Physical Aging - Astartes & Custodes

[Kinstryfe]

I think the baseline presented is that by 500+ physical years* a space marine is pretty much elderly. Most of the examples of older Marines are either Blood Angels, for whom that's a thing, or extremes that don't really reflect typical Astartes aging like Dantioch who was artificially aged or the 10,000 year old Salamander who spent the whole time hibernating. There's also the possibility that it's kind of like when Garro met Qruze and they were comparing age. While Garro had been in service for (I may be wrong on this) 300+ Terran years but aged much less due to warp shenanigans, Qruze had served as long and aged the whole time. So a 600 year old Ultramarine could actually be 600 Terran years old, or 600 physical years old, or both.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

None of this is helped by the fact that in Dark Imperium Guilliman realises that due to some calendar shenanigans while he was asleep he isn't even sure what year it is anymore!

[helterskelter]

The new primaris space wolf battle leader presents his own set of problems, given it's around 100 years ish since dark imperium, not only does he have to be with the wolves from the get go, he also should have a saga equivalent to that of Ragnar Blackmane, and seems to have aged terribly in comparison

[Kinstryfe]

The new primaris space wolf battle leader presents his own set of problems, given it's around 100 years ish since dark imperium, not only does he have to be with the wolves from the get go, he also should have a saga equivalent to that of Ragnar Blackmane, and seems to have aged terribly in comparison

That one's easy to wave away. I had friends in college who looked like they were 50 by 21. He's just an early ager :-D

[b1soul]

How about Iacton Qruze...he's considered an old gaffer and could not be 300 years old

[JeffJedi]

To give a real life example of how long 10,000 years is, the earliest know fossils found with both humans and dogs living together are believed to be 10,000 years old.

 

That's a very long time. For Horus Heresy to be that long ago in 40k it's no wonder that the Imperium has changed and forgotten it's past.

[bluntblade]

Seems like the wolves show their age in a standard way, greying hair etc. I can't recall any examples of them speaking about "feeling" their age though or getting put to pasture.

In Wolf King there's one really ancient Priest who is definitely feeling it. Kva, I think.

 

Yeah, Astartes aging is janky in 30K. To my mind it would make more sense if the Crusade had taken centuries instead of two, but there we go.

[Leif Bearclaw]

How about Iacton Qruze...he's considered an old gaffer and could not be 300 years old

 

I was never sure how to read that. Given the length of the Crusade he shouldn't be 'old' by Astartes standards (as 40k era Marines commonly have a couple of centuries service at least to reach senior rank). It's probably more sensible to read bits about Qruze as 'Old Guard/Grognard' rather than 'physically old'. He's a cultural relic, of a Legion that doesn't really exist any more, rather than an actual 'old man'.

[Tyriks]

 

How about Iacton Qruze...he's considered an old gaffer and could not be 300 years old

 

 

I was never sure how to read that. Given the length of the Crusade he shouldn't be 'old' by Astartes standards (as 40k era Marines commonly have a couple of centuries service at least to reach senior rank). It's probably more sensible to read bits about Qruze as 'Old Guard/Grognard' rather than 'physically old'. He's a cultural relic, of a Legion that doesn't really exist any more, rather than an actual 'old man'.

I think Qruze predates the crusade, actually. He tells stories about the end of the Unification. Not sure how much of a difference that could make, though.

[Leonaides]

Geneseed has always effected marines slightly differently. Some are more and some are taller, some shorter. Some stronger, some weaker. Some age quicker, some slower. A marine who shows his age sooner, plus warp travel timey-wimey stuff, can easily leave marines showing their age. 2-400 is a pretty safe age range for most marines to reach. Coincidentally, 200 years is just enough for early marines who served at the start of the crusade to be just starting to reach their use-by date.

[b1soul]

Iacton Qruze could be a veteran of the late Unification Wars. That might add a few decades to his age? Still, I think he should be sub-300 years by the end of the Crusade.

 

I read the early HH books around a decade ago, but I do seem to recall that Qruze is described as a cultural relic and a physically old "geezer" type character. I could be misremembering.

[jeffersonian000]

There are 2 good examples of aging Astartes in the 30k novels., both Astartes at 300 years of age. One is a Deathguard Captain in his prime while the other is a Space Wolve suffering the effects of old age. I hat this tells us is that due to differences in authors, there is a huge swing in Astartes aging and potential age limits. Effectively Astartes are immortal, unless written differently.

 

SJ

[Kinstryfe]

There are 2 good examples of aging Astartes in the 30k novels., both Astartes at 300 years of age. One is a Deathguard Captain in his prime while the other is a Space Wolve suffering the effects of old age. I hat this tells us is that due to differences in authors, there is a huge swing in Astartes aging and potential age limits. Effectively Astartes are immortal, unless written differently.

SJ

That was actually Qruze and Garro, and it mentioned that the discrepancy was from warp shenanigans. One was 300 actual years old, one was 300 Terran years old. It was an example, I believe, of how time gets messed up on a galactic scale.

[Crizza]

The new primaris space wolf battle leader presents his own set of problems, given it's around 100 years ish since dark imperium, not only does he have to be with the wolves from the get go, he also should have a saga equivalent to that of Ragnar Blackmane, and seems to have aged terribly in comparison

Yet we have Primaris who were recruited at the end of the Heresy...

[jeffersonian000]

 

There are 2 good examples of aging Astartes in the 30k novels., both Astartes at 300 years of age. One is a Deathguard Captain in his prime while the other is a Space Wolve suffering the effects of old age. I hat this tells us is that due to differences in authors, there is a huge swing in Astartes aging and potential age limits. Effectively Astartes are immortal, unless written differently.

SJ

That was actually Qruze and Garro, and it mentioned that the discrepancy was from warp shenanigans. One was 300 actual years old, one was 300 Terran years old. It was an example, I believe, of how time gets messed up on a galactic scale.

They were both 300 year old Terran Astartes, with roughly equal space travel. The only differences were the author and the story being told.

 

SJ

[Lord_Caerolion]

 

The new primaris space wolf battle leader presents his own set of problems, given it's around 100 years ish since dark imperium, not only does he have to be with the wolves from the get go, he also should have a saga equivalent to that of Ragnar Blackmane, and seems to have aged terribly in comparison

Yet we have Primaris who were recruited at the end of the Heresy...

 

 

And who have been in stasis since then, so haven't been affected by time.

 

As for Iacton Qruze, I put that down to being a character from when the details of the Heresy were still being worked out (this was before they increased the Legion sizes, etc), and that that character never really made sense. On one hand, he's a veteran from the Unification Wars, but he's also described in several places as having a Cthonian accent, from memory.

[Skalpynock]

 

 

 

 

The new primaris space wolf battle leader presents his own set of problems, given it's around 100 years ish since dark imperium, not only does he have to be with the wolves from the get go, he also should have a saga equivalent to that of Ragnar Blackmane, and seems to have aged terribly in comparison

Yet we have Primaris who were recruited at the end of the Heresy...

And who have been in stasis since then, so haven't been affected by time.

 

As for Iacton Qruze, I put that down to being a character from when the details of the Heresy were still being worked out (this was before they increased the Legion sizes, etc), and that that character never really made sense. On one hand, he's a veteran from the Unification Wars, but he's also described in several places as having a Cthonian accent, from memory.

The same issue came with Typhon, though most recent stuff seems to agree he was a Barbarean.

[Lord_Caerolion]

I thought Typhon was always meant to be Barbaran, given the rumours that he was descended from the abomination-creatures that adopted Mortarion?

[kamedake88]

So suffice it to say there is nothing concrete and everything we have is firmly in the grasp of author's fancy and reader's interpretation. There doesn't seem to be any sort of consistency between the disparate works of different authors and the fluff itself. Also to that point has anything concrete other than the BL line about Blood Angels being long lived, ever been stated with regards to some overall baseline? Everything I've ever come across on the topic has been the fandom trying to reconcile decades of conflicting information. 

 

Custodes on the other hand seem to play to the old trope of "old soldiers don't die, they just fade away". Seeing as their lore has only been concretely codexified scant months ago and prior to that all we knew of them in the 40k setting was them being low rent Pillar Men knockoffs.

 

P.S. This makes me wonder again if the various writers aren't issued a 40k guidebook/encyclopedia on their first day.  Hell I'm surprised GW hasn't marketed and sold such a thing (Xenology withstanding) given the popularity of fictional technical manuals being hot items in other fandoms such as Star Wars.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Well, there was the Imperial Infantrymans Uplifting Primer, and the Munitorum Manual.

[jeffersonian000]

There use to be a 40k Bible, which was a lore timeline for authors to use so they could reference specific events as well as breakdowns of specific technologies and cultures in 40k.

 

Unfortunately, quite a lot of it got retconned by the 30k novels.

 

SJ