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 KhorneontheCobb wrote:
Both Kharn and Ahriman fought in the unification wars on Terra.

Ahriman did not fight in the Unification Wars iirc. His people were allied to the Emperor and did not participate in the war, and he was likely too young anyways. I also do not know anything of Kharn fighting in the Unification Wars, he was recruited as a neophyte some time after the Wars ended (just like Ahriman) so it is likely both did not actually fight in the Unification Wars as they were too young. Of Merir Astelan we also know that he was a child during the Unification Wars, and he was recruited in the first (and only at that time) Legion, so it seems plausible he is actually the oldest. The Dark Angels were already around by the end of the Unification Wars, so it is possible that Astelan actually fought in them. Of course, with all the time shenanigans involving the Fallen, it is impossible to say how much of the time between the Heresy and the present he has actually experienced. He is probably the oldest surviving Astarte by date of birth though.

 JamesY wrote:
@ Chaz Zahariel and cypher go to investigate the corruption and cypher runs off, leaving Zahariel alone.

That does not mean Cypher isn't Zahariel in 40k. The Lord Cypher changed during 30k, and was a title, not a person.

I'm fairly certain that in the night lord's void stalker novel that Talos mentions it's been 200 years, for him, since curze's death on tsagualsa. So when people say oldest do they mean oldest physically in real space or oldest in that they've simply used the warp's time slowing shenanigans to hang out and ignore that linear progression of time crap? Surely it's worth qualifying that?

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 KhorneontheCobb wrote:
Both Kharn and Ahriman fought in the unification wars on Terra.

Ahriman did not fight in the Unification Wars iirc. His people were allied to the Emperor and did not participate in the war, and he was likely too young anyways. I also do not know anything of Kharn fighting in the Unification Wars, he was recruited as a neophyte some time after the Wars ended (just like Ahriman) so it is likely both did not actually fight in the Unification Wars as they were too young. Of Merir Astelan we also know that he was a child during the Unification Wars, and he was recruited in the first (and only at that time) Legion, so it seems plausible he is actually the oldest. The Dark Angels were already around by the end of the Unification Wars, so it is possible that Astelan actually fought in them. Of course, with all the time shenanigans involving the Fallen, it is impossible to say how much of the time between the Heresy and the present he has actually experienced. He is probably the oldest surviving Astarte by date of birth though.

IIRC, wasn't the Unification Wars fought with the thunder warriors?? This would mean that Ahriman and Kharne would be very early actual space marines developed in preparation for the GC.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 KhorneontheCobb wrote:
Both Kharn and Ahriman fought in the unification wars on Terra.

Ahriman did not fight in the Unification Wars iirc. His people were allied to the Emperor and did not participate in the war, and he was likely too young anyways. I also do not know anything of Kharn fighting in the Unification Wars, he was recruited as a neophyte some time after the Wars ended (just like Ahriman) so it is likely both did not actually fight in the Unification Wars as they were too young. Of Merir Astelan we also know that he was a child during the Unification Wars, and he was recruited in the first (and only at that time) Legion, so it seems plausible he is actually the oldest. The Dark Angels were already around by the end of the Unification Wars, so it is possible that Astelan actually fought in them. Of course, with all the time shenanigans involving the Fallen, it is impossible to say how much of the time between the Heresy and the present he has actually experienced. He is probably the oldest surviving Astarte by date of birth though.

IIRC, wasn't the Unification Wars fought with the thunder warriors?? This would mean that Ahriman and Kharne would be very early actual space marines developed in preparation for the GC.

Yes, the Thunder Warriors were the prototype for the Space Marines and fought during the Unification Wars. The Space Marines were already around in the later stages of the Unification Wars though, and some legions such as the Dusk Raiders saw a lot of action.

If (as the current fluff suggests) Space Marines and Thunder Warriors are functionally ageless, and can only die due to injury, then what about the Custodes?

They were created either around the same time as, or just before, the Thunder Warriors, so are older than any Marine. And as they have historically not seen a lot of combat action (and are among the greatest soldiers ever created) it's likely a few of the originals still survive somewhere deep in the bowels of the Imperial Palace.

Depending on your definition of Human, the oldest continuously living member of the human race (disregarding the Emperor or other perpetuals such as Johm Grammaticus) is likely either a member of the Custodes, or Arik Taranis or his lieutenent - the only known surviving Thunder Warriors.

The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

I thought Ahriman was an urn at this point. He's technically not a space marine anymore if thats the case

Tactical_Spam wrote:
I thought Ahriman was an urn at this point. He's technically not a space marine anymore if thats the case

How is he not a space marine?

Ahriman is not, himself, a Rubric Marine.

Tactical_Spam wrote:
I thought Ahriman was an urn at this point. He's technically not a space marine anymore if thats the case

What? Only the non-psykers were turned to dust by the Rubric. The Sorcerers are very much still fleshy.

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Tactical_Spam wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Quote?

 Matthew wrote:

Tactical_Spam wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Quote?

Go get it yourself you lazy so and so, that salamander is famous by now, poor old sod being so emaciated that he couldn't even move, not like the 10k old dark angel that was strutting around pandorax for lolz, goes to show the sallies are the real skirt wearers!

 Formosa wrote:

 Matthew wrote:

Tactical_Spam wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Quote?

Go get it yourself you lazy so and so, that salamander is famous by now, poor old sod being so emaciated that he couldn't even move, not like the 10k old dark angel that was strutting around pandorax for lolz, goes to show the sallies are the real skirt wearers!

To be fair, he didn't exactly have anything to eat for those 10k years

 dusara217 wrote:

 Formosa wrote:

 Matthew wrote:

Tactical_Spam wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Quote?

Go get it yourself you lazy so and so, that salamander is famous by now, poor old sod being so emaciated that he couldn't even move, not like the 10k old dark angel that was strutting around pandorax for lolz, goes to show the sallies are the real skirt wearers!

To be fair, he didn't exactly have anything to eat for those 10k years

Spoken like a true traitor, was the emperors beneficence not enough!!!!

The true green marines are betterer!

 dusara217 wrote:

 Formosa wrote:

 Matthew wrote:

Tactical_Spam wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Quote?

Go get it yourself you lazy so and so, that salamander is famous by now, poor old sod being so emaciated that he couldn't even move, not like the 10k old dark angel that was strutting around pandorax for lolz, goes to show the sallies are the real skirt wearers!

To be fair, he didn't exactly have anything to eat for those 10k years

Which is a very good point. There is no evidence to suggest that marines would truly biologically age in the manner of the 10,000 year old Salamander under "normal" circumstances (i.e. having things like food... or paste or whatever the marines "eat"). So that doesn't rule out the possibility of CSM's warp time being any less than it seemed to them.

 Ignatius wrote:

 dusara217 wrote:

 Formosa wrote:

 Matthew wrote:

Tactical_Spam wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Quote?

Go get it yourself you lazy so and so, that salamander is famous by now, poor old sod being so emaciated that he couldn't even move, not like the 10k old dark angel that was strutting around pandorax for lolz, goes to show the sallies are the real skirt wearers!

To be fair, he didn't exactly have anything to eat for those 10k years

Which is a very good point. There is no evidence to suggest that marines would truly biologically age in the manner of the 10,000 year old Salamander under "normal" circumstances (i.e. having things like food... or paste or whatever the marines "eat"). So that doesn't rule out the possibility of CSM's warp time being any less than it seemed to them.

I doubt the marine is biologically immortal in the true sense, we just don't know if there is a cap, we have had several marines die of old age, but is that 100k, a million years? We just don't know, even if it's the latter, that's immortal from our perspective.

 Formosa wrote:

 Ignatius wrote:

 dusara217 wrote:

 Formosa wrote:

 Matthew wrote:

Tactical_Spam wrote:

 ChazSexington wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
The biological immortality of Space Marines is as-yet untested and unconfirmed.

Graham McNeill has said on Twitter they're functionally immortal as far as the writers are concerned, so that gives some guidance.

One of the Salamander books by Nick Kyme had a 10,000 year old space marine

Quote?

Go get it yourself you lazy so and so, that salamander is famous by now, poor old sod being so emaciated that he couldn't even move, not like the 10k old dark angel that was strutting around pandorax for lolz, goes to show the sallies are the real skirt wearers!

To be fair, he didn't exactly have anything to eat for those 10k years

Which is a very good point. There is no evidence to suggest that marines would truly biologically age in the manner of the 10,000 year old Salamander under "normal" circumstances (i.e. having things like food... or paste or whatever the marines "eat"). So that doesn't rule out the possibility of CSM's warp time being any less than it seemed to them.

I doubt the marine is biologically immortal in the true sense, we just don't know if there is a cap, we have had several marines die of old age, but is that 100k, a million years? We just don't know, even if it's the latter, that's immortal from our perspective.

Whos died of old age?

Well the Salamander in question was in his power armour when they found him, which is said to have a self-replenishing food store designed to feed Astartes metabolism. I don't remember if it was mentioned at all whether or not his armour was still functioning when he was found, but if it was then he would have been eating the entire time.

More importantly, he had been sitting still the entire time, which meant muscle atrophy.

Astartes armour recycles food, but it has limits. They still eat often and a lot. No way in hell it is going to last ten years, much less ten thousand.

Therefore they have some biological immortality

I very much agree.

The BA codex asserts that they are 'long-lived', but it may simply be some odd form of battle fortune, or even propaganda.

 Ashiraya wrote:
More importantly, he had been sitting still the entire time, which meant muscle atrophy.

Astartes armour recycles food, but it has limits. They still eat often and a lot. No way in hell it is going to last ten years, much less ten thousand.

The notes on the armour don't mention recycling waste actually, it literally just says that the food store is self-replenishing. I've always just attributed it to "future science"

 Orblivion wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
More importantly, he had been sitting still the entire time, which meant muscle atrophy.

Astartes armour recycles food, but it has limits. They still eat often and a lot. No way in hell it is going to last ten years, much less ten thousand.

The notes on the armour don't mention recycling waste actually, it literally just says that the food store is self-replenishing. I've always just attributed it to "future science"

I've always attributed it to the authors not bothering to come up with a real idea and so hand wave it away as "future science".

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Therefore they have some biological immortality

Immortality is a lot like pregnancy. You are or you aren't. There's no middle ground.

 Ignatius wrote:

 Orblivion wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
More importantly, he had been sitting still the entire time, which meant muscle atrophy.

Astartes armour recycles food, but it has limits. They still eat often and a lot. No way in hell it is going to last ten years, much less ten thousand.

The notes on the armour don't mention recycling waste actually, it literally just says that the food store is self-replenishing. I've always just attributed it to "future science"

I've always attributed it to the authors not bothering to come up with a real idea and so hand wave it away as "future science".

Maybe astartes are powered by nuclear fuel.

Seriously, the guys eat massive feasts everyday. I bet they could rival Goku when it comes to eating.

Bran Dawri wrote:
Another really old Loyalist is Ulrik the Slayer. IIRC he was already a Wolf Priest when Logan Grimnar (himself over 700 years old) was recruited into the Wolves.
I very much doubt the Wolves recruit their Wolf Priests straight out of the Blood Claws, so he should be at least - what? 100, 200 years older than Grimnar. Still not enough

I thought it was Logan Grimnar lead the Wolves for 700 years, not that he was 700 years old. Also in one of William Kings Space Wolf books Berek Thunderfist I believe stated that some wolf lords are older than Grimnar.

A quick thought - couldn't Luther be the oldest Space Marine?

He's still alive, stuck in a cell somewhere deep in The Rock for the last 10,000 years. He hasn't been in stasis, or a Dreadnought, or living in the Eye of Terror. And he was a mature adult when his Primarch was still a baby, so much so that he was too old for the full geneseed treatment, and got the psudeo-Marine treatment instead that Kor Phaeron got.

Whether this makes him a Space Marine or not is down to individual judgment I guessl, but he did serve as one, and if it's good enough for his Primarch, then it should be good enough for us!

In a very real sense, he's got the greatest claim to age I think. He's the only Marine still alive to have spent the entire period from the Great Crusade until the present day with no stints in stasis or the Warp.