We're creating characters for our fist game of Rogue Trader and I'm not sure what the life expectancy of various people should be. My assumption is that it has a lot to do with your social class, and I see how lots of time in the Warp can mess with your objective age - but I need some ballpark figures for low, middle, and high class people in general. I'm assuming space marines are a category unto themselves as I've read some being 700+ years old!

It would often depend on environment, situation (war?), hazards (voidship crew?) vs farmer on a backwater world) et cetera

Very wealthy or priveleged persons can live in excess of 200 years with rejuve treatments, some much longer.

Deathworlders often live short brutal lives versus the comfortable lives of even middle class hiver workers.

Your average well-to-do imperial world type can make it comfortably into their onefifties provided they have enough money for juvenat treatments. Senior techpriests are known to make it well past 500, given their high levels of augmentation. Forge-born in general should take quite well to juvenat, given that many medical issues have been bred out or gengineered out long past.

Dark Heresy lists the oldest starting ages as:

Feral World - Old One (25+1d10)

Hive World - Old Timer (35+1d10)

Imperial World - Veteran (40+1d10)

Void Born - Methuselah (50+1d10)

So that's a start.

someone posted this here on these forums a while back, i reckoned it was nice so copied it. Posting it here for your reading pleasure. It's not mine but forgot who did post it earlier. It was in the main RT forum.

Rejuvenat Treatment and Human Lifespan within the Imperium of Man

The Imperium of man is, for the average citizen, a harsh environment. Whilst there is of course tremendous variation from world to world, for the "typical" citizen (if such a hypothetical individual could be said to exist) life expectancy hovers around three score Terran years and ten. There are of course so many exceptions to this rule that the rule is often invalid, however.

Hive world lifespans

Generally, Hive worlders are lucky to make it into their fiftieth Terran year. These environments are often inimicable to human life. For example, on Malfi, in the larger slums, every third child dies in infancy from a combination of massive industrial pollution and the dreaded "hive viruses," horrific diseases which sweep hive worlds with depressing regularity. On any one hive world at any time, there are generally at least a dozen pandemics infecting the populance at large. Overcrowding, poor hygeine, lack of sunlight and slim food supplies all contribute to a lifestyle that kills the vulnerable, often before they are even born.

Then of course there are the external, non medical risks of hive world life: gang wars, civil wars, hivequakes, fires, groundcar accidents…

Of course, humans are resilient, and evolution has, over thousands of years, weeded out the infirm. Most hive worlders have incredibly aggressive immune systems, a defence mechanism inherited from ancestors who managed to survive childhood in the pestilential slums. Of course, there is a trade-off for such an evolutionary survival trait: an over aggressive immune system can attack the body’s own organs, resulting in heart problems, diabetes and other life-shortening condiditons.

Imperial world lifespans

To a lesser degree, many of the problems of hive worlds affect other, “civilised” Imperial worlds. However, as the populations of these worlds have not assumed such gigantic proportions, these are alleviated, and the “”typical” lifespan approaches seventy years.

Feral World lifespans

Like hive worlders, feral worlders rarely make it into their 50s. Competition from hostile local lifeforms, tribal warring and environmental hazards tend to shorten the lives of these individuals. However, they tend to enjoy a better level of general health, as their hunter-gatherer lifestyle seems curiously more suited to human well-being than slaving away in dim factoria for the Emperor.

There are exceptions of course: cultural traditions can have a tremendous effect upon lifespan. On Vedracache, a feral world in the Drepana sector, a man is only allowed to marry and sire children when he is 90 years old. This rigorously enforced, illogical tradition, has led to a peaceful, calm society where everyone simply concentrates on staying alive and healthy for as long as possible. Life has carried on in this way for thousands of years, and as a side effect of this tradition, the population has naturally selected traits which encourage long life. The average lifespan is 135 Terran years for both male and female inhabitants. (This may all be due to change, of course. The Adeptus Terra is dissatisfied with the pacifistic, peace loving population, and has marked the world out for colonization by more aggressive people from the nearby hiveworlds.)

Void born lifespans

A life in deep space is inherently unhealthy: fewer vitamins than “dirt born” humans, exposure to tremendous sources of radiation, a lack of consistently safe sunlight, and the obvious risks of warp travel.

However, curiously, it would appear that while mortality rates amongst void born are higher than on “safe” Imperial worlds, the void born do, for some reason not yet fully understood, live longer than the “average” Imperial citizen. Whilst often physically frail compared to “dirtgrubbers,” the average lifespan is in the region of 80-90 Terran standard years.

Many explanations have been offered for this apparent discrepancy: the close sense of community aboard spacecraft, the potentially lower gravity levels, the respect for the elderly and experienced aboard ship…However, it is felt in many quarters that the warp plays a larger part. Voidborn spend more time in the warp (albeit protected by a Gellar field) then anyone else, and it is theorised by certain members of the Ordo Malleus that some poorly-understood scientific mechanism is at work here…

M edicine in the Imperium

There is no single body or agency which licenses medical practice across the Imperium. As a result there are a bewildering array of Chiurgeons, Medics, Barber Physicians, Witchdoctors, Medicae adepts and other sawbones at large in the galaxy, each practicing to a different level of skill utilising different technology. Broadly speaking, the Adeptus Terra takes a relaxed view of medical practice, provided that it does not stray into certain heretical areas, such as live human cloning, xenomedicene or cybernetics implanted without the knowledge and consent of an appropriately authorised representative of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Typically, each Planetary Governor will be responsible (if he or she deems it necessary) for enforcing standards of practice amongst the Doctors on his or her world. It is generally felt that local authorities are best placed to licence these personnel, if they care to do so. After all, the competence of a planet’s medics is only a concern of the Administratum if it has a bearing upon the ability of a Governor to acheive the tithe…

As such, the standard of medical practitioners varies tremendously throughout the Imperium. On some worlds, every single citizen is guaranteed top quality state enforced healthcare “from the cradle to the resyq vats.” On others, beggars die in the street of easily treated minor medical conditions.

On civilised Imperial worlds, for the rich and influential, medicene can acheive wonders. Over the millenia, vast quantities of pristine jungle worlds have been raided for unusual drugs and chemicals. Pre-Imperial medical treatises are among the rare books from that era widely available. Ten thousand years of practical experience has been dutifully recorded and taught in established colleges.

For the Imperial Elite, they can expect, if they maintain a close loyalty to Terra, to enjoy robust health, cures for all common ailments, and a vastly extended lifespan.

Extending lifespan

There are a variety of treatments available to extend a human lifespan, but they are generically known as “rejuvenat” treatments. Specific treatments include:

Transplant:- there are a lot of people who die young in the Imperium. War is widespread, murder is commonplace and the sick need replacement parts…A thriving black market exists in organ trading, and many are not too picky about where the kidney that saved their life came from… Transplants from unknown sources are fraught with risk, but a well timed transplant can extend a lifespan by decades.

Organ cloning – by ancient charter, cloning of a complete human is forbidden. However, numerous exceptions have been successfully litigated over during the millennia, and it is now quite legal to clone an individual’s organs, and indeed to transplant those organs into a living human being. Vatgrown organs of this type are relatively common amongst senior Imperial servants, and are often used to replace aged or damaged body parts. Such treatment can extend a human life by decades, but it is often noted that the human body is a complex machine that thrives only when all parts work in harmony: one cannot ensure true immortality through the use of such techniques.

Meelangiar – One of a variety of differently named chemicals which have a similar effect, although by far the most famous, Meelangiar was discovered on the jungle world of Redressia in the Segmentum Obscurus, and as a result of its discovery the Redressia Sector is now one of the richest in the Imperium. Meelangiar is a complex and normally highly toxic chemical compound found in the purple blooms of the Redressian viper-orchid: it has a dramatic effect upon human physiology. It is as close to a “fountain of life” as any medical treatment in human history. It has properties that cleanse and purify the human body of oxidant and free radical damage to an unprecedented degree, whilst also stimulating the body to repair damage caused by aging, UV rays and other adverse effects. It also appears to alter the DNA of the user to reflect his or her initial DNA template. In effect, if properly administered, it returns a human body to its “prime,” and can be used for almost a dozen successive treatments before the body builds up a tolerance for the chemical. Careful use of the drug can extend a human lifespan to over 200 years if used sparingly, though Imperial servants who need to remain physically active tend to need more treatments, and usually build up a tolerance within 150-170 years.

The Drug has minor cosmetic effects, but generally if one wishes to appear to be in one’s prime, one must pay extra for cosmetic surgery to accompany the drug regime. It is said however, that no matter how adept the surgery, it is impossible to hide one’s age as shown on one’s elbows…

Use of the drug and its derivatives is common in the Inquisition and amongst senior Imperial servants. Its side effects include paranoia, obsessive compulsive disorder, impotence, depression and monomania, those these side effects are well understood and are often counteracted by other drugs.

Cybernetics – in “mainstream” Imperial society, the use of bionics and cybernetics is extremely common, and is often worn as a badge of pride. The Adeptus Mechanicus claim a monopoly over the creation of such devices, but have no real interest in policing who implants them into patients. Large numbers of “stock” bionic parts, usually characterised by their robust simplicity, are available to all Imperial servants who suffer an injury in the service of the God-Emperor. These stock parts make a useful replacement for – say – a missing limb or eye, but they are not designed with aesthetics in mind! Many cybernetic parts are able to extend a lifespan, and indeed the Adeptus Mechanicus draw themselves closer to the machine God through the use of such devices. Generally, if combined with Meelangiar, cybernetic treatment is able to extend a human lifespan to perhaps 300 years in a relatively active state.

In addition, the Adeptus Mechanicus are said to be able to create cybernetic devices of such complexity and sophistication that they can extend a human lifespan by centuries, provided that the brain of the individual remains sane.

Life support systems – such is the level of sophistication achieved in many Imperial worlds that a lifespan can be extended for almost a thousand years if the subject is willing to be suspended in a life supporting vitae-tank in a state of immobility for the duration. Whilst the subject may be able to communicate with the outside world, they can no longer claim to be truly “human” in the normal sense of the word, free as they are from the normal limitations of desire, hormones, or other bodily functions. However, such is the fear of death inherent in the human condition that many sufficiently wealthy individuals are willing to place themselves at the mercy of the Adeptus Mechanicus in order to guarantee their continued existence. These devices could almost be said to guarantee immortality, but the Adeptus Mechanicus are keen to point out that they cannot guarantee that the mind of the individual treated will last indefinitely. A variety of unpleasant and well documented forms of brain damage strike even the most robust individual after 750-1000 years in the tank…

Dreadnoughts – many insane individuals have, over the centuries, sought to attain immortality by having themselves transplanted into the holy body of an Imperial Dreadnought. It is certainly true that the unbelievably sophisticated life support system that maintains the occupant’s life is able to keep an individual alive for centuries, but the true “immortality” attained by the Dreadnoughts of the Adeptus Astartes eludes those rare individuals capable of capturing a dreadnought body if they themselves are not fully fledged marines. After a thousand years or so, the same types of brain damage that affect vitae-tank occupants creeps in, driving the (often heavily armed) occupant irrevocably insane.

Stasis fields – these are the only way to guarantee immortality, though it is always in the form of an endless sleep. Now immensely rare, these ancient devices freeze time completely within their sphere of influence, provided a constant power source is fed to their output generator. Now unbelievably rare, only a handful of forge worlds now claim to still have the ability to manufacture these, principal among them Belacane in the Calixis Sector. They are typically a measure of last resort for dying plutocrats, who freeze themselves in the hope that at some future date technology will have advanced to a degree that will enable the condition they are dying from to be cured. Given the state of technological progress in the Imperium, this is usually a doomed hope.