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So I'm writing up a background piece for my gothic fleet. Now unlike marines in the warp, it a lot less clear as to life expectancy.

How long would a human live for? Could they relisticly be assumed to have been crew/captains in the heresy? Would. They have long since passed and its the descendents/upstarts who take over command roles?

I know this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string type question' but I suppose what I'm asking is what sounds better more realistic.

1. Original crew
Or
2. Recent replacements, and if 2. How recent?

A regular human doesn't live longer in 40k than in 2k, do they? So about 70 years. Unless tampered with by means of bionics or Chaos blessings. Or have I missed something?

Then again the concept of time is a little iffy in the Warp, so they might've been drifting around for centuries without feeling it?

If I recall correctly Colonel Schaeffer is around three centuries old, which is rare, and only because he's been reconstructed by tech-priests.

Many of the BL novels discuss that one fo the important elements that Chaos Marines raid Imperial shipping for is crew.

Not just because they age but due to tantrums by the Chaos Marines, warp corruption and lack of any interest in their well being.

However some crew may survive in some form from back in the days of the Heresy either by Chaos "rewards", being connected directly into a living ship, being rebuilt by the Dark Mechanicum, being possessed etc.

The Imperium does have anti-ageing drugs that enable you to live for centuries - Chaos can likely do the same - almost certain to be more icky though..... Nurgle is another good one for keeping you alive.

I would write it as most crew on a Chaos warship as slaves - usually with a short life span but a few loyal retainers and favoured acolytes etc.

The Night Lords series does go into this quite a bit with the central non Chaos Marine characters And they are ace reads anyway.

If you are using the Chaos ship designs in the BFG book, be aware that most of those ships date from M36 or so, though some like the Desolator battleship class or the grand cruisers can be from the Heresy era.

Aside from the already mentioned effects of Chaos rewards and being fused to your ship, there is also the time distortion effect, though that may mean the crew is less veteran than it might appear simply by looking at the objective chronological years. The "Rip van Winkle" effect of travelling in the warp can mean a few weeks or months for a ship subjectively while outside hundreds or thousands of years pass. They may be emerging onto a galaxy utterly different from what they left.

Time doesn't pass in the Warp as we understand it. There's a common expression in BL literature "sidereal age", which is the number of years the person has lived, including the amount of time spent in the Warp during transit (or for any other reason).

Thus, if you were born in M42.001 and boarded a ship in M42.0021 for a distant star-system, and spent a century in the Warp before arriving at your destination in M42.121, your apparent age (and age as far as you can tell) is 20, your sidereal age is 120.

Well at the moment I'm thinking using a more recent traitor is the way to go.
Although possible to have heresy era veterans, more modern renegades might be more plauasble.

As a rough thought, maybe a fleet loyal to Vandire pursued and renegade since the battle for Terra and Sebastian Thor.

Could easily have a mxiture - with the main Battlebarge haivng some original crew and the Escort support ships being new converts - willingly or not - bit of tension to add to the mix of your fluff

A neglected part of the lore for sure, they really need a mortal admiral from the Horus Heresy to show up.

Well vandires apostasy was M36, so it ties in with ship contsruction in the Chaos fleet list.

So the question is, is 4 Millenia too much for a realistic life span for a human even within the eye/maelstrom?

Or would it be better for me to say concentrate of the vessels background, and then have a more recent background for say a renegade Captain or Admiral and how they came to command the vessel?

Time flows without rhyme or reason in the Warp, if it can be said to flow at all. You don't have to worry about being reasonable when it comes to this issue. You could have crewmen from the HH era. I think what's more important is to emphasize how they have been corrupted and mutated.

Examples of the older ships still exist in the Imperium's hands, mostly in mothballed storage or reserve fleets. So a recent renegade could still take control of these kinds of ships, either by getting enough crew to steal one out of storage, or be a reserve fleet captain or admiral that goes rogue, or be a the ringleader of a crew mutiny against the officers.

Nah, 4000 years in the Warp isn't really a big deal. What would be a more interesting story is how the guy has lived this long and kept command of his ship, without getting made the bish of some Aspiring Champion or Traitor Legionnaire.

The impression I got is that life expectancy is short for all mortals everywhere, and that while some individuals might have extended lifespans, those will be the exceptional members of the species and will be noteworthy in some way. The Warp can do what it likes regarding natural lifespan, and chemical/cybernetic/arcane enhancements are sure to be prevalent. If you want to be "realistic," I'd say most of the crew should be replacements, sometime within the last century at most, with a few key characters maybe extending their lifespans indefinitely. The longer they have been alive, however, the more horrific I'd say their enhancements should be and the less human or sympathetic they should be.

The general idea ive always run with is that mortals are mortals and will die in a reasonable time unless the chaos gods choose to 'bless' them. The gods wont bless everyone, humans just arent worth their attention like that. However some of the more outstanding of the ranks would get the immortality they seek.

Ive always thought most of the CSM's and high ranking chaos IG and fleet commanders liveon like that, but the underlings and lesser officers are left to die of age without a second thought. Immortality leaves a good motivation for the men to strive for that way.

I think some could have survived in time pockets with extensive bionics and good genes to start with. An entire ship full, that might be difficult.