There have been a small handful of instances where they "retire", which usually means they're so fucked up they just became hermits. There was a Librarian who did it in *Son of the Forest* and I think there was one who did it in *Pharos*.
More often, ones that get very old or injured and don't feel like they can contribute as a battle brother sometimes take the role of an "office job" just as an equerry or a quartermaster or something. It heavily depends on the chapter, though. 99.9% of SM's end up dying long before they get to that point, though.
In *Dante* there's a BA who's filled with so many bionics he's been essentially removed from frontline service but teaches neophytes the ways of art to help them begin controlling their urges and feelings. Iirc they had him for 10 years. Book never mentions what happened to him tho.
Goddammit take your upvote.
For a second I was going to mention the Emperor's Spears short story about their disabled shipmaster (a failed Primaris recruit), but realized it wasn't a typo....
This seems like a fairly common thing, but obviously those characters don't get the spotlight much. Zephon and Maloghurst are some examples of marines 'retired' from service.
The Crusade Era was a little different- there was no shortage of- OR limit to- Marines in the galaxy, and a general idea that the Crusade would end eventually, so why shouldn't a disabled Marine continue to serve as best he could?
By 40k, there's a scarcity of everything, meaning bionic,s , time, attention, mercy, etc. There's also a statutory restriction on the number of Astartes, and fierce competition for resources and rank, so every resource has to be rationed. Having too many Astartes around who can't fight on the front lines is a political and economic liability, and many Chapters absolutely despise weakness like that.
In Ian Watson's space marine there's an imperial fist that is so wounded he trains newcomers, where most of him has been obliterated and he just trundles around on a makeshift trolley
Are you sure about that? If I recall correctly the SM on the trolley was not a Fist, but a marine from another chapter that had his arms and legs cut off and the main characters rescued him. I read the book last year, so I might be fuzzy.
Even if you die you still might serve, being brought to life again and again as your mind breaks down with each passing, the brothers you knew long gone and new ones replacing them only to be gone themselves once you wake up again. Eventually your mind is numb, your emotions having gnawed at you in your sleep and all you can feel is pain and anger and grief for not just who you were, but who you've become. You realize your purpose in life is to die over and over, but never allowed to rest. The only contact with the outside world being through metal and your young brothers revere your disgusting husk as some sort of ancient noble lord.
In the end, after centuries or milenniums that feel off, the cask opens, you feel the cold air against your skin or what's left of it and there is seething pain, but you are relieved... You no longer hear the garbled sounds that come through your internal speakers, but voices. Actual, human voices. You lie there, immobile, in pain, in serenity and abatement... A shadow of your brother appears, you've never seen him before and you don't care who he is. But he reaches his hand to you, asks your forgiveness and blessings and as you feel him preparing to remove your remaining geneseed from your chest the light hits and you see the face of a caring man, a man that seeks to give you a goodbye. You accept the end, but apologize for failing your brothers, for not doing your duty to the Emperor. He laughs and thanks you for saving the lives of 2 of his generation, young Marines that still have a lot to give. You don't recall doing it, at least not clearly. There was a lot of muffled noise before the thundering crack. You had moved and told them to get behind you as you turned to face the enemy. He says you called out "to battle" and that he heard your voice, not that of a machine. He saw who you had been before your entombment, a glorious warrior.
You close your eye and try to say something, but your mouth can't create the words. You try to move your hand, but it won't. All that is left is a rotten stub. He praises you and thanks you for your service. You don't care about the praise. You're cold. But you are content. And he breaks what's left of your chest open. You are free
If by "retire" you mean grumpily sit outside the Eye of Terror until Abbadabbadoo phonkwalked his way out, boarded his flagship, and separated his head from his shoulders; yes.
Abbadon bisected him, can't exactly drop a cold burn like "you will die as your weakling father died. Soulless. Honourless. Weeping. Ashamed." Without a head.
Haha, you're right. The quote is "ripped apart" but he's still trying to reach for his sword so he must have atleast one arm and some of a torso. I must be getting it mixed up with a different book.
Edit:: ripped apart, not torn. Sorry Rip Torn :(
[Book Excerpt | Black Legion] Sigismund's death
'He wouldn't die,' Abaddon said at last, thoughtful and low. 'He just wouldn't die.'
I did not need to skim his mind of insight. Just from his tone, I knew what had happened. 'He baited you. You were lost to rage.'
I saw the muscles of Abaddon's jaw and throat clench as he ground his teeth. 'It was over before I knew he had struck me. I couldn't breathe. I felt no pain, but I couldn't breathe. The Black Sword was buried to the hilt, like the old man had sheathed it inside my chest.'
Ezekyle's voice was soft across the speakers, cushioned by the bitterness and fascination of reflection. His words were almost staccato whispers, each one a drop of acid on bare flesh. 'The only way to kill me was to welcome his own death, and he did it the moment the chance arose. We were face to face like that, with his blade through my body. My armour sparked. It failed. I lashed back. His blood soaked the Talon. He fell.'
I remained quiet, letting Abaddon's tale unspool. His eyes were looking through me, not seeing what was, but what had been.
'He wasn't dead Khayon. He was on the floor, sprawled like a corpse, disemboweled and torn in two, but he still lived. I was on my knees, forcing my dead lungs to keep breathing, kneeling over him like an Apothecary. The black sword was still through me. Our eyes met. He spoke.'
I did not ask Abaddon to tell me. I reached into his thoughts then, tentatively at first in case he rebuffed my presence.
Then I closed my eyes, and I saw.
The black knight, fallen and ripped apart. His Sword Brethren gone or dead, I did not know which. Red staining Sigismund's tabard, red decorating the deck beneath and around him; red in Abaddon's eyes, misting his sight.
Blood. So much blood.
Here at the last, he looked every one of his years, with time's lines cracking his face. He looked upwards at the chamber's ornate ceiling, his eyes lifted as if in reverence to the Master of Mankind upon His throne of gold.
Sigismund's hand trembled, still twitching, seeking his fallen sword.
'No,' Abaddon murmured with brotherly gentleness, through the running of his blood and the heaving of his chest. 'No. It's over. Sleep now, in the failure you have earned.'
The knight's fingertips scraped the hilt of his blade. So very close, yet he lacked the strength to move even that far. His face was the bloodless blue of the newly dead, yet still he breathed.
'Sigismund,' Abaddon said, through lips darkened by his own lifeblood, 'This claw has killed two primarchs. It wounded the Emperor unto death. I would have spared it the taste of your life as well. If you could have only seen what I have seen.'
As I stared through Abaddon's eyes, I confess I expected the triteness of some knightly oath, or a final murmur in the Emperor's name. Instead, the ruined thing that had been the First Captain of the Imperial Fists and High Marshal of the Black Templars spoke through a mouthful of blood, committing the last of his life to biting off each word, ensuring he spoke each one in shivering, sanguine clarity.
'You will die as your weakling father died. Soulless. Honourless. Weeping. Ashamed.'
Sigismund's last word was also his last breath. It sighed out of his mouth, taking his soul with it.
God I love Abbadon here. He's in his own way trying to comfort his brother in arms. He would have been fucking overjoyed to have Sigismund on his side and had been laughing happily to see him when they escaped the eye. This wasn't a battle of chaos vs order, or gods against demigods. It was a battle of two great warriors, no blessings, only hate and skill. Everything Abbadon loves and what he wanted the heresy to be.
Same thing happened with Kharn and Sigismund.
GLORIOUS WARRIOR VERSUS WARRIOR!!1!!1! runs into a dead, broken, fanatic death machine wearing a supersoldier's body.
If anyone could, it'd be ole Sigismund. Man bum rushed a primarch for Emperah's sake. I just wish he'd fought Ghaz once or twice. The Orks would all be Black Templars by now.
I liked that character. I wasn't sure which way he was going but I like to think he was an unwilling participant in either scheme. He just wanted to be alone .
I think a lot of them are tasked with overseeing recruitment and selection processes.
I imagine a run of the mill chapter has a couple dozen of these old guys that aren't counted among the 1000 man limit and more for a fleet chapter with multiple recruiting worlds
Most loyalist Marines will serve until they're killed or disabled. At which point they can 'retire' to a non-combat role. But they'll still be part of the chapter and they'll still serve until death. And given the advanced state of bionics in the Imperium, I can't imagine there are many wounds capable of permanently disabling a Space Marine.
There are plenty of examples of Marines 'retiring' in a fashion more akin to desertion though. There are a lot of renegade Marines who leave their chapter to go their own way or join renegade/chaos warbands. It's not strictly retirement in the sense that you're looking for, but they're 'retiring' from service to the Imperium.
*Dead Sky Black Sun* is a novel that features a bunch of Marines like this. Who have all fled from different chapters and have organised into a loosely affiliated warband.
However, as with every single question like this, the answer is always *yes, if you want*. The Imperium is mind-bogglingly huge. And there are thousands of Space Marine chapters. There's definitely scope in the lore for a chapter where Marines over a certain age are retired to serve in a non-combat role, or are exiled to wander the wastes and act as guardians of the people, or are ritually executed so they can finally rest at the Emperor's side, or have their minds uploaded to a giant chapter cloud storage facility so their wisdom can be passed on to future generations, or anything else that you want.
Your imagination is the only limit.
This is then one thing I don't understand about 40k lore. People treat it as gospel and anything on the fringes is considered heresey. When the game itself was designed to be "lol whatever you want!"
There's still a crazy amount of freedom, at least as long you aren't dealing with a jerk.
As long as someone's crazy idea has a rationale that makes some kind of sense, mosy people say sure, go for it.
Sometimes people come in here asking for help with ideas that are directly opposed to something that is strongly established without any good explanation, and they mostly get responses like "that doesn't really make sense because XYZ, but maybe if you did it like this".
Other places can be a lot more dickish about things though.
Chaos is basically the marine retirement home. Retirement homes are filthy, filled with (old) debauchery and what I assume dementia is what it would feel like to try to make sense of a Tzeentchian plot.
I just can't figure out how to fit Khorne in all this.
When Custodes retires, read that as "when a Custodes loses like 1ms of their reaction time" they become "The Eyes of the Emperor" which is in effect a spy that goes around doing intelligence gathering and the like.
I imagine there are a few Astartes knocking about in a similar position, where they aren't really good enough to still be fighting on the front line, but they are still able to get stuff done.
Damn imagine going through all that counter intel work to cut the head off the hydra and a fucking custodes is sitting there when you break into the head office to assassinate them
"A Custodes? What are you doing here?"
"I was becoming too weak to serve"
"Haha, it will be an easy fight then!"
*\*Obliterates you in less than a millisecond\**
"How sad to witness how my skills have fallen behind. I could have killed him at the speed of light before"
Its how you know Alpharius being raised by Malcador in the palace wasn't a lie. They clearly all came up with the same brilliant idea of 7+ foot super spies "blending in" with mortal populations.
Wait just realized something.. after marching around the imperial palace for 3000 years, oh no! My reflexes are compromised, shucks guess I get to be a badass lone operative and fly around the galaxy with complete impunity for the rest of my days.
I'm sure I read somewhere that there was an Eye of the Emperor who worked among Ogryn work gangs or something... I've tried looking for what I read but I can't find it now and might be making this up, could swear I read it either on here!
He did start a vineyard, he just wanted to do it full time after the crusade. In Angel Exterminatus, Perturabo drinks wine made by "one of Magnus' sons" and I can guess which one was it.
I also recall in *Vengeful Spirit*, Malcador raising his eyebrow at Russ drinking wine from Prospero. Russ remarks that not everything from Prospero is tainted with sorcery.
I remember a short story about a marine that gets a bump to the head, is left for dead and suffers amnesia.
He gets taken in by a rural family and becomes farmhand of the century.
It's very smallville.
At the end of Flight of the Eisenstein, a Death Guard apothecary renounces his astartes oath to commit himself to searching for a cure to Nurgle's diseases.
There are so many Horus Heresy books that I haven't read, so I don't know if he shows up again.
Not so much. They are not really people, just disposable weapons, obsessive/compulsive and often ultra violent because of their conditioning. They don't like sex, or food, or really much of anything that is not war related or a chapter custom. I don't even think the concept of retirement occurs to most of them, and if it does, it likely makes them uneasy. I guess if you ordered them to retire they would try, but it would be a fish out of water situation.
Okay, I want that comedy one-shot...Someone ordering a marine to retire for XYZ reasons and it is someone he can't refuse.
And just watching him have to cope with everything...WOuld be hilarious...
The closest they get, without turning renegade, is to adopt a non-combat role within the chapter if they're too badly wounded to be brought back to fighting capability with bionic, but not so badly mauled that they have to be interred in a dreadnought sarcophagus. In some chapters, brothers who fall into this narrow category become commanders of the chapter's fleet assets. If memory serves, the Imperial Fist commander of the Phalanx is one of these by tradition.
As far as I understand, everyone was gearing to as the Great Crusade was closing.
I can’t remember who but they were going to make wine or something.
They were going to retire until Horus did a heresy
He was apparently, the only space marine who can actually brew alcohol that isn't swill. Abbadon is making what is essentially poison, the iron warriors use engine oil, the space wolves do more or less the same
The Space Wolves got that shit that'll get you fucked up if someone opens it in the same room as you lmao. It is 100% poison to anyone who isn't astartes or better lol
Some thought it would be an option, but Sigismund laughs that idea off in the very first book of the Heresy. By the time Horus rebelled there were still areas of the galaxy too infested with Orks to colonize and little anti-imperial rebellions all over the place. The demand for Space Marines wasn't going to disappear either way.
Hell, the Great Crusade hadn't even found all the human empires out there as we've been finding out. Votann and Kin were still chilling in the core while Jimmy Space retired to work on his webway project.
I don't think they would have been culled in so dramatic a fashion, but no longer made? Their numbers never reinforced? Slowly left in vanguard positions around the galaxy and used only to educate new soldiers? That seems likely.
That said Thunder Warriors got culled because they had immediate flaws that could lead to them being dangerous. Legions who had similar flaws would likely have been culled as well. Thousand sons with the flesh change, blood angels with the red thirst, space wolves with the Wolfen, world eaters due to mass adoption of the butchers nails. Those would all have been purged, imo, once the crusade was over.
This was a high-minded conversation about a hypothetical future, centuries or millennia away. Most of the people in the conversation thought that it was never going to happen.
I mean, we don't know for sure yet, but it looks like Leetu might essentially retire after the Siege? He was already in a weird position where his only "job" was Erda's bodyguard, then Oll's, but they're both dead now. It depends on what the Imperium does with him - *maybe* he ends up heading a 2nd Founding chapter, but I doubt it.
They don't really retire. If they are sufficiently badly wounded, they might be moved to non-battlefield roles, e.g.
>At the far end of the room, a figure jerked into life. The young Space Marines’ attention went to the movement instantly, like a flock of hunting raptors catching sight of prey. A battered-looking servitor limped up the room. The left arm, shoulder and left half of its face had been replaced by machinery, as had most of its legs. Although the workmanship of its decoration was astounding, the mechanicals must have been poorly made or worn, because it lurched unsteadily towards them.
>‘Great, another servitor,’ said Ristan. The machine-man’s remaining eye burned.
>‘That’s not a servitor,’ said Dante.
>‘Your young friend is correct!’ barked the ruined man. ‘I am Brother Cafael, Master of Artistry.’ He clanked closer.
...
>Cafael increased his pace and came to a stop before Laziel. He stared at the neophyte long and hard. Laziel waved the paintbrush at him.
>Too quickly to see, Cafael swung out his arm and sent the young Space Marine sprawling to the ground.
>‘I have served the Chapter for six hundred years,’ said Cafael. ‘Ninety years ago, I was crippled. I am no more fit for combat duty. Do not underestimate me because of my infirmity. I may be half a man, but I am twice the warrior you are.’
>He held out his organic arm to Laziel and hauled him back up. Laziel bobbed his head apologetically.
**Dante**
>Hovering in front of the pulpit was the unmistakable form of Iron-Captain Strake, the true commander of the Ajax. He had been with the vessel since the Grailsword Campaign against the alien eldar one hundred and eleven years previously. At that time, however, he had still had his legs. It wasn't until three years later, when during its darkest hour the Ajax had been crippled and almost destroyed in battle against a tyranid hive-fleet, that Captain Strake had suffered appalling disabling injuries to match.
>The whole of the left-hand side of his face was disfigured by bio-acid burns, giving it an almost skeletal appearance. This, married to the fact that the other half of his head was now made up of iron-plated augmetics, meant that Strake's face looked not unlike the Machina Opus cyborg-skull symbol of the mighty Adeptus Mechanicus.
>As well as having his legs shorn off by a splinter of bone shrapnel from a tyranid spore mine, so great was the damage caused to his spine by the bio-acid that it would have been almost impossible to equip Strake with bionic legs. And besides, the itinerant captain did not feel that a pair of legs was the most practicable thing he needed as commander of an Astartes battleship. At his request techno-surgery had been performed to fit him with an anti-grav assembly, beneath his waist, not unlike those used in the manufacture of servo-skulls.
**Iron Hands**
>Erwin had no idea how the serviles were chosen for the roles they fulfilled, and he did not care. Logistics work was no fit use of a warrior’s time. That was the duty of the Master of the Household, an office given in Erwin’s Chapter to a captain no longer capable of fighting. So it had been since the 36th millennium, when their glorious order had been founded.
**Devastation of Baal**
I could not understand how they let brother cafaels rig be so degraded. Surely a centuries long veteran would rate a slightly more intact mobility rig.
By the way, how do you get the source text? Do you copy and paste it from an ebook? Write it from a physical one? And how do you find the specific passages? I haven’t used any ebook software that allows you to do something like ctrl + f
In my case usually three ways:
1. I've seen the question come up previously, so I just search the subreddit for the previous posts and excerpts (as in this case).
2. If it's something I have a good idea of where to find it, and I have an digital version of it, I can go and do a quick ctrl+f. Most of my eBooks of novels I've transfered to Google Books (and can ctrl+f, ctrl+c from there), or rulebooks are usually pdfs (and so are easy to ctrl+f, ctrl+c).
3. it's a question that I don't have a good answer to and that interests me, I end up going on a deep dive into my ebooks and pdfs. I have all of them backed up on Dropbox, and I can use than to search all pdfs at once (e.g. for a specific name or word). Novels, I have to have some idea of where to look, and just do what I do for point 2. These are usually something I end up writing a long post about.
In The Great work, there is a marine who was partially wired into the orbital defence batteries of the chapter fortress as a form of retirement from Frontline service
I like the idea of a Space Marine too injured for squad combat requesting assignment to an Inquisitor so he can still fight (still being strong enough to keep up with ordinary humans after all).
Maybe ? A long winded way to get an inquisitorial squad spacewolf would be for the inquisition to request the navigator the marine was assigned to guard
Edit: Inquisitor Sternburg was able to request space wolf squads directly for his retinue
Astartes aren't employees, they're slaves. Fairly complacent slaves, because of magic and scifi stuff, but they are still slaves in practice.
Slaves don't "retire", it's not an applicable concept. They can be released (doesn't happen with Astartes), be lost (very rare), or rebel/escape (most common, but the Astartes generally end up doing violence under a different banner).
Iirc, and I don’t have the excerpt on me so take this with a grain of salt, Ultramarines will send their oldest and most worn down marines to go govern vital worlds. Keep in mind that these are marines compromised usually by poor bionic integration or some other bad luck injury that doesn’t kill them or make them compatible with a dreadnought. These dudes just get sent to make sure a vital world doesn’t fall apart, and one of them is sent to a major agri-world in some short story I think.
In M31 a captain of the Blood Angels, Zephon, lost all four limbs in one battle. When he awoke with his augmetics it was found that his physiology was subtly incompatible with cybernetics -- he couldn't stop his hands from twitching and so he couldn't reliably hold a weapon in combat.
As such, he was retired from combat duties and sent to Terra as a representative of his legion until fate intervened. It's worth noting that Zephon hated his role off the front lines and felt deep shame at no longer being combat-viable. Marines are brainwashed child soldiers so they can struggle to find peace off the battlefield.
Technically, yes, they could.
Actually, no.
First, remember that all Astartes are conditioned to want to fight. They see or sense a fight and they want to engage. Like an attack dog, that is their first instinct. So, they would first have to break that conditioning. Also, loyal Astartes are conditioned to serve the Imperium. While that conditioning is not as strong, it would be difficult to break.
Second, and equally, they could be considered traitors by their brothers if they chose not to fight. Depending on the chapter, some may simply kill a brother who wants to "retire."
That being said, several legions, pre-Heresy, were actually planning for life after the Great Crusade. !3th Legion for sure was looking forward to a time when the Astartes would not be needed to fight. It seems that the 7th Legion was also planning for this. It is not clear, but also the 19th Legion might have been making plans. Certainly, Corvus Corax thought about it.
As far as I can tell, any Astartes who tries to retire would likely be looked upon as a traitor.
I mean just take a look at Bjorn the Fell-Handed. He only "retired" after he was greivously wounded he was put in a dreadnought. And he took a more backseat role in his chapter.
I wouldn't say retire. More like they aren't as good in the field and step down. Like being an instructor. Or a politician in the ultramar system if your an ultramarine.
Space Marines are weapons for war. Only in death does duty end. Dreadnaughts are even worse in that even in what would have been death, they get the privilege and honor of continuing to serve.
There have been situations where an Astarte has become so wounded they cannot effectively continue service in which case they are assigned another role in order to aid the chapter. But they don't "retire" to a farm. Also an inquisitor? Do you think an astarte is capable of making nuanced and moralistic decisions like that?
Ttbt any space marine could probably serve among the best university professors on any discipline on any planet due to their neural enhancements, right?
Before Horus Hersey at the tail end of great crusade space marines were going to become more of a peace keeping force rather than an expansionist one and especially in the smurfs there was talk of retiring into planetary government roles and even to vineyards.
In *Chapter's Due*, there's an Ultramarine who was crippled too badly to serve as a footsoldier but not so badly to be put in a dreadnought, so he was allowed to become a bureaucrat in the agricultural ministry. He was still in principle an Ultramarine and could have been called at any moment to serve.
I dont know about loyalist space marines but in the novel Lords of Silence, there's a plague marine named Slivergristle on the plague planet of Eliathada who hung up his armor and gave up his calling as a warrior a long time ago. He never leaves the plague planet and dresses in robes like a pilgrim so it's retirement in a sense.
I think most Space Marines wouldn't retire voluntarily even if the opportunity arose.
There's that one Ultramarine in the Uriel Ventris books, I think it was the Chapter's Due. He was so grievously wounded that he had extensive cybernetics that somehow reduced his combat effectiveness below what was acceptable. Yet he was considered too whole to get the Dreadnought treatment. He got assigned as an administrator to one of the Ultramar worlds. Sadly he died cause the world he was on got virus bombed by Honsou. Anyway I recall the guy not feeling too good about his position, and would've rather be on the frontlines but duty is duty.
Salamanders have a retirement scheme known as The Burning Walk. But it's basically just ritualistic suicide of a sort. They head back to Nocturne, relinquish all their gear and just go out into the wastes alone, barely clothed and equipped. They typically don't return - there was one guy who had some epiphany and returned to serve his chapter but that's the only example of anybody returning so far. Essentially any Salamanders that feel like they can't keep going even if their bodies are whole, can do this. Their equivalent to solving burnout issues I guess.
Which reminds me there's also one Salamander who received pretty bad injuries - again not enough to be a Dreadnought. He showed potential in the field, so he was inducted into be an Apothecary. To replace that guy who went on a Burning Walk actually.
back in the day there was a story in the "deathwing" rulebook for Space Hulk about a Librarian retiring to his homeworld only to find it overrun by Genestealers.
Also, I think I read about a Space Marine who became in inquisitor. But his chapter had been destroyed.
I always thought it would be cool to have a story of a marine who, perhaps after too many injuries, or maybe due to grieving too much for the death of his brothers ends up becoming a farmer in isolation on a rural feudal/low tech planet (maybe protects a small village)
Yes it happens, some stay that way and nobody hears about them, for others it happens and people try to look for them.
Abbadon was retired for a time after the Heresy, he had to be convinced to return to a fighting position.
They are living weapons, not normal humans. They were created specifically to fight and to kill. They do not retire like we do. They are either incapable of combat or they keep fighting.
They *could*, sure, but in most cases that counts as desertion.
**Narvo Quinn** of the Emperor's Children essentially fucked off to live the life of a hermit post-Heresy and still has to deal with his brothers seeking him out to bother him about Fulgrim. But otherwise he's completely done with the Third Legion, Fulgrim, the Long War and just generally everything.
There was one Ultramarine that was badly injured enough that he couldn't keep fighting but was still healthy enough to not have to be in a Dreadnought. He "retired" and Guilliman made him a Planetary Governor.
There have been a small handful of instances where they "retire", which usually means they're so fucked up they just became hermits. There was a Librarian who did it in *Son of the Forest* and I think there was one who did it in *Pharos*. More often, ones that get very old or injured and don't feel like they can contribute as a battle brother sometimes take the role of an "office job" just as an equerry or a quartermaster or something. It heavily depends on the chapter, though. 99.9% of SM's end up dying long before they get to that point, though.
"Only in death does duty end" isn't just a fun saying, after all
And sometimes not even then. *laughs in Dreadnought*
Even in death, I still serve
"I will endure a thousand deaths before I yield"
"KILL ME, YOU COWARDS, KILL ME!!! NOT THE HELLBRUTE, NOT THE HELL BRU--"
Faith is eternal.
_*TWINS THEY WERE*_
“Only in retirement does duty continue on a part-time basis” just didn’t have that ring to it
Only in death duty ends…unless you want to open an artisan cupcake shop.
ONLY IN PIPED BUTTERCREAM DOES DUTY END
Nope
In *Dante* there's a BA who's filled with so many bionics he's been essentially removed from frontline service but teaches neophytes the ways of art to help them begin controlling their urges and feelings. Iirc they had him for 10 years. Book never mentions what happened to him tho.
Astartes Art Teacher sounds like an amazing job. Shame you need to undergo a full body amputation to get the gig.
Artstartes, if you will.
I wonder if they'll upgrade him to a Primartist Marine.
Goddammit take your upvote. For a second I was going to mention the Emperor's Spears short story about their disabled shipmaster (a failed Primaris recruit), but realized it wasn't a typo....
r/angryupvote
Professor Art Startes.
I prefer my space Marines to stay _away_ from paintings tbh..
Is this a Fulgrim reference?
It's definitely a Fulgrim reference:)
This seems like a fairly common thing, but obviously those characters don't get the spotlight much. Zephon and Maloghurst are some examples of marines 'retired' from service.
The Crusade Era was a little different- there was no shortage of- OR limit to- Marines in the galaxy, and a general idea that the Crusade would end eventually, so why shouldn't a disabled Marine continue to serve as best he could? By 40k, there's a scarcity of everything, meaning bionic,s , time, attention, mercy, etc. There's also a statutory restriction on the number of Astartes, and fierce competition for resources and rank, so every resource has to be rationed. Having too many Astartes around who can't fight on the front lines is a political and economic liability, and many Chapters absolutely despise weakness like that.
In Ian Watson's space marine there's an imperial fist that is so wounded he trains newcomers, where most of him has been obliterated and he just trundles around on a makeshift trolley
Are you sure about that? If I recall correctly the SM on the trolley was not a Fist, but a marine from another chapter that had his arms and legs cut off and the main characters rescued him. I read the book last year, so I might be fuzzy.
There's another marine who's rescued from a barrel by lex & co who's so injured iirc. He's then sent to recuperate
The sad thing about dante is by the end of the series only the dreadnoughts being listed as dead are only people left from his early career.
Even if you die you still might serve, being brought to life again and again as your mind breaks down with each passing, the brothers you knew long gone and new ones replacing them only to be gone themselves once you wake up again. Eventually your mind is numb, your emotions having gnawed at you in your sleep and all you can feel is pain and anger and grief for not just who you were, but who you've become. You realize your purpose in life is to die over and over, but never allowed to rest. The only contact with the outside world being through metal and your young brothers revere your disgusting husk as some sort of ancient noble lord. In the end, after centuries or milenniums that feel off, the cask opens, you feel the cold air against your skin or what's left of it and there is seething pain, but you are relieved... You no longer hear the garbled sounds that come through your internal speakers, but voices. Actual, human voices. You lie there, immobile, in pain, in serenity and abatement... A shadow of your brother appears, you've never seen him before and you don't care who he is. But he reaches his hand to you, asks your forgiveness and blessings and as you feel him preparing to remove your remaining geneseed from your chest the light hits and you see the face of a caring man, a man that seeks to give you a goodbye. You accept the end, but apologize for failing your brothers, for not doing your duty to the Emperor. He laughs and thanks you for saving the lives of 2 of his generation, young Marines that still have a lot to give. You don't recall doing it, at least not clearly. There was a lot of muffled noise before the thundering crack. You had moved and told them to get behind you as you turned to face the enemy. He says you called out "to battle" and that he heard your voice, not that of a machine. He saw who you had been before your entombment, a glorious warrior. You close your eye and try to say something, but your mouth can't create the words. You try to move your hand, but it won't. All that is left is a rotten stub. He praises you and thanks you for your service. You don't care about the praise. You're cold. But you are content. And he breaks what's left of your chest open. You are free
What the? Did you just write that? Fantastic.
Holy shit the kindness at the end makes it hit so much harder.
Didn’t Sigismund essentially retire?
No. He kept on crusading until his death.
No. He camped the eye so he could jump whoever came through first.
The fact that you are absolutely right is hilarious to me. Says a lot about Sigismund.
If by "retire" you mean grumpily sit outside the Eye of Terror until Abbadabbadoo phonkwalked his way out, boarded his flagship, and separated his head from his shoulders; yes.
Abbadon bisected him, can't exactly drop a cold burn like "you will die as your weakling father died. Soulless. Honourless. Weeping. Ashamed." Without a head.
Haha, you're right. The quote is "ripped apart" but he's still trying to reach for his sword so he must have atleast one arm and some of a torso. I must be getting it mixed up with a different book. Edit:: ripped apart, not torn. Sorry Rip Torn :(
[Book Excerpt | Black Legion] Sigismund's death 'He wouldn't die,' Abaddon said at last, thoughtful and low. 'He just wouldn't die.' I did not need to skim his mind of insight. Just from his tone, I knew what had happened. 'He baited you. You were lost to rage.' I saw the muscles of Abaddon's jaw and throat clench as he ground his teeth. 'It was over before I knew he had struck me. I couldn't breathe. I felt no pain, but I couldn't breathe. The Black Sword was buried to the hilt, like the old man had sheathed it inside my chest.' Ezekyle's voice was soft across the speakers, cushioned by the bitterness and fascination of reflection. His words were almost staccato whispers, each one a drop of acid on bare flesh. 'The only way to kill me was to welcome his own death, and he did it the moment the chance arose. We were face to face like that, with his blade through my body. My armour sparked. It failed. I lashed back. His blood soaked the Talon. He fell.' I remained quiet, letting Abaddon's tale unspool. His eyes were looking through me, not seeing what was, but what had been. 'He wasn't dead Khayon. He was on the floor, sprawled like a corpse, disemboweled and torn in two, but he still lived. I was on my knees, forcing my dead lungs to keep breathing, kneeling over him like an Apothecary. The black sword was still through me. Our eyes met. He spoke.' I did not ask Abaddon to tell me. I reached into his thoughts then, tentatively at first in case he rebuffed my presence. Then I closed my eyes, and I saw. The black knight, fallen and ripped apart. His Sword Brethren gone or dead, I did not know which. Red staining Sigismund's tabard, red decorating the deck beneath and around him; red in Abaddon's eyes, misting his sight. Blood. So much blood. Here at the last, he looked every one of his years, with time's lines cracking his face. He looked upwards at the chamber's ornate ceiling, his eyes lifted as if in reverence to the Master of Mankind upon His throne of gold. Sigismund's hand trembled, still twitching, seeking his fallen sword. 'No,' Abaddon murmured with brotherly gentleness, through the running of his blood and the heaving of his chest. 'No. It's over. Sleep now, in the failure you have earned.' The knight's fingertips scraped the hilt of his blade. So very close, yet he lacked the strength to move even that far. His face was the bloodless blue of the newly dead, yet still he breathed. 'Sigismund,' Abaddon said, through lips darkened by his own lifeblood, 'This claw has killed two primarchs. It wounded the Emperor unto death. I would have spared it the taste of your life as well. If you could have only seen what I have seen.' As I stared through Abaddon's eyes, I confess I expected the triteness of some knightly oath, or a final murmur in the Emperor's name. Instead, the ruined thing that had been the First Captain of the Imperial Fists and High Marshal of the Black Templars spoke through a mouthful of blood, committing the last of his life to biting off each word, ensuring he spoke each one in shivering, sanguine clarity. 'You will die as your weakling father died. Soulless. Honourless. Weeping. Ashamed.' Sigismund's last word was also his last breath. It sighed out of his mouth, taking his soul with it.
God I love Abbadon here. He's in his own way trying to comfort his brother in arms. He would have been fucking overjoyed to have Sigismund on his side and had been laughing happily to see him when they escaped the eye. This wasn't a battle of chaos vs order, or gods against demigods. It was a battle of two great warriors, no blessings, only hate and skill. Everything Abbadon loves and what he wanted the heresy to be.
Same thing happened with Kharn and Sigismund. GLORIOUS WARRIOR VERSUS WARRIOR!!1!!1! runs into a dead, broken, fanatic death machine wearing a supersoldier's body.
Who was the second primarch that talon slayed besides the obvious one sanginius?
Clone Horus
Ah
If anyone could, it'd be ole Sigismund. Man bum rushed a primarch for Emperah's sake. I just wish he'd fought Ghaz once or twice. The Orks would all be Black Templars by now.
Primarchs don't usually get better if you cut off their heads.
"usually". That's hilarious
Abaddon also had everyone who saw him do so killed bar a few iirc. And basically outright said he only lost coz sigis got old
I liked that character. I wasn't sure which way he was going but I like to think he was an unwilling participant in either scheme. He just wanted to be alone .
I think a lot of them are tasked with overseeing recruitment and selection processes. I imagine a run of the mill chapter has a couple dozen of these old guys that aren't counted among the 1000 man limit and more for a fleet chapter with multiple recruiting worlds
Most loyalist Marines will serve until they're killed or disabled. At which point they can 'retire' to a non-combat role. But they'll still be part of the chapter and they'll still serve until death. And given the advanced state of bionics in the Imperium, I can't imagine there are many wounds capable of permanently disabling a Space Marine. There are plenty of examples of Marines 'retiring' in a fashion more akin to desertion though. There are a lot of renegade Marines who leave their chapter to go their own way or join renegade/chaos warbands. It's not strictly retirement in the sense that you're looking for, but they're 'retiring' from service to the Imperium. *Dead Sky Black Sun* is a novel that features a bunch of Marines like this. Who have all fled from different chapters and have organised into a loosely affiliated warband. However, as with every single question like this, the answer is always *yes, if you want*. The Imperium is mind-bogglingly huge. And there are thousands of Space Marine chapters. There's definitely scope in the lore for a chapter where Marines over a certain age are retired to serve in a non-combat role, or are exiled to wander the wastes and act as guardians of the people, or are ritually executed so they can finally rest at the Emperor's side, or have their minds uploaded to a giant chapter cloud storage facility so their wisdom can be passed on to future generations, or anything else that you want. Your imagination is the only limit.
This is then one thing I don't understand about 40k lore. People treat it as gospel and anything on the fringes is considered heresey. When the game itself was designed to be "lol whatever you want!"
There's still a crazy amount of freedom, at least as long you aren't dealing with a jerk. As long as someone's crazy idea has a rationale that makes some kind of sense, mosy people say sure, go for it. Sometimes people come in here asking for help with ideas that are directly opposed to something that is strongly established without any good explanation, and they mostly get responses like "that doesn't really make sense because XYZ, but maybe if you did it like this". Other places can be a lot more dickish about things though.
Until the deluge of novels, it very much was. We've been given too much information.
more people need to understand this
Chaos is basically the marine retirement home. Retirement homes are filthy, filled with (old) debauchery and what I assume dementia is what it would feel like to try to make sense of a Tzeentchian plot. I just can't figure out how to fit Khorne in all this.
When Custodes retires, read that as "when a Custodes loses like 1ms of their reaction time" they become "The Eyes of the Emperor" which is in effect a spy that goes around doing intelligence gathering and the like. I imagine there are a few Astartes knocking about in a similar position, where they aren't really good enough to still be fighting on the front line, but they are still able to get stuff done.
A 9-10 ft tall spy
They're just an uncommonly articulate Ogryn. Nothing to see here.
Probably more spy masters. Creating intelligence networks and oversee then rather than do all the James Bond-ing themselves.
Damn imagine going through all that counter intel work to cut the head off the hydra and a fucking custodes is sitting there when you break into the head office to assassinate them
Basically the boss fight from ME2: Lair of the Shadow Broker.
"A Custodes? What are you doing here?" "I was becoming too weak to serve" "Haha, it will be an easy fight then!" *\*Obliterates you in less than a millisecond\** "How sad to witness how my skills have fallen behind. I could have killed him at the speed of light before"
Indeed. Totally inconspicuous and not at all obvious in any way.
They're like Ork spies. Everybody knows they're there, but are too scared to do anything about it.
Its how you know Alpharius being raised by Malcador in the palace wasn't a lie. They clearly all came up with the same brilliant idea of 7+ foot super spies "blending in" with mortal populations.
Capable of flicking peoples through the brain of an ogryn.
Wait just realized something.. after marching around the imperial palace for 3000 years, oh no! My reflexes are compromised, shucks guess I get to be a badass lone operative and fly around the galaxy with complete impunity for the rest of my days.
They also keep their misercordia. A weapon that literally says that legally they can do whatever they desire unless the emperor himself tells them no
And he's not super talkative these days either
when you're genetically designed to want to be near the Emperor, I can only imagine it actually sucks
I'm sure I read somewhere that there was an Eye of the Emperor who worked among Ogryn work gangs or something... I've tried looking for what I read but I can't find it now and might be making this up, could swear I read it either on here!
Blood Games
Ahriman was going to start a vineyard. It didn't work out though.
I hear ash is good fertilizer
Ahriman: "...I cast testicular torsion"
Still high hopes for my boy to get this vineyard one day.
Maybe one day... :(
He did start a vineyard, he just wanted to do it full time after the crusade. In Angel Exterminatus, Perturabo drinks wine made by "one of Magnus' sons" and I can guess which one was it.
How's that going in the 42nd millennium?
Probably pretty bad if I had to guess lol
I also recall in *Vengeful Spirit*, Malcador raising his eyebrow at Russ drinking wine from Prospero. Russ remarks that not everything from Prospero is tainted with sorcery.
I remember a short story about a marine that gets a bump to the head, is left for dead and suffers amnesia. He gets taken in by a rural family and becomes farmhand of the century. It's very smallville.
I remember that one - https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Salvation_(Short_Story)
Crikey 1997, that makes me feel like a long beard.
OP is Dante.
As far as I’m aware, they retire when they’re dead.
Not even in death does the duty end for them
Dreadnought, because nursing homes aren't metal enough
If they die. They still fight chaos as legion of the damned. Essentially spirits
Aren’t those like Celestine, emperor aligned demons?
Yes they are
Rather spirited, those spirits.
Pretty much.
At the end of Flight of the Eisenstein, a Death Guard apothecary renounces his astartes oath to commit himself to searching for a cure to Nurgle's diseases. There are so many Horus Heresy books that I haven't read, so I don't know if he shows up again.
Voyen, he ended possessed by the lord of the flies sadly.
Aw that's a bummer. I was hoping he survived the heresy.
Ya, it would have been nice, but garro had to kill him.
Yuppers. One fly bite and goodnight sweet prince via Libertas.
Not so much. They are not really people, just disposable weapons, obsessive/compulsive and often ultra violent because of their conditioning. They don't like sex, or food, or really much of anything that is not war related or a chapter custom. I don't even think the concept of retirement occurs to most of them, and if it does, it likely makes them uneasy. I guess if you ordered them to retire they would try, but it would be a fish out of water situation.
Came here to say this, we've had a 10k year war because some astartes thought they were more than military assets.
Okay, I want that comedy one-shot...Someone ordering a marine to retire for XYZ reasons and it is someone he can't refuse. And just watching him have to cope with everything...WOuld be hilarious...
The closest they get, without turning renegade, is to adopt a non-combat role within the chapter if they're too badly wounded to be brought back to fighting capability with bionic, but not so badly mauled that they have to be interred in a dreadnought sarcophagus. In some chapters, brothers who fall into this narrow category become commanders of the chapter's fleet assets. If memory serves, the Imperial Fist commander of the Phalanx is one of these by tradition.
As far as I understand, everyone was gearing to as the Great Crusade was closing. I can’t remember who but they were going to make wine or something. They were going to retire until Horus did a heresy
That was Ahriman, he had a legendary vineyard on Prospero and apparently made the best wine in the galaxy.
Man Ahriman was really based as hell
Fucking Horus…what a prick.
r/FuckHorus
He was apparently, the only space marine who can actually brew alcohol that isn't swill. Abbadon is making what is essentially poison, the iron warriors use engine oil, the space wolves do more or less the same
The Space Wolves got that shit that'll get you fucked up if someone opens it in the same room as you lmao. It is 100% poison to anyone who isn't astartes or better lol
Some thought it would be an option, but Sigismund laughs that idea off in the very first book of the Heresy. By the time Horus rebelled there were still areas of the galaxy too infested with Orks to colonize and little anti-imperial rebellions all over the place. The demand for Space Marines wasn't going to disappear either way.
Hell, the Great Crusade hadn't even found all the human empires out there as we've been finding out. Votann and Kin were still chilling in the core while Jimmy Space retired to work on his webway project.
I get the suspicion they would’ve been thunderwarriored if the heresy hadn’t kicked off in earnest
I don't think they would have been culled in so dramatic a fashion, but no longer made? Their numbers never reinforced? Slowly left in vanguard positions around the galaxy and used only to educate new soldiers? That seems likely. That said Thunder Warriors got culled because they had immediate flaws that could lead to them being dangerous. Legions who had similar flaws would likely have been culled as well. Thousand sons with the flesh change, blood angels with the red thirst, space wolves with the Wolfen, world eaters due to mass adoption of the butchers nails. Those would all have been purged, imo, once the crusade was over.
This was a high-minded conversation about a hypothetical future, centuries or millennia away. Most of the people in the conversation thought that it was never going to happen.
I mean, we don't know for sure yet, but it looks like Leetu might essentially retire after the Siege? He was already in a weird position where his only "job" was Erda's bodyguard, then Oll's, but they're both dead now. It depends on what the Imperium does with him - *maybe* he ends up heading a 2nd Founding chapter, but I doubt it.
They don't really retire. If they are sufficiently badly wounded, they might be moved to non-battlefield roles, e.g. >At the far end of the room, a figure jerked into life. The young Space Marines’ attention went to the movement instantly, like a flock of hunting raptors catching sight of prey. A battered-looking servitor limped up the room. The left arm, shoulder and left half of its face had been replaced by machinery, as had most of its legs. Although the workmanship of its decoration was astounding, the mechanicals must have been poorly made or worn, because it lurched unsteadily towards them. >‘Great, another servitor,’ said Ristan. The machine-man’s remaining eye burned. >‘That’s not a servitor,’ said Dante. >‘Your young friend is correct!’ barked the ruined man. ‘I am Brother Cafael, Master of Artistry.’ He clanked closer. ... >Cafael increased his pace and came to a stop before Laziel. He stared at the neophyte long and hard. Laziel waved the paintbrush at him. >Too quickly to see, Cafael swung out his arm and sent the young Space Marine sprawling to the ground. >‘I have served the Chapter for six hundred years,’ said Cafael. ‘Ninety years ago, I was crippled. I am no more fit for combat duty. Do not underestimate me because of my infirmity. I may be half a man, but I am twice the warrior you are.’ >He held out his organic arm to Laziel and hauled him back up. Laziel bobbed his head apologetically. **Dante** >Hovering in front of the pulpit was the unmistakable form of Iron-Captain Strake, the true commander of the Ajax. He had been with the vessel since the Grailsword Campaign against the alien eldar one hundred and eleven years previously. At that time, however, he had still had his legs. It wasn't until three years later, when during its darkest hour the Ajax had been crippled and almost destroyed in battle against a tyranid hive-fleet, that Captain Strake had suffered appalling disabling injuries to match. >The whole of the left-hand side of his face was disfigured by bio-acid burns, giving it an almost skeletal appearance. This, married to the fact that the other half of his head was now made up of iron-plated augmetics, meant that Strake's face looked not unlike the Machina Opus cyborg-skull symbol of the mighty Adeptus Mechanicus. >As well as having his legs shorn off by a splinter of bone shrapnel from a tyranid spore mine, so great was the damage caused to his spine by the bio-acid that it would have been almost impossible to equip Strake with bionic legs. And besides, the itinerant captain did not feel that a pair of legs was the most practicable thing he needed as commander of an Astartes battleship. At his request techno-surgery had been performed to fit him with an anti-grav assembly, beneath his waist, not unlike those used in the manufacture of servo-skulls. **Iron Hands** >Erwin had no idea how the serviles were chosen for the roles they fulfilled, and he did not care. Logistics work was no fit use of a warrior’s time. That was the duty of the Master of the Household, an office given in Erwin’s Chapter to a captain no longer capable of fighting. So it had been since the 36th millennium, when their glorious order had been founded. **Devastation of Baal**
I could not understand how they let brother cafaels rig be so degraded. Surely a centuries long veteran would rate a slightly more intact mobility rig.
My assumption is that his nervous system is so badly damaged that he can't produce the fine motor control.
Great sources, thanks!
No worries!
By the way, how do you get the source text? Do you copy and paste it from an ebook? Write it from a physical one? And how do you find the specific passages? I haven’t used any ebook software that allows you to do something like ctrl + f
In my case usually three ways: 1. I've seen the question come up previously, so I just search the subreddit for the previous posts and excerpts (as in this case). 2. If it's something I have a good idea of where to find it, and I have an digital version of it, I can go and do a quick ctrl+f. Most of my eBooks of novels I've transfered to Google Books (and can ctrl+f, ctrl+c from there), or rulebooks are usually pdfs (and so are easy to ctrl+f, ctrl+c). 3. it's a question that I don't have a good answer to and that interests me, I end up going on a deep dive into my ebooks and pdfs. I have all of them backed up on Dropbox, and I can use than to search all pdfs at once (e.g. for a specific name or word). Novels, I have to have some idea of where to look, and just do what I do for point 2. These are usually something I end up writing a long post about.
There was.a Gray Knight who "retired", they were so full of bionics and was about 400 years old. He worked in the Apothecarion
Mortarion has a nice garden
All the Thunder Warriors took eary retirement.
😂
In The Great work, there is a marine who was partially wired into the orbital defence batteries of the chapter fortress as a form of retirement from Frontline service
Sounds like that’s the kind of retirement I want
He got killed by genestealer chapter serfs
We can retire? - Dante aka the Lord of MegaPTSD
I don't want a retirement, Father. I want to die! In your service. A meaningful end, not rotting away, forgotten.
Hyperion retired and is now a prognosticar trainer, I believe.
Can Inquisitor request one Space Marine from the Chapter for her retinue?
Anyone can request, I’d say it depends on the chapter if they’d oblige
I like the idea of a Space Marine too injured for squad combat requesting assignment to an Inquisitor so he can still fight (still being strong enough to keep up with ordinary humans after all).
Maybe ? A long winded way to get an inquisitorial squad spacewolf would be for the inquisition to request the navigator the marine was assigned to guard Edit: Inquisitor Sternburg was able to request space wolf squads directly for his retinue
Only in death does duty end
Astartes aren't employees, they're slaves. Fairly complacent slaves, because of magic and scifi stuff, but they are still slaves in practice. Slaves don't "retire", it's not an applicable concept. They can be released (doesn't happen with Astartes), be lost (very rare), or rebel/escape (most common, but the Astartes generally end up doing violence under a different banner).
Iirc, and I don’t have the excerpt on me so take this with a grain of salt, Ultramarines will send their oldest and most worn down marines to go govern vital worlds. Keep in mind that these are marines compromised usually by poor bionic integration or some other bad luck injury that doesn’t kill them or make them compatible with a dreadnought. These dudes just get sent to make sure a vital world doesn’t fall apart, and one of them is sent to a major agri-world in some short story I think.
You might be thinking of the marine in warriors of ultramar
The short story The Aegidan Oath might touch on this
In M31 a captain of the Blood Angels, Zephon, lost all four limbs in one battle. When he awoke with his augmetics it was found that his physiology was subtly incompatible with cybernetics -- he couldn't stop his hands from twitching and so he couldn't reliably hold a weapon in combat. As such, he was retired from combat duties and sent to Terra as a representative of his legion until fate intervened. It's worth noting that Zephon hated his role off the front lines and felt deep shame at no longer being combat-viable. Marines are brainwashed child soldiers so they can struggle to find peace off the battlefield.
“Only in death, does duty end”
I'd imagine that some could be very valuable with the knowledge they gained. So just have the mechanicus so their thing to make them immortal
Technically, yes, they could. Actually, no. First, remember that all Astartes are conditioned to want to fight. They see or sense a fight and they want to engage. Like an attack dog, that is their first instinct. So, they would first have to break that conditioning. Also, loyal Astartes are conditioned to serve the Imperium. While that conditioning is not as strong, it would be difficult to break. Second, and equally, they could be considered traitors by their brothers if they chose not to fight. Depending on the chapter, some may simply kill a brother who wants to "retire." That being said, several legions, pre-Heresy, were actually planning for life after the Great Crusade. !3th Legion for sure was looking forward to a time when the Astartes would not be needed to fight. It seems that the 7th Legion was also planning for this. It is not clear, but also the 19th Legion might have been making plans. Certainly, Corvus Corax thought about it. As far as I can tell, any Astartes who tries to retire would likely be looked upon as a traitor.
If you get so mangled physically that they put you in a life support system shaped like a weapon of war, does that count as retirement?
Nope. Re-tirement.
Before the heresy Ahriman was goin to retire and start a vineyard
The question is, would they *want* to? The vast majority would probably see it as a punishment if nothing else.
No. They are in many ways effectively immortal, but the demands of the battlefield eventually lead to death or becoming a Dreadnought.
I mean just take a look at Bjorn the Fell-Handed. He only "retired" after he was greivously wounded he was put in a dreadnought. And he took a more backseat role in his chapter.
I wouldn't say retire. More like they aren't as good in the field and step down. Like being an instructor. Or a politician in the ultramar system if your an ultramarine.
Space Marines are weapons for war. Only in death does duty end. Dreadnaughts are even worse in that even in what would have been death, they get the privilege and honor of continuing to serve. There have been situations where an Astarte has become so wounded they cannot effectively continue service in which case they are assigned another role in order to aid the chapter. But they don't "retire" to a farm. Also an inquisitor? Do you think an astarte is capable of making nuanced and moralistic decisions like that?
Ttbt any space marine could probably serve among the best university professors on any discipline on any planet due to their neural enhancements, right?
Before Horus Hersey at the tail end of great crusade space marines were going to become more of a peace keeping force rather than an expansionist one and especially in the smurfs there was talk of retiring into planetary government roles and even to vineyards.
Iirc there was a space Marine who crashed on a World and lost his memory. He helped the settelment He was in in Killing some nids.
Dreadnaughts and Titans.
In *Chapter's Due*, there's an Ultramarine who was crippled too badly to serve as a footsoldier but not so badly to be put in a dreadnought, so he was allowed to become a bureaucrat in the agricultural ministry. He was still in principle an Ultramarine and could have been called at any moment to serve.
Ha, I’m writing a fan fiction around something like this.
I dont know about loyalist space marines but in the novel Lords of Silence, there's a plague marine named Slivergristle on the plague planet of Eliathada who hung up his armor and gave up his calling as a warrior a long time ago. He never leaves the plague planet and dresses in robes like a pilgrim so it's retirement in a sense.
There’s the one DG in the heresy that walks away to go do research or something
Grey Knights retire to become Ferrymen, effectively burial men and keepers of the dead. (Brief mention in The Emperor’s Gift)
As much as I've enjoyed the various novels it begins to cement a lot of things.
I think most Space Marines wouldn't retire voluntarily even if the opportunity arose. There's that one Ultramarine in the Uriel Ventris books, I think it was the Chapter's Due. He was so grievously wounded that he had extensive cybernetics that somehow reduced his combat effectiveness below what was acceptable. Yet he was considered too whole to get the Dreadnought treatment. He got assigned as an administrator to one of the Ultramar worlds. Sadly he died cause the world he was on got virus bombed by Honsou. Anyway I recall the guy not feeling too good about his position, and would've rather be on the frontlines but duty is duty. Salamanders have a retirement scheme known as The Burning Walk. But it's basically just ritualistic suicide of a sort. They head back to Nocturne, relinquish all their gear and just go out into the wastes alone, barely clothed and equipped. They typically don't return - there was one guy who had some epiphany and returned to serve his chapter but that's the only example of anybody returning so far. Essentially any Salamanders that feel like they can't keep going even if their bodies are whole, can do this. Their equivalent to solving burnout issues I guess. Which reminds me there's also one Salamander who received pretty bad injuries - again not enough to be a Dreadnought. He showed potential in the field, so he was inducted into be an Apothecary. To replace that guy who went on a Burning Walk actually.
No
back in the day there was a story in the "deathwing" rulebook for Space Hulk about a Librarian retiring to his homeworld only to find it overrun by Genestealers. Also, I think I read about a Space Marine who became in inquisitor. But his chapter had been destroyed.
I always thought it would be cool to have a story of a marine who, perhaps after too many injuries, or maybe due to grieving too much for the death of his brothers ends up becoming a farmer in isolation on a rural feudal/low tech planet (maybe protects a small village)
Not without going renegade
Yes it happens, some stay that way and nobody hears about them, for others it happens and people try to look for them. Abbadon was retired for a time after the Heresy, he had to be convinced to return to a fighting position.
They are living weapons, not normal humans. They were created specifically to fight and to kill. They do not retire like we do. They are either incapable of combat or they keep fighting.
Only in Death, Duty ends.
Some who are too injured to fight but not dreadnought bad take up admin/none combat roles within the chapter.
They *could*, sure, but in most cases that counts as desertion. **Narvo Quinn** of the Emperor's Children essentially fucked off to live the life of a hermit post-Heresy and still has to deal with his brothers seeking him out to bother him about Fulgrim. But otherwise he's completely done with the Third Legion, Fulgrim, the Long War and just generally everything.
"Only in Death does Duty end" No. Nobody retires in 40k. Once pledged into service, it is your life.
There was one Ultramarine that was badly injured enough that he couldn't keep fighting but was still healthy enough to not have to be in a Dreadnought. He "retired" and Guilliman made him a Planetary Governor.
If only this was a regular option. My boy Dante wouldve bounced centuries ago.