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I'm mostly just curious but I've been wondering just how long it takes before a space marine shows any signs of aging. I know they're more or less immortal unless killed in battle because there's guys like Dante walking around but do they ever actually appear physically older? It's weird because I've seen and read multiple depictions and its weird because super veterans like Pedro Kantor or Uriel Ventris can be described as appearing fairly youthful while other marines have been described as old and weathered. For example in the WH40K Space Marine game, Captain Titus appears as though hes maybe in his late thirties or early forties, but then his honor guard Leonus looks like a fresh recruit and Sidonus looks like he's lived like a hundred years. Technically they would all be veterans though with what? like a century of experience, yet they all look different. Does the fluff even make any attempt to explain this or is this something we're supposed to just shrug away for the sake of having marines appear diverse? What's anyone's thoughts on this?

They probably do age, but it would be tough for a normal human to tell over time. You'd probably not see much appreciable difference between a 100 and a 300 year old marine, but might see some between a 100 and a 500.

Something like they get to their mid twenties and then aging slows down dramatically. They never suffer from major physical degradation till they get super old(400-500), but the actual time depends on the geneseed.

Just look at Chuck Norris, Hulk Hogan, or Arnold for an idea of what an old marine might look like. Visibly old, but still very much physically fit.

Normal humans in the setting have means of extending their lives, although available only to the rich and powerful. It's entirely possible that Space Marines have means of slowing their age even more than is natural by being a Marine. It's also possible that, after becoming a Marine, you basically age normally until you get stuck in "your" way; ie, a Marine reaches 30 and stops aging outwardly, and stays like that for the rest of his life. That said, Marines who outwardly appear older are just as physically fit as ones who are not (sometimes it is even hinted that older Marines are stronger).

I think the specific choice for how the characters looked in the Space Marine game was to highlight the disparity between the two characters; "A NoobMarine, looks younger than Titus" and "A Veteran, looks older than Titus". More a character design choice rather than to do with their actual age.

It does in large part depend on the geneseed, but I imagine other factors could play in.

An example is Chaplain Cassius, the oldest active Ultramarine at barely 400 - he looks like a cranky 70-year old man (and he calls his Chapter Master "young Calgar"). I'd imagine his body shows the outward signs of advanced age due to him being just about disintegrated by Tyranids, then rebuilt with bionics and hate. Ultramarine heritage doesn't seem to make you live any longer than your average Imperial noble can - in fact most marines probably live shorter lives anyway since they have a tendency to die in combat.

Then there's the aforementioned Commander Dante who at 1200+ years old could wear a robe and fit right in with the High Elves in the LotR movies. He looks like a man in his prime, handsome and noble. Then again, so do most of the Blood Angels. It seems their process of creating marines usually also makes them very handsome and un-aging.

Space Wolves do get grey with age, and their canine teeth grow longer. Not that it seems to slow them down very much, as some famous examples are very old (though not even they can recall a time Dante didn't lead the BA). Here I'd guess the Canis Helix has something to do with it.

As said before it depends heavily on the quality and lineage of the geneseed. Dante is over one thousand years old and I'm not sure if he has shown any signs of aging. I'm sure weaker lines with lower quality geneseed produce weaker Marines that begin to age as early as the hundreds.

Spetulhu wrote:
in fact most marines probably live shorter lives anyway since they have a tendency to die in combat.

I'm pretty sure this is the main reason why the question of how long a Space Marine can live is so hard to answer, as there are extremely few who are extremely old and we don't know if this is due to some other factor (like gene-seed). Their age is usually said to be unusual, but again, we don't know if this means unusual because of ageing or because actually surviving through that much active service is rare.

Spetulhu wrote:

Then there's the aforementioned Commander Dante who at 1200+ years old could wear a robe and fit right in with the High Elves in the LotR movies. He looks like a man in his prime, handsome and noble. Then again, so do most of the Blood Angels. It seems their process of creating marines usually also makes them very handsome and un-aging.

Being vampires on a nutritional diet of blood strawberry sauce does wonders for your complexion.

Blood Angels have been stated to be "long lived". Dante especially shows they're really not a good idea to use them as a gauge of when a space marine starts looking old

Dante was infused with Eldar blood when he was still an initiate, which probably explains his youthfulness.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Dante was infused with Eldar blood when he was still an initiate, which probably explains his youthfulness.

Wait what. Where does this come from?

Their geneseed comes from th Emperor who has lived who for ten's upon thousands of years, and then some. Depending on quality of their lineage, as said above, affects their aging and how long they live.
To me they are imortal warriors destined to die in the fires of combat. To live for ever, but never will they. To watch the the long passage of time, but never see it's ending, only their own. It's rather tragic and grimdark that way.

SW do clearly show signs of aging. Their fangs become longer and their hair turns grey.

 Themanwiththeplan wrote:
Their geneseed comes from th Emperor who has lived who for ten's upon thousands of years, and then some. Depending on quality of their lineage, as said above, affects their aging and how long they live.
To me they are imortal warriors destined to die in the fires of combat. To live for ever, but never will they. To watch the the long passage of time, but never see it's ending, only their own. It's rather tragic and grimdark that way.

That is a nice way to describe it, I think.

So I guess every SM just has a certain "freeze point" in which they come to a standstill with age or it really slows down. I forget, when is a SM considered mature? I know they get like their progenoid glands last, one in the neck, another in the chest. I think it takes a decade at least for the chest one. Maybe longer idk.

How long does a marine have to serve before he's considered a veteran or "old" by SM standards. I know it varies by chapter and feat, but what's the general amount of time. Is it like a century?

It takes 10 years for one of the progenoids to mature. The other takes 20. So 20 years for a new set of progenoids to be grown from the ground up.

Space marines hit their prime, and stop aging for all intents and purposes. The reason they look older...is they take more and more battle damage. More bionics, more scars, but physically they have the body of Mr Universe and the athleticism of an Olympian for the rest of their lives until they die in battle.

Iacton qruze was an extremely old space marine in the sons of Horus, it's said he even fought with the emperor before the finding of the primarchs

He had an aged face and grey hair had the nick name "the half heard" because the majority of his brothers ignored what he had to say due to his age.

It's never said that his combat skills were found lacking though. Marines seem to age in features and mind but not in body.

IIRC in one of the Space wolf books a marine looked ancient but was relatively young and then there was one that was the opposite.

brother marcus wrote:
Iacton qruze was an extremely old space marine in the sons of Horus, it's said he even fought with the emperor before the finding of the primarchs

He had an aged face and grey hair had the nick name "the half heard" because the majority of his brothers ignored what he had to say due to his age.

It's never said that his combat skills were found lacking though. Marines seem to age in features and mind but not in body.

They never listened all that close to what he would say because he was always reminding them of the good old days and reproaching them for what he thought was the moral decline of the legion (turned out he was right). People just got tired of the old war stories and lectures and would switch off when he spoke so they only 'half heard' what he would say.
It's also mentioned that he fought in the Unification wars of Terra and is the reason why he would sometimes salute with the pre-unity symbol of the closed fist.

In the Horus Heresy Novels the 'pre-finding of the appropriate primarch's marines of a legion look older than newer recruits (wrinkles and greying hair) but still very much equal physically to younger marine and they seem to be 2-300 years old.
Whereas the newer legionnaires found after the primarch was located are more youthful in appearance but still look like men well over 20 as they are never described as young looking.

brother marcus wrote:
Iacton qruze was an extremely old space marine in the sons of Horus, it's said he even fought with the emperor before the finding of the primarchs
He had an aged face and grey hair had the nick name "the half heard" because the majority of his brothers ignored what he had to say due to his age.
It's never said that his combat skills were found lacking though. Marines seem to age in features and mind but not in body.

If memory serves I believe there are also several bits about him having stiff joints and other almost arthritis like symptoms, despite still being an effective combatant. I think the "space marines don't age" is a myth based on the fact that they live a lot longer than humans but never die of natural causes. They never have the chance to, they die in combat.

We know of a Salamander marine who was still alive from the Heresy era into modern times, though his armor had long siezed up and his muscles atrophied from disuse.

I thought "age" of Space Marines is usually determined not by normal human aging signs but the amount of scars and cybernatic parts they have.