The THCon Lore history
2026
Not revealed yet, stay tuned and check our socials ;)
2025
In the year 2125 AD, the futuristic city of Free City of THCity is in turmoil. The city's gangs have gained so much influence that they have allied themselves behind the Xtreme Scavenger Squad (a.k.a. XSS) to overthrow the ruling power, The Aurora Initiative (a.k.a. the AI), and are trying to force the government to surrender control. They launched a cyberattack on the city, crippling production, energy, and healthcare while threatening to attack civilians with their swarms of killer drones.
🎉 THCON 2025 Poster Reveal! 🎉
— THConvention (@ToulouseHacking) February 19, 2025
The 9th edition of the Toulouse Hacking Convention is gearing up to be unforgettable and here’s the official poster to prove it!
🗓️ April 10-11, 2025 — Toulouse
🎟️ Tickets & info: https://t.co/VntXTe4COk pic.twitter.com/VzlD5fqLGH
— Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077
Prechallenge storyline
(A few months before) You are one of the best private detectives in THCity. Mayor Julian Saint-Clair, leader of the AI, asks you to secretly investigate a strange message that, once deciphered, leads you to a time bomb meant to totally deactivate the city's security. After reversing the bomb, you turn off the system in extremis only to discover that this was only the first step of a coordinated attack:
Our investigators were able to find the attached ultimatum while deactivating the attack system, the Specialized Neutralization and Action Force Unit (the Secret Service of THCity) requires your help to withstand this attack. pic.twitter.com/CeynF5zbFv
— THConvention (@ToulouseHacking) March 31, 2025
CTF Storyline
You are recruited by the S.N.A.F.U. (Specialized Neutralization and Action Force Unit), THCity's secret services, to help protect the nation against the attack from the XSS gang. You helped to locate some gang members, analyse their new malware, break their infrastructure and recover some government websites they had comprmised.
More detailed lore
The XSS launches a devastating cyberattack, focusing on essential services like energy production, healthcare, and public safety. Their threats escalate with the threat of releasing a swarm of killer drones to target civilians, while the mayor, Julian Saint-Clair, lies hospitalized amid the turmoil.
On the side of order stand key figures from The Aurora Initiative. Mayor Julian Saint-Clair rallies support from his sickbed, calling upon elite teams to counter the XSS threat. Lena Kim serves as the government's spokesperson. Military security is led by Kael Jensen, head of the Community Outreach and Protection Squad (C.O.P.S.), while cyber defenses fall under Axel Vaughn, director of the Specialized Neutralization and Action Force Unit (S.N.A.F.U.). Scientific expertise comes from Dr. Shen Saeed, and corporate insight from Jhonny Jhon Jhonson. These "good guys" often find their accounts and systems compromised, turning them into unwitting pawns in the XSS's digital warfare, as seen in incidents where social media platforms are hijacked for cryptic propaganda.
Opposing them is a gallery of villains within the XSS, each with their own deadly specialties. Viktor LaGraine, "The Butcher," leads with brutal tactics, supported by subgroup heads like Mammoth Zen, "The Gambler". Simple enforcers like Zypherion Vexshade mingle with fighters such as Kato Reyes ("The Razor"), Gideon "Giddy" Morse ("The Jester," a chaotic painter), and hulking brutes like Lena "L-Train" Jackson and Mikhail "Mike" Petrov. Stealthy operatives include Caspian Blackwood ("The Shadow") and Ayla "Ace" Singh ("The Ghost"), while pyromaniacs like Ryker "Riot" Morales add fire to the fray. Gunnar "Gun" Olson, "The Executioner," betrays the XSS after a mission, fleeing with stolen funds from THCBank and embarking on a Mediterranean vacation traced through geo-intelligence clues. Master trickster Viktor "Crypt" handles hidden communications (despite his poor memory), and Dimitri Ieba, "The Network-Walker," hacks relentlessly, fueled by coffee and an obsession with his AI creations, while moonlighting with the Phantom Shadow Syndicate, another gang.
The battle rages over critical assets, including the National Electric Corporation 's power plant, Steward Hospital , the Laguna Band Dam, the SST Dynamics Corporation (the company supplying the A.I. with combat robots), and the city's electric grid. Security accesses to anti-air turrets, protective shields, telecommunications, and remote weapon deactivation for C.O.P.S. are hotly contested. Foreign interference complicates matters, with steganographic messages embedded in audio files hinting at external influences from the New United States of America (NUSA) or Great Britain.
2024
In September 2023, in a parallel dimension, a small group of flat-earthers called Dark Backdoor plans an attack on all satellites in orbit aimed at proving the Earth is flat. Their plan was to hack military satellites, block them with encryption, and then place decryption keys in a hidden briefcase to be smuggled abroad. You were recruited to help retrieve these and hack back their infrastructure.
Fortunately, the briefcase was found due to the bad habit of the members of the hacker group to leave their location on and upload their GPS traces, enabling you to find the place the briefcase was left hidden.
— Inspired by various news items around surveillance and satellite vulnerabilities
2023
This edition had a medieval flavor to it, but the lore was less developed at the time. If you have more information on the lore back then, be sure to contact us.
The poster of the Toulouse Hacking Convention is now out
— THConvention (@ToulouseHacking) January 19, 2023
Book the 20th and 21th April for the conferences and the 22th to participate in our CTF
We’ll let you know when tickets will be available on our website: https://t.co/31ZuEiMA9B pic.twitter.com/EGAyNhTm79
— Inspired by A Game of Thrones
2022
This edition had a superheroic flavor to it, but the lore was less developed at the time. If you have more information on the lore back then, be sure to contact us.
#HardwareCTF #THC2k22
— THConvention (@ToulouseHacking) April 16, 2022
A small preview of what best teams will win today !
Thanks to William Delbegue for these great pictures!
Un petit aperçu de ce que les meilleures équipes gagneront aujourd'hui !
Merci à William Delbegue pour ces magnifiques photos!https://t.co/QIplr2NUmI pic.twitter.com/cWieDhIVwR
2021 and before
There does not seem to be specific themes around the previous editions, but we may be mistaken. If you have more information on the lore back then, be sure to contact us.
Voici l'affiche #THCon21 avec l'ensemble de nos sponsors, réalisée avec soin par Urvashi Patel ! Pour la contacter : https://t.co/DcOpb5roTb.
— THConvention (@ToulouseHacking) May 18, 2021
Pensez à vous inscrire sur https://t.co/RAfjxvjUPr, 130 personnes ont déjà pris leurs places ! ;) pic.twitter.com/5ze6u8ZXDv