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So I've started reading some of the gaunts' ghosts books. Gaunt is about 2 meters 20. Other normal humans are nearly 2 1/2 meters. Chaos marines are nearly twice the size, so that'd put em over four meters tall. Is that not just a bit stupid? Do they really think that everything is more exciting because everyone is gigantor-huge-maseeve?

Going on these figures, a regular human would look like a nurgling next to a marine.

Shame, cos the books are pretty good otherwise.

It's just to accentuate how far removed from humanity the Space Marines are.

Gaunt is, well... gaunt. He's tall, skinny and sharp-featured.

I don't remember most of the Tanith being particularly tall, and I know the Verghasts that join later tend towards shorter, stockier builds, though I seem to recall several of the Verghasts being as tall as, if not taller, than the Tanith.

It depends on what you define "almost" as being.

GW's official fluff puts marines around 7ft tall.

The Black Library(which is what the GG books you refer to belong) takes many liberties with marine height.

And you don't think there's just a wee bit of deliberate exaggeration?

If a marine with GWs "official" measurements was standing next to you, he'd look absolutely monstrous. Not only is he 7ft somthing, but he's also a good 3 and a half feet wide at the shoulders(in armor)

That will add an illusion of being taller than it actually is. The marine fills up your entire view.


Something outside the norm will always appear more outside than it actually is. Its a quirk of the human mind.

Dan Abnett, specifically, makes his Space Marines abso-fething-lutely huge.

One in an Eisenhorn novel is described as having a pinky finger "the size and shape of an arbiter's truncheon".

Shouldn't being very broad make the Space Marines appear shorter? They're massive of course, but that width and height ratio should make them look stumpy.

Not if you're standing next to one. It would loom like a building.

 Eggs wrote:
So I've started reading some of the gaunts' ghosts books. Gaunt is about 2 meters 20. Other normal humans are nearly 2 1/2 meters. Chaos marines are nearly twice the size, so that'd put em over four meters tall. Is that not just a bit stupid? Do they really think that everything is more exciting because everyone is gigantor-huge-maseeve?

Going on these figures, a regular human would look like a nurgling next to a marine.

Shame, cos the books are pretty good otherwise.

When the feth is Gaunt described as being 2.2 meters tall?

Start of the second book. Page 12;
'Gaunt sat down behind his desk again. He thought about putting his cap on, his jacket. He
looked across the cabin and saw his own reflection in the vast bay port. Two metres twenty of solid bone and sinew, the narrow, dangerous face that so well matched his name...'

One of the generals is described as nearly two and a half.

2.2m = 7ft? It's possible, also depends on what planet Gaunt is from (not read any of those books so no idea) as the gravity could effect it.

So if the space marines he faces are nearly twice his height, that puts them at 12-13ft. Where do they buy their pants...

6'6"-7' is not incredibly tall. There's probably someone pushing 7' for around every two to three thousand people.

It's not as ludicrious as the Mountain in ASoIaF being 8' and something like 400+ pounds of pure muscle.

2.2m is actually getting close to 7 1/2 feet, and he's not even the tallest guardsman in the book. There's a 8 1/2 foot general...

Okay, that's just dumb.

To put that in perspective, rooms in houses are usually 8 feet high, so the general's head would be bent against your roof, and he's supposed to be a regular human.

Well, it makes sense if you follow physical trends. As human society evolves, as our diet and lifestyles improve, so we have grown taller.

IIRC, average height is decreasing in the US and holding steady in most first world countries. Also, if they were average or only slightly above average, I doubt their height would be mentioned at all.

Frankly, a sizeable portion of the Imperium probably has worse diet and lifestyles than we do.

 Amaya wrote:
6'6"-7' is not incredibly tall. There's probably someone pushing 7' for around every two to three thousand people.

It's not as ludicrious as the Mountain in ASoIaF being 8' and something like 400+ pounds of pure muscle.

The Mountain is explicitly a genetic freak of nature though, possessing superhuman physical size and strength. As far as I know, this 8.5' general is not.

Also, his listed weight is probably too light, for a man that height and build.

Considering the actor who plays him is 7' and 320 and would actually need a good 40 lbs to look the part if he didn't sport armor, I'd say so. Really should be like 500-550 at 8'. Monstrous.

Again, though, this is Abnett-verse, where certain characters are, indeed, freakishly huge. The Space Marines that Eisenhorn works with are of the 12'+ variety.

I could have sworn Abnett thought of Marines as being eightish feet tall.

Nah.. like I mentioned upthread, he describes the Space Marine that Eisenhorn is having tea with as having a pinky "the size and shape of an arbiter's truncheon" (direct quote). If you can picture the size of a police baton... if that is a dude's finger, that dude is *gigantic*.

 Psienesis wrote:
Nah.. like I mentioned upthread, he describes the Space Marine that Eisenhorn is having tea with as having a pinky "the size and shape of an arbiter's truncheon" (direct quote). If you can picture the size of a police baton... if that is a dude's finger, that dude is *gigantic*.

Or he just has freakishly large hands!

So Space Marines are basically giants that look like this?

SM: "Don't make me get my Power Fist!"
Miracle Max: "Those are Power Fists!"

 Amaya wrote:
So Space Marines are basically giants that look like this?

Sort of, widen the proportions a little bit and you are spot on.

I can accept humans of that heigh, the Iceman they dug up in Italy was 5:2, humans today average at what, close to six? A seven foot guardsman tens of thousands of years from now, with multiple planetary conditions for humans to develop on doesn't stretch my imagination far.
A twelve foot marine padded out in massively thick armour however does "Sorry Captain, Squad invictus has failed to clear the fortification in sector 6, they found themselves incapable of fitting through the door".
http://images.wikia.com/warhammer40k/images/c/c0/PhilipSibberingSpaceMarineHeights.jpg
I always imagine marines like that now, seems more plausible.

The "canon" Space Marine is like 7'6". Everything else is BL fluff. Not incorrect, just not what GW has themselves said.

Abnett has said in multiple interviews that his early work (The first two Gaunt's Ghosts) were not very in tune with the accepted 40k universe and it wasn't until Necropolis that he really started to "get it". With that in mind, I have no problem throwing out this idea that Gaunt is freakishly tall unless another reference to his height can be found in a later book. Obviously this is my own personal view but I'm not going to let a single sentence act as the measuring stick against with every other individual's height is compared.

In a universe where Ogryn exist it's not hard to imagine humans getting to the same height as Astartes.
Look at the Ultramarine Pausanius. He's so large that he has to wear modified terminator armour. Perhaps he would have been 2m tall or more if he'd remained a mortal.

Gaunt being as tall as an astartes would still not have the presence of the marine who would still be two to three times his size. Astartes are broader and deeper (chest to back) than regular humans.
I've come across people shorter than me who are more physically imposing because of their bone structure and muscle mass.