They die.

THEN HE FIGHTS TWICE AS HARD

in the grim darkness of the future, there is only shuffleboard and bingo tuesdays.

>>12568217

ARTFAG NAO

>>12568201
They don't. Space Marines never become "too old".

>>12568201

>Space Marine becomes too old to fight

That doesn't make sense.

He gets entombed in a Dreadnought and keeps fighting.

He's placed inside one of those walking coffins.

Dante is 1100 years old and he's still in his prime.

>>12568201

>space marines getting old

pfwhahahahahaha

2/10

>>12568224
iirc, dreads are saved for the really super cool awesome mahreens who are crippled in battle but not dead, so the dread is stasis for their decaying body.

>>12568201

I'm pretty sure that Space Marines do not get old like humans do. And even if they did, there's always the Dreadnought to encase them in.

>>12568221

Space Marines are effectively Immortal, in that they cannot die from natural causes or aging due to there geneticly altered bodies. This has been mentioned in many books both Black Library novelia and GW Fluff.

i thought they were immortal.

>>12568281
Unless you're a blood angel, then you go christfucking mad and gotta be put down ol yeller.

TANKRED ENDURES LONG PAST THAT OLD AGE.

TANKRED ENJOYS THE BITCHES, AS WELL. SISTERS OF BATTLE CAN PRAY TO TANKRED'S MACHINE SPIRIT ANY TIME, IF YOU CATCH TANKRED'S DRIFT

>>12568257

>Ork Pirate on a Dinosaur

This picture needs less Space Marines and more of him.

>>12568290
Fuck for the fuck god.

>>12568244

Blood Angels are especially long-lived.

Grey Knights, as confirmed by BL, and Ultramarines, as confirmed by their codex, enter old age around their fourth century.

>>12568244
Blood Angels are said to be exceptionally long-lived. My guess is that it happens (for most chapters) something like this: as the marine ages to the point where he is no longer fit to fight (although he'd still be more than a match for any regular human), he spends more and more of his time doing things like training and overseeing new recruits. It's not as glorious as combat duty, of course, but somebody's got to do it - and only in death does duty end. Eventually they would probably succumb to one of the following fates:
1) Euthenasia (especially for the nastier, "Purge the weak!" type chapters, like the Iron Hands and the Dark Angels) - the marine recieves the Emperor's Peace, willingly or not. It is a final sacrifice for tthe good of his chapter, his gene-seed going to future generations of marines.
2) Suicide: Among some chapters, perhaps including the Imperial Fists, with their obsession with personal honor, the oldest marines might simply succumb to dispair and end it - but probably quietly and in a dignified fashion.
3) Combat suicide: Among some chapters, maybe the Space Wolves, a marine past the age at which he can fight might go out for one last battle, hoping to take as many foes with them as possible.
4) Nothing/Retirement: Among the more reasonable chapters, like the Salamanders, there would probably not be any particular convention - some might choose death in one way or another, others might just stick with their non-combat roles until they finally keel over, and a few might even choose to retire to their homeworlds to act as honored mentor figures, with their great age and experience making them living icons of the Emperor's glory.

>>12568461
bamp. Thoughts?

>>12568222

This. Techinically, they could continue to serve forever. Since the retirement plan is such shit, most don't ever get the chance to try.

>>12568217
You make my day. <3

>>12568514
I don't think there is a thing like suicide or retirement for Space Marines.

They all die in battle. From time to time, there are battles where even the old warriors have to fight.

When Armageddon was attacked, everyone rode out. No one stayed behind. Every gun was needed.

My two cents.

>>12568309
Calling bullshit. BL isn't reliable source of cannon info since versions of how-the-world-works-according-to-BL-writers are so diverse they cannot be taken in consideration. Also, it is rumored Grey Knight's gene seed was taken directly from the Emperor, so they must be of ultra cool type, something like adeptus custodes. And there were marines fighting for over 10k years (Space Wolves 13th company, if you want loyalists). So yeah, marines are never too old to fight. They got entombed into a dreadnought only if they are crippled.

>>12568824

No, the only Space Wolf that old is Bjorn, and he's a dreadnought. The first company are no older than their comrades, and space marines do die of old age.

>4) Nothing/Retirement
Luke, I am your great great grandfather!

>>12568845
13th. it's 13th. Bjorn originally was in it, but was left behind.

>>12568855

And you know what? They're probably all dead. We don't know what happened to them.

>>12568845
He said 13th, not 1st. The 13th company are a special case, though - they were in the Eye of Terror, where time doesn't necessarily flow the way we're used to.

>>12568824
>Calling bullshit. BL isn't reliable source of cannon info since versions of how-the-world-works-according-to-BL-writers are so diverse they cannot be taken in consideration.

The Blood Angels shit comes directly from the codex, son.

>Space Wolves 13th company, if you want loyalists)

You mean the company that reappeared through the Eye of Terror, a place where the warp fucks time sideways?

Space Marines can die of old age

The blood angels codex basically says so. Written in typical god-view, where the narrator knows everything, it states that Blood Angels are amongst the longest lived Space Marines, with Dante being 1100 years old or older. In other words, the other marines don't get to be so old.

>>12568824

>it's rumoured

It's also rumoured that Ultramarines Honour Guard and their 2nd company are better than anything from any other Chapter, by default this includes Chapter 666.

Also, there's no such thing as the Emperor's gene-seed.

This would be badass, a guy has a kid at a really young age right before a Space Marine chapter (say Ultramarines or Salamanders) secretly abducts you. You return 400 years later to your family decendents of the kid you had and they find out that you are a Space Marine Sergeant who has come to his decendents to give them closure and ask them what happened to his son (aka their super great grandfather), tell them war stories and what not.

Something like that would make a really good fan-fic

Lookin good...

>>12568995
Ultramarines and Salamanders don't recruit like that, though - they take volunteers and stuff. The Space Wolves sort of kidnap people, the Black Templars do.


However, I agree that something along those lines would make a great fanfic. Example: the venerable Brother X of space marine chapter Y returns to his homeworld in his 429th year. He is old and feeble, as space marines go, but his mind is yet strong, and he desires to see what became of the world whereupon he drew his first breath. He returns to find his hometown/hive/village, once known as A, with particular quality B, now called C, known mainly for its D. How does he react? How do the natives react? Does anyone remeber tales of the day one of their own was chosen to potentially become one of the Emperor's Angels of Death? This and other questions seem to me like they might make good story leads.

Space Marines CANNOT die of old age. Too bad they never get the chance to test that, though.

Space Marines can't die of old age, lol.

lulz wat? SM's dun die

>Space Marines live forever!

>>12568995

>a guy has a kid at a really young age.

Who's going around fucking 8 year olds?

>>12569700
>Dante over 1000 years old
>Pedro Kantor 350 minimum
>Explicitly stated in multiple books and codices
I see you troll

nice try op
3/10

>>12568886
>In other words, the other marines don't get to be so old.

Because they die in battle numbnuts. Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups, bro. Fluff has always either stated or implied marines are functionally immortal. So what if Dante is over a millennium old? There was a Black Templars high marshal (Ludoldus?) who lasted longer still.

Can gene seed be harvested while the marine is still alive, or does it necessarily kill them?

Space marines are immortal but most don't live that long because of their "profession."

Wasn't it still kind of an open question c. M31 whether space marines could die of old age? Apparently in the ten thousand years since the Heresy no one's bothered to sit a five hundred year old marine in a room and wait to see if he keels over.

Regardless, for the 0.01% of marines who don't die violently long before it becomes an issue, I'd imagine mental deterioration would be more of an issue than physical. see also senile dreadnoughts.

marines are immortal, idiots

So long as they can hold a gun, they fight.

When they can't hold the gun, they get a group of other old farts and see how far they can go into the eye of terror before they drop.

Blood Angel commanders don't live longer.

They're just that good at surviving nasty shit.

There hasn't been a single Space Marine to die of old age. It doesn't happen.

Because they're immortal.

They only die hacked up in bits, or shot to chunks, or melted into a puddle.

>>12569732
>Explicitly stated in multiple books and codices

The only thing stated is that Blood Angels are exceptionally long-lived for Space Marines, which implies others live less long and that there is indeed old age as a concern.

Further. Show us one, just one, mention of Space Marines being capable of living forever from a rulebook or codex. Rogue Trader, 2e, 3e, doesn't matter.

Your search will be in vain, of course, so you might just as well reveal yourself to be a troll or an idiot just like everyone else holding the silly, baseless belief.

>>12569781
Okay, show us one example of an elderly space marine (ones in metal boxes don't count).

>>12569781

obvious troll is obvious

>>12569781
I would also ask you to point to any piece of fluff that says a space marine has died of organ failure associated with old age.
There is fluff demonstrating that marines can live for absurd time, but eventually they lose their combat effectiveness. Illness, mental failure, poison, all valid, but not merely death due to infirmity and age.

>>12569827
Wasn't there something about a Librarian that became so old he became more of a superhuman scribe?

I also remember something about him working with an Inquisitor. Imagine that, that's like a turbo-powered Guardsman, Psyker and Adept rolled in one character.

Sorry, don't remember the source. Could be true, could be a load o' bollocks.

>>12569781
>Abbadon is 10,000 years old

I like to imagine that as space marines start getting over the hill, they start using plasma guns

In the Salamanders novel whose name I forget there's a marine who arguably dies of old age.

But he'd more or less been sitting in the same place since the Horus Heresy, so.

>>12569808

Cassius.
Dante.
Apotechary Glaivan from Grey Knights: "Glaivan was ancient, one of the few Grey Knights currently in the Chapter who had reached the extended old age a Space Marine's enhancements could grant him".

Now for the immortal marines? If you really want to, you can always say "Lucius"...

>>12569897
Dante and Cassius are old, yes, but they aren't exactly feeble and decrepit and about to die of heart failure.

Deteriorating marines of any kind are weeded out by the harsh realities of combat. If a marine lives to see old age, it just means he's not yet done killing. The moment the marine realizes he's too old for this shit is his last.

At best you'll see older marines held back for their experience, which when applied through teaching makes them a thousandfold more effective than in combat.

Besides that, a marine would never let themselves become a drag to the chapter. They'll make themselves useful somehow. The Imperium always needs more men dying.

>>12569776
We haven't been TOLD about a single such instance. Also, even if none have happened, that doesn't mean they're immortal.

Consider the following: I roll 10d6. None of them come up with the 6 face up. That doesn't mean that it's impossible to roll a 6.

>>12569868

I remember seeing this as well. And I don't think he died due to old age, I think he died due to inactivity. If he had been moving for the entire 10,000 years then he might still be alive. Possibly.

>>12569925

Neither are they proof of immortality. Dante is said by the codex to have lived past his years and feeling his age upon him, and he's an exceptionally long-lived Blood Angel, over a thousand years old.

Glaivan and Cassius are both four hundred, and Cassius is the oldest active member of the Ultramarines, even if he's "still" in decent shape.

>>12568201
>Captains are proud and terrible warriors but eventually their combat skills fade, either through age or injury. These Captains continue to serve their Chapter as members of the Headquarters officer cadre.
Nothing on the average battle-brother, though they probably don't outlive their Captains.

>>12569860
Chaos marines favored by the Dark Gods don't count for the same reason that dreadnoughts don't - they've got a special sort of life support.

IIRC, there's fluff out there that says that Salamanders spend some of their time back on Nocturne being helpful. I'd think that's what they do when they get too old to fight. Also, in at least one BL book (Brothers of the Snake [yeah, yeah, I know, BL's not canon, Abnett, blah blah blah]), a permanently crippled space marine serves as an apothecary at the chapter's HQ.

>>12569961

Further, Apotechary Glaivan is no longer in combat duty.

>Glaivan's hands had been replaced long ago with bionic armatures that gave him a surgical touch far finer than human hands, with splayed fingers tipped with scalpels and pincers. Grey Knights usually wore their power armour when outside their cells or at worship, but Glaivan had long since left his battlegear behind. Beneath the long white apotechary's robes his body was braced with steel and brass, and his redundant organs had been removed to leave Glaivan a shell of a Marine.

>GREY KNIGHTS

Remember, this is a Grey Knight apotechary and they're probably so specialized due to the Chapter's unique nature that he didn't ask for Emperor's peace or anything. A normal Marine, especially a Grey Knight, wouldn't be in this situation.

>>12570069

>apotechary

>>12570129

>Emporer
>Dark Angles

>>12570069
>>12570129
>>12570170

>cannon

It would be interesting to have a really, really old Marine who has so much knowledge and skill that you can't risk him dying in combat, but his body simply cannot take the stress of it anymore. I'm guessing they would end up in a training role, as who is better to teach than someone who's done it all?

There's an old Lunar Wolf in the Horus Heresy, Iacton Qruze, series who's implied to be kind of senile and decrepid and he was only about 200 years old, iirc.

I think it'd make sense if, during the height of the Crusade, a properly made marine would be effectively immortal, but now in the grim darkness of the techno-feudalist 41st millenium marines could die of old age because they aren't made correctly or maintained correctly.

But then, you've got Inquisitors and such who can live for centuries, too.

>>12570244

That's what the reasonable marines do.

It's not what everyone else does.

>>12570244
Think about an ancient, grizzled Long Fang, with centuries of experience, who only sticks around to teach the scouts tactical basics by means of old tales and legends. Think of an ancient warrior skald.

>>12568995
Actually, that's reasonably UNPOSSIBLE. Most, if not 99.9% of the ~1000 chapters have psycho-indoctrination and brainwashing of their new recruits.

It makes them forget they ever had families. They ASSUME through logic, after they're done, that they of course were once mere mortal humans and that they probably had families, but very few remember details more than "I fought stuff a lot." The new empty space is filled with fighting knowledge and prayers to the Emprah.

This is of course not true in the more bro-some/reasonable chapters like the Salamanders, but it is the majority.

>>12570308
Is there anything at all that supports your claims?

>>12570308
Dude, the only people who get brainwashed are the Grey Knights, because they are psyker children, often with horrible personality problems.

By brainwashing them, and giving them one "happy" child personality, they are capable of creating uncorruptable psyker-soldiers, because they are all turned into a perfectly happy kid.

Space Marines retain their personality. Sometimes, that's good. Sometimes that's bad.

why are Dreadnoughts senile and always hibernating? What does being in a dox have to do with your mental agility? why can't they just be like regular chapter members who just cant get through some low clearance doors?

>>12570360

They're not always senile, Bjorn is old and it takes a long time for Iron Priests to wake him up, but he has the "Ancient Tactician" rule for a reason.

Often Dreadnought senility is a result of poor maintainence or brain damage before/during internment to the dread.

>>12570308
Salamanders are allowed to adopt families, as are Space Wolves to a lesser extent.

>>12570308
This only happens to grey knights recruits, it is to prevent their memories being used against them by creatures of the warp.

>>12568201
marines get the shit brainwashed outta them, though they dont get completely mind-wiped. its been canon like forever. it doesnt really come up though in the more mary-sueish novels, for obvious reasons.

what if a really old marine like Bjorn or the 13th company refers to the Emperor in a respectful, but not reverent context, would they be killed or just ignored after an awkward silence?

>>12570377

Wait. Are you saying lots of the Space Marine Dreadnoughts are retards?

>>12570437

If you want to interpret it that way, it's certainly funny, but I had in mind something like what happened to Davian Thule, whose mind suffered a lot in the attack that incapacitated him or in the repair process.

>>12570467
I liked how Thule suddenly became a lot less senile in CR. Bet ya they all just fake it instead of having to be walking libraries telling the latest bunch of recruits how they foiled Abaddon for the bazillionth time.

>>12570488


prerecord shit like that?

I'm now imagining a robot derping its way into battle. "Oh a hormagaunt of my very own. I'ma gonna love him and stroke him and name him GEORGE"

>>12570488

that would be the suckiest part about being a dreadnought. all of the scouts coming up to you being like "Mr. Ancient! Mr. Ancient! Tell us all about M39! It's for a homework assignment from the Librarian."

>>12570488
CR was a year later. He'd had some time to adjust to being a walking machine of death by then

>>12570467
I was under the impression Thule was just tripping balls on stimulants, the dregs of the toxin, and the cure pumping through what was left of his veins. Also having just awoken from stasis.

>>12570597
Back, in M37, we fought with some strange abhumans, I think they called them squats, and they were

>>12570667
"Uhhh sir, the Inquisition is at the door..."

>>12570488
Oh man, I love this idea
"And there I was; Abaddon had tied the Chapter Master to the Doom Train tracks, and it was coming in fast. Acting fast, I shot off the rope and grabbed that Chaos bastard by his sniveling mustache; turns out it was a breakaway! He escaped, but that's how I saved the universe from the 2nd black crusade."

>>12570681
"Even in death I still spread word of the Squats!"

Even in death, I am a source material for a project.

"Even in death I can not be an Ultramarine."

>>12570425
Space Wolves don't revere the Emperor as much as the other marines anyhow. They respect and see him as a man who became a god.

That leaves the implications that any man can do that, and they prefer it that way.

>>12570694

Bump

>>12570998
Makes me wonder if they plan to achieve it by heavy drinking-

captcha: herpring jiin
What's that? Herping gin? Sounds intense.

>>12570694
"Have I told you Initiates about the time I had to race Abbadon in the Marine Machine in order to win the control of Cadia? That dastardly monster managed to pull ahead, but I managed to turn the traps that him and his chuckling warp spawn set right back at them!"

Telion is an old as fuck scout, seeing as it says he has been around for at least 5 or 8 chapter masters of the Ultrasmurfs and taught over half of them while they were scouts

Ummmmm... Did anyone mention Kharn the betrayer yet? as Hes a Terran born 1st founding spesh marrine. making him old as dirt

>>12575416

He dies, Khorne keeps bringing him back

>>12575442

dies or no, still hella old.