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I saw that thread about how the traitor legions replenish their numbers but then I thought, what happened to the originals?

Are they all dead after 10,000 years?

Surely they're not still basic marines. I mean, who'd want to be a private for 10,000 years? So if they were promoted, then does that mean that the basic marines in the old legions are all from different gene seed now? Have the original traitor gene seeds died out except for a few officers?

This is what they mean when they're called, "Veterans of the Long War." Obviously if they survived in the Eye of Terror, they're probably something more than they were previously (or they're possessed/spawn/genetic experiments). As was mentioned in the other thread, depending on the warband involved, the normal geneseed implantation process may still work. Plenty of warbands care that the new marines will have their genetic legacy, plenty of others don't. You're just as likely to find a warband made entirely of 100% Death Guard from the original Heresy as you are to find one made up of marines from three dozen different chapters led by a single Word Bearer veteran. There are basically no absolutes when it comes to the life and function of chaos space marines.

So like a lot of other stuff, the originals are dying out, but maybe not as quickly as might be thought.

Yes, but at the same time the Eye of Terror has strange effects on time. Veterans of the Heresy can appear hundreds or thousands of years later, having only experienced a few months of travel. Thus a struggling warband may find itself usurped by a new leader who popped out of the warp, armed with fancy Heresy-era weapons and equipment.

I would have to re-read to confirm the actual number but in ADB's Night Lord Trilogy they mentionned having spent alot of time in the warp.

Some of the original marines are still fighting today. The warband in the trilogy fought in the Heresy roughly 120 years before.

10 000 years outside the eye and 120 inside for that particular bunch anyway.

This also explains the lack of new tech. With limited resources/techmarines/parts/forges and time. You cannot expect CSM to match 10K years of Imperium developpment in 150 years.

Most of the traitor legions fled into the Eye of Terror after they lost the war. Time passes differently in the Warp. For them, it hasn't been 10,000 years. It may only have felt like a week, a month, or even a few hours. Therefore, many of the CSM's are veterans from the Horus Heresy. They have great longevity because of the way time works in the Warp.

 Erik_Morkai wrote:

This also explains the lack of new tech. With limited resources/techmarines/parts/forges and time. You cannot expect CSM to match 10K years of Imperium developpment in 150 years.

Tech development? In the Imperium? Most of the tech that the Imperium uses dates back to the Great Crusade. The Imperium views technological advancement as heretical. Any "new" tech is still archaic as it is just a reproduction of a template from thousands of years ago. It is also well-documented that CSM's will salvage and repurpose Imperial machinery, armor, and tech. There really isn't that big of a technological discrepancy between the CSM and the Imperium. The Imperium just has more of it to work with.

 Darth Bob wrote:
Most of the traitor legions fled into the Eye of Terror after they lost the war. Time passes differently in the Warp. For them, it hasn't been 10,000 years. It may only have felt like a week, a month, or even a few hours. Therefore, many of the CSM's are veterans from the Horus Heresy. They have great longevity because of the way time works in the Warp.

Possibly,
Its just as likely they been in there for 10,000, 50,000 or even a million years.
Horus only disappeared for a few hours, fought wars uncounted and came back looking older.

Computron wrote:
Surely they're not still basic marines. I mean, who'd want to be a private for 10,000 years? So if they were promoted, then does that mean that the basic marines in the old legions are all from different gene seed now? Have the original traitor gene seeds died out except for a few officers?

Not everyones cut out to lead. Usually getting promoted means killing the previous leader, or splitting off and forming another warband.
Some are from the heresy, but traitors could come from any legion these days. They might pinch it out of fallen loyalists, thieve it from loyalist supply caches, or even grow it in the warp.

Is there a defined life span for a Space Marine? My impression was that they are nearly immortal except for actual trauma. I could see one lasting for 10,000 years.

 techsoldaten wrote:
Is there a defined life span for a Space Marine? My impression was that they are nearly immortal except for actual trauma. I could see one lasting for 10,000 years.

It has been determined on a previous thread that it is entirely possible that they are biologically immortal. However, GW has never explicitly stated one way or another; however, there has never been a Space Marine death of natural causes, so think of that what you will.

 Darth Bob wrote:
Most of the traitor legions fled into the Eye of Terror after they lost the war. Time passes differently in the Warp. For them, it hasn't been 10,000 years. It may only have felt like a week, a month, or even a few hours. Therefore, many of the CSM's are veterans from the Horus Heresy. They have great longevity because of the way time works in the Warp.

 Erik_Morkai wrote:

This also explains the lack of new tech. With limited resources/techmarines/parts/forges and time. You cannot expect CSM to match 10K years of Imperium developpment in 150 years.

Tech development? In the Imperium? Most of the tech that the Imperium uses dates back to the Great Crusade. The Imperium views technological advancement as heretical. Any "new" tech is still archaic as it is just a reproduction of a template from thousands of years ago. It is also well-documented that CSM's will salvage and repurpose Imperial machinery, armor, and tech. There really isn't that big of a technological discrepancy between the CSM and the Imperium. The Imperium just has more of it to work with.

Yes tech development like Assault Cannons for exemple. SM Terminators have them but CSM still have the old Reaper Autocannons.

SM have Storm Bolters, CSM still have the old TL Bolters.

Combi Bolters are actually superior to Storm Bolters.