BEING A METHUESELAH
As biotechnology advances and tissue engineering, advanced body parts cloning, cybernetics, and even total rejuvenation of the human body becomes more safe and predictable it all comes to a point where you can literally live forever, and these people are called Methuselahs or "Meths". Unfortunately, this advanced technology has created some serious social problems that has to be addressed. With that in mind, the Methuselah Council was created to deal with these issues. Legally, the Council only has authority over people 300 years or older. These undying people can amass an enormous fortune during their life and can wield extraordinary influence with those finances, so the Council was created to make sure those problems wouldn't crop up.
On Earth, once you turn 300 years old you go on the "Meth Watch List" and every 100 years you must donate at least half your total wealth to the planetary government. The amount of money that Methuselahs give to the government is called the Gift, and accounts for a significant portion of revenues in any one year. The majority of the Council are self-aware AIs, most of who diligently watch the finances of anyone over the age of 300. They ensure that the rule of giving up half your wealth every century is self-imposed, otherwise the Council steps in and removes all a Meths' money altogether. With this law in place, most septuagenarians strictly follow the rules to avoid the extreme penalty of Forfeiture that the Council can impose. With a massive overpopulation of the planet, the Methuselah Laws were needed to help control the growth of the Earth's population and so the process of becoming a Meth is fabulously expensive.
Methuselah Council: Nearly a two-thirds of the Meth Council are self-aware AIs, most of who consistently monitor the income of anyone over the age of three hundred. Most Meths follow the rules of the Council (even when off-world) since the majority are AIs that can follow a digital money trail anywhere and in an instant. Normal human paper-pushers could sometimes take years to gather enough evidence for prosecution but with financial AIs that information is available in a matter of mere minutes, sending rogue Meths to jail far more quickly and easily than a human investigator could.
METH DYNASTIES
Caine Dynasty: this exceedingly wealthy family have become an extremely powerful clique among the big money people on Earth. Their combined wealth over a trillion credits and they dominate much of the higher-end political circles on the planet. Their money, combined with their powerful influences in politics, make them a virtually unassailable dynasty.
Farris Dynasty: this extremely wealthy family have been the movers and shakers on Earth for decades. Their combined wealth is in the trillions of credits and they dominate much of the upper crust social life in the wealthier areas of the globe. This new immortal dynasty has several thousand senior and junior members, all of which take part in the various aspects of global finance and government. Their money, combined with their powerful influences in politics, make them a very powerful dynasty on Earth.
Godfrey Dynasty: this immensely wealthy family have been the movers and shakers on Earth for decades now, utilizing their everlasting skill sets to accumulate power and money. Their combined wealth is in the trillions of credits and they dominate much of the upper crust social life on the planet, as well as much of the underworld action. This family has several hundred senior and junior members, all are capable of violence as well as financial success. Their money, combined with their powerful influences banking and the black market make them an especially irresistible dynasty because in the end money is power.
Haas-Schuster Dynasty: this tremendously wealthy family have been the movers and shakers in global markets and banking for many decades. Their combined wealth is in the hundreds of billions of credits and they dominate much of the financial industry on the planet. They are extremely wealthy and know how to use it to destroy their enemies while building up their financial and political positions.
Vanguard Dynasty: this supremely wealthy family is a virtual newcomer to their positions of power around the globe using their eternal memories and skills to their best advantage. Their combined wealth is in the hundreds of billions of credits and they dominate much of the planets' international shipping. Their money, combined with their powerful influences in goods and trade enables them to control much of the global tech markets.
METH ERRATA
Brontios: a high-level police AI, Brontios is a top investigator for Earth's global government. He makes clone bodies on demand to interact with the real world and pursues illegal crimes using both legal and extralegal investigations among humans. In addition, when one of his clones is killed in the line of duty, Brontios just makes another to replace it and continues the job. Brontios is a concentrated intelligence that is physically located in the First Federal Building (the floating annex) outside of Washington DC and is technically under the control of the DC Bureau of Priority Investigations (DC-BPI). To interact with the real world, Brontios generally runs twenty-five to fifty sleeves at one time, most of which are operating separate investigations from each other. Brontios is a very successful police AI and has been responsible for dozens of high profile arrests every year, including some extremely dangerous anti-governmental saboteurs and rogue Methuselah killers. NOTE: extralegal means using methods that would be considered criminal if done by the general public, but not illegal since the government sets the laws and they cannot therefore be illegal.
Diet, the: a terrorist group from Osaka Japan, the Diet are anti-technology fanatics that regularly target Japanese Methuselah for murder and/or blackmail. Their leadership is unknown and they are a relatively new group that have only recently popped up on police radar for their nefarious deeds. Their claims to fame are the high-level assassination of the Meth CEO Hiro Tanaka of Badiworth Megacorporation and the recent blackmail attempts against the South Korean government, in which billions of dollars of information was digitally held for ransom (which was eventually paid).
Mother Murder: leader of an no-named anti-Meth terrorist group, she is thought to be female but nothing else known about her: she is nearly a complete mystery to law enforcement officials. She is one of the top leaders of the biological fundamentalist movement in the West and her group is very effective in targeting and killing Methuselah leaders.
Rif: a Rif or Rifkinite is a supporter of a infamous humanist of Earth named Jeremy Rift, and they have instigated a campaign of anti-genetic engineering, anti-nanotech on the planet, especially amongst those in the Methuselah circles. Rifs stand against any and all research or implementation of technology in these areas, and especially in scientifically created immortality. Having survived for decades, Rifkin's ideas have evolved into a sect bent on "saving humanity from unstable and dangerous technology". They are a gifted terrorist group that operates clandestinely, mainly in large cities across the globe. They also consider the Meth-supportive police to be a necessary evil at best and pure evil at worst, and target them accordingly.