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What is the life expectancy of a Space Marine if he doesn't die in battle ?

There are a couple of examples of Marines dying of old age, but their circumstances are pretty unique

One is a Space Marine mentioned in the Salamanders trilogy. He had entered a Sus-an sleep since the Heresy and due to inactivity his body had atrophied. He died shortly after his awakening.

There is also an Iron Warrior mentioned in Age of Darkness in the HH series. His age was accelerated as a side effect of facing the Hrud.

Age of Darkness P322
... Zolan's hearts stopped beating aboard the Stormbird, minutes after extraction. Tavarre died of old age in the cruiser infirmary, just before reaching lesser Damantyne.

Other than these I don't believe there is any indication that marines die of old age or how old they live to.

So what would be the limit for an active Space Marine that somehow doesn't get killed ?

Like I said, there isn't really any indication. Dante is the oldest at over 1000 years, but the Blood Angels are long lived.

From Codex Space Marines

Ortan Cassius is the Oldest living member of the Ultramarines and even remembers when some of the Chapters most ancient Dreadnoughts fought as flesh and blood ... yadda yadda yadda... Though Cassius is several centuries old, his arm remains strong and his aim true

I don't think it's really been explained when an Astartes hits their peak and gives up fighting, nor how long their lives are.

In, I think it's Horus Rising, Loken, I think (again), muses that the Astartes are effectively immortal.

 LethalShade wrote:
So what would be the limit for an active Space Marine that somehow doesn't get killed ?

Nobody knows. They could be immortal, they could live ten thousand years, they could live a hundred thousand years.

Dante is 1000+ and he is stated as the age has impacted his mentally. The body may live but the mind has to want to as well.


Logan of spacewolves, is roughly over 700, there pretty damn old, ulrik the slayer is hardly young, space wolves can live to a good age if they don,t die first.

First captain Sigismund lived from great crusade, to first black crusade, some rough 1000 years. (Though he was one of deadliest marines ever to exist in close combat)

1000 is pretty much proven not sure how much beyond that is as we have very little examples of even the 1000 age ranges. Plus geneseed is not quite what it was in the heresy era, so the original versions may have had a even longer life span.

Still a damn long time, only impirials who can put do that are senior and mech and there basicly brains in cyborg war suits.

 LethalShade wrote:
So what would be the limit for an active Space Marine that somehow doesn't get killed ?

I don't really believe there is one, or at least we haven't gotten to it yet - we have Dante as an example.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dante

Was alive and active during the Horus Heresy and been fighting ever since. He's about 10k years old.

Okay, thanks. I needed some kind of justification to keep my Chapter Master alive since the 35th Millennium.

 Otto Weston wrote:

 LethalShade wrote:
So what would be the limit for an active Space Marine that somehow doesn't get killed ?

I don't really believe there is one, or at least we haven't gotten to it yet - we have Dante as an example.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dante

Was alive and active during the Horus Heresy and been fighting ever since. He's about 10k years old.

Dante has not been around since the Heresy. Dante has been chapter master of the Blood Angels for around 1100 years, and was captain of a reserve company before that. He is likely somewhere around 1200-1300 years old.

 LethalShade wrote:
Okay, thanks. I needed some kind of justification to keep my Chapter Master alive since the 35th Millennium.

35th millennium is a stretch, but there really isn't anything to say it can't happen so go nuts

 Orblivion wrote:

 Otto Weston wrote:

 LethalShade wrote:
So what would be the limit for an active Space Marine that somehow doesn't get killed ?

I don't really believe there is one, or at least we haven't gotten to it yet - we have Dante as an example.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Dante

Was alive and active during the Horus Heresy and been fighting ever since. He's about 10k years old.

Dante has not been around since the Heresy. Dante has been chapter master of the Blood Angels for around 1100 years, and was captain of a reserve company before that. He is likely somewhere around 1200-1300 years old.

 LethalShade wrote:
Okay, thanks. I needed some kind of justification to keep my Chapter Master alive since the 35th Millennium.

35th millennium is a stretch, but there really isn't anything to say it can't happen so go nuts

Derp, you're right. I was thinking of Bjorn but he's a Dreadnought... carry on!

Don't forget that the age of the person may not necessarily reflect chronological age. Between warp travel and time in stasis someone may have seen far less years than they have lived. A frequent traveler could view themselves as only a few hundred years old, but many more years could have passed.

 jhe90 wrote:

Still a damn long time, only impirials who can put do that are senior and mech and there basicly brains in cyborg war suits.

PARTS of brains. Don't forget the Ad Mech don't stop at replacing body parts. Cybernetic replacement of parts of the brain is also acceptable. There can be very little of the organic person left in some of the older priests.

 Steve steveson wrote:
Don't forget that the age of the person may not necessarily reflect chronological age. Between warp travel and time in stasis someone may have seen far less years than they have lived. A frequent traveler could view themselves as only a few hundred years old, but many more years could have passed.

 jhe90 wrote:

Still a damn long time, only impirials who can put do that are senior and mech and there basicly brains in cyborg war suits.

PARTS of brains. Don't forget the Ad Mech don't stop at replacing body parts. Cybernetic replacement of parts of the brain is also acceptable. There can be very little of the organic person left in some of the older priests.

True, in Storm of Iron, tha archi magos of the fortress literally only has his face as original bio-parts left. He was completely part of the fortress, his "brain" covering rooms of RAM, CPU, etc. He was basically a senile super computer with alzheimer and a human face glued on it.

IIRC, it is stated that some Iron Hands veterans are nothing more than two eyes, a brain and a spine inside a Power Armor.

Apparently yes they can. There was a HH story of loyalist Iron Warriors who fell out of favor with their primarch after a campaign against time warping Hrud. The Hrud used time as a weapon and could as a group "age" whole areas prior to their attack. They'd crumble buildings with age, rust out weapons, etc..

Most of all, Dantioch remembered waiting for the Stormbird to lift the survivors out of the remains of Gholghis: Sergeant Zolan, Vastopol the warrior-poet and Techmarine Tavarre. Zolan’s hearts stopped beating aboard the Stormbird, minutes after extraction. Tavarre died of old age in the cruiser infirmary, just before reaching Lesser Damantyne. Vastopol and the Warsmith had considered themselves comparatively fortunate but both had been left crippled with their aged, superhuman bodies.

We know that space marines can age many hundreds of years without SUFFERING from that age (see Cassius and Dante) so I'm guessing it takes thousands of years to actually die of old age as a space marine. Also, IIRC, it was hinted in the Abadadon novel that Sigismund fought abaddon thousands of years AFTER the HH in a duel.

Dante is not even close to the oldest.

merir astelan is still alive from the HH.

Except he went through the Warp (if I remember right) so he probably isn't actually that old.

 jhe90 wrote:

space wolves can live to a good age if they don,t die first.

Most people live to a good age if they don't die

 Pilau Rice wrote:
Like I said, there isn't really any indication. Dante is the oldest at over 1000 years, but the Blood Angels are long lived.

From Codex Space Marines

Ortan Cassius is the Oldest living member of the Ultramarines and even remembers when some of the Chapters most ancient Dreadnoughts fought as flesh and blood ... yadda yadda yadda... Though Cassius is several centuries old, his arm remains strong and his aim true

I don't think it's really been explained when an Astartes hits their peak and gives up fighting, nor how long their lives are.

In, I think it's Horus Rising, Loken, I think (again), muses that the Astartes are effectively immortal.

Realistically there should be more loyalist marines in the 40K universe a 1000 years or older even with battle attrition being what it is.

I don't really think Marines can die of Old Age, Dante is 1,000 years old and still going strong. As for how long they can live? Nobody knows. Nearly every Marine who dies dies in combat

Most CSM are VotLW. The Warp is unpredictable, it doesn't speed up time for everyone.

Assuming this isn't about loyalists only, there may be CSM who are 100,000 years old or more.

As for how that relates to the supposed longevity of the BA, well... Inconsistent GW writing! Surprise!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 War Kitten wrote:
I don't really think Marines can die of Old Age, Dante is 1,000 years old and still going strong. As for how long they can live? Nobody knows. Nearly every Marine who dies dies in combat

Aside from a few examples (like that Salamander who died of body atrophy, starvation, or both) every Marine dies in combat.

I believe it says somewhere that Blood Angels are generally longer lived Space Marines which would mean there is a limit.

We know Bjorn is 10k years old, but he has been sustained by a dread the entire time. Only now is his brain starting to go. Without a doubt though I believe there has to be a limit on just how far the Marines body can go. Nothing lasts forever and eventually their body would just give out. Over thousands of years of course, but you cant out run time.

 LethalShade wrote:
IIRC, it is stated that some Iron Hands veterans are nothing more than two eyes, a brain and a spine inside a Power Armor.

Not even that, in one Deathwatch short story there is an Iron Hand who by all means should have died, but was simply "turned on" after his death centuries/millennia prior due to having barely any brain tissue left.

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:
I believe it says somewhere that Blood Angels are generally longer lived Space Marines which would mean there is a limit.

We know Bjorn is 10k years old, but he has been sustained by a dread the entire time. Only now is his brain starting to go. Without a doubt though I believe there has to be a limit on just how far the Marines body can go. Nothing lasts forever and eventually their body would just give out. Over thousands of years of course, but you cant out run time.

Except that that might just mean that Blood Angels have a slightly lower attrition rate than other Chapters. Simply living longer is no indicative of old age. I can live twenty years longer than my best friend, so long as I don't get stabbed with a knife. Oh noes! he died in a mugging at the age of 31. Suddenly, I'm comparatively long-lived, as I lived to a ripe old age of 44 before the same mugger decided to off me as well.

 dusara217 wrote:

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:
I believe it says somewhere that Blood Angels are generally longer lived Space Marines which would mean there is a limit.

We know Bjorn is 10k years old, but he has been sustained by a dread the entire time. Only now is his brain starting to go. Without a doubt though I believe there has to be a limit on just how far the Marines body can go. Nothing lasts forever and eventually their body would just give out. Over thousands of years of course, but you cant out run time.

Except that that might just mean that Blood Angels have a slightly lower attrition rate than other Chapters. Simply living longer is no indicative of old age. I can live twenty years longer than my best friend, so long as I don't get stabbed with a knife. Oh noes! he died in a mugging at the age of 31. Suddenly, I'm comparatively long-lived, as I lived to a ripe old age of 44 before the same mugger decided to off me as well.

The context you are attempting to apply to that line isn't supported by the Codex. That line is used in discussion of Dante's age, indicating that, yes, Space Marines can die of old age and, yes, Blood Angels, being space-vampires, live longer than most.

Bjorn's mind has been "going" for millennia. It's only now that it's gotten really, noticeably bad.

From the language in Storm of Iron, the interactions between the Warsmith, Forrix, Kroeger and Honsuo paint the picture that these Iron Warriors had experianced close to 10,000 years of lifespan since the HH.

It specifically notes that Forrix is taking to the battlefield for the first time in like 3,000 years.

I feel like SM, with their biologically superior bodies, are effectively immortal, if they dont starve to death, which could still take close to a year to do.

OP: No.

If you die of old age you have failed in your duty and so are not a real Space Marine.

Unknown. No marine has ever died of natural causes. The above mentioned cases had extenuating circumstances.

Marines are for all practical purposes immortal. They'll die in battle or from causes related to battle long before their bodies naturally degrade to the point where they die of organ failure or any other cause of natural death.