels still cannot establish any canon on their own (else BL would demand its writers to respect each other), so what's the point in pulling them as a source?

(Marc Gascoigne - Publisher @ The Black Library and Black Flame)

Here's our standard line: Yes it's all official, but remember that we're reporting back from a time where stories aren't always true, or at least 100% accurate. if it has the 40K logo on it, it exists in the 40K universe. Or it was a legend that may well have happened. Or a rumour that may or may not have any truth behind it.

Let's put it another way: anything with a 40K logo on it is as official as any Codex... and at least as crammed full of rumours, distorted legends and half-truths.