Tinsel & Treachery

History

The Gingerbread Trust began as a loose network of independent bakers and confectioners in the late 19th century, united by the common goal of resisting corporate monopolies in the growing holiday treat industry. Styled as a trade organization advocating for small businesses, the Trust initially provided legal and financial support to struggling bakers. However, behind the scenes, it began using intimidation, extortion, and sabotage to eliminate competition and consolidate power.

By the mid-20th century, the Gingerbread Trust had evolved into something far darker: a clandestine criminal empire operating under the guise of a benevolent trade group. Publicly, it continues to champion traditional holiday craftsmanship and “family values,” but beneath this wholesome image lies a vast network of operatives who ensure the Trust’s dominance in the holiday market by any means necessary.

Structure

The Gingerbread Trust operates as a syndicate of semi-autonomous “families” or “cliques,” each controlling a specific region or segment of the holiday trade. While the families appear to be loosely affiliated, they answer to the Gingerbread Council, an elusive group of shadowy figures believed to consist of the heads of the most powerful factions within the Trust.

Key layers of the organization include:

• The Bakers’ Union: The public face of the Trust, this organization lobbies governments, negotiates with suppliers, and runs charity drives to maintain the illusion of legitimacy.
• The Biscuitmen: Elite enforcers and saboteurs, these operatives carry out the Trust’s more “direct” actions, from intimidation to outright assassination.
• Spice Barons: The Trust controls the black-market trade in rare holiday ingredients, such as saffron, cinnamon, and other spices critical to festive treats. These barons operate in the shadows, ensuring competitors can’t access the resources they need.
• Gingerbread Guilds: Smaller regional factions that produce the Trust’s holiday goods. While outwardly independent, these guilds pay tribute to the Council and adhere to their strict codes.

Tactics

The Gingerbread Trust thrives on secrecy, preferring to eliminate threats quietly and decisively while maintaining its wholesome reputation. Their methods are highly organized and deeply manipulative:

• Controlled Scarcity: The Trust manipulates ingredient supplies to cripple rivals, often hoarding critical resources like sugar or flour in underground warehouses.
• Whisper Campaigns: Through planted rumors and covert smear campaigns, the Trust discredits competitors without revealing their own involvement.
• Holiday Sabotage: Operatives have been known to infiltrate rival operations, ruining production lines, tampering with products, or creating “accidents” during peak holiday seasons.
• Charity Shield: Any investigation into the Trust is deflected by their highly publicized charitable works, which range from food drives to sponsoring Christmas parades.

Philosophy

The Gingerbread Trust claims to be the protector of holiday traditions, insisting their work ensures the survival of festive craftsmanship in an increasingly soulless corporate world. However, this rhetoric masks a deeply cynical and self-serving ethos. The Trust believes the holiday market belongs to them by right, and they see rivals, governments, and even the public as pawns to be manipulated.

While the Trust’s upper echelons are pragmatic and calculating, the rank-and-file operatives often view themselves as part of a grand crusade, ensuring the “true spirit of Christmas” survives—even if that means enforcing it at gunpoint.

• Operation Sugar Cane Siege
  In a desperate bid to control a major sugar plantation in a South American country, the Gingerbread Trust deployed mercenary forces to lay siege to the plantation after its owners refused to sell. Local workers were armed by the plantation owners, leading to an intense standoff. The Trust’s Biscuitmen, supported by hired gunmen, used guerrilla tactics to sabotage supply lines, poison water reserves, and terrorize the surrounding region until the defenders surrendered. The battlefield was littered with burned cane fields, booby-trapped warehouses, and desperate, last-stand firefights in the shadow of refining facilities.
• Operation Silent Night
  A holiday market in Eastern Europe promoting “sugar-free Christmas treats” became the target of a violent covert operation by the Trust. Disguised as a spontaneous gang uprising, a group of armed thugs—secretly backed by the Trust—stormed the market. Their objective was to destroy sugar-free competitors, sow chaos, and send a message to any other businesses considering similar ventures. What started as a riot escalated into a deadly street battle when local security forces intervened. Trust operatives, embedded among the rioters, directed the chaos and eliminated key figures to ensure the operation’s success.
• Operation Sweet Reprisal
  After a rival studio began producing a holiday-themed blockbuster with a subplot mocking traditional confections, the Trust orchestrated a brutal act of retaliation. A highly-trained Biscuitman squad was sent to sabotage the film’s set, located in a small Midwestern town. Portraying themselves as militarized Sovereign Citizens, armed with automatic weapons and explosives, the operatives engaged in a calculated assault to destroy equipment, eliminate studio guards, and threaten the production team into abandoning the project. The operation devolved into a firefight with local law enforcement, leaving the town scarred by the Trust’s ruthless insistence on controlling the holiday narrative.
• Operation Gingerbread Firewall
  When an insurgent faction of sugar smugglers in Southeast Asia attempted to break free of the Trust’s control, the Council authorized a full-scale reprisal. Using proxy street gangs armed with Trust-provided weapons, they launched a brutal campaign to reclaim the region. Battles raged through industrial zones and coastal warehouses as the Trust’s operatives sabotaged supply lines, fought off heavily armed smugglers, and secured vital shipments. The operation culminated in an all-out assault on a fortified sugar refinery, where the Trust’s hired forces stormed the complex under heavy fire, claiming victory at a steep cost.

History

NorthStar Media began as a modest film studio in the early 20th century, producing seasonal holiday shorts and low-budget animated features. By the 1950s, their star rose with the release of The Snowbound Miracle, a groundbreaking film that became the gold standard for Christmas cinema. NorthStar leveraged this success into an empire, acquiring smaller studios and branching out into merchandising, music production, and even publishing. By the turn of the millennium, they had absorbed half a dozen rival companies and positioned themselves as the undisputed leader in holiday-themed entertainment.

The 21st century saw NorthStar become a pioneer in crafting the Total Holiday Experience. They dominate not just films but also holiday music charts, Christmas toy production, and theme park spectacles. Their vast media reach allows them to dictate the narrative of what Christmas should be, ensuring their branded vision becomes synonymous with the holiday itself. Critics accuse them of monopolizing the holiday spirit, but NorthStar dismisses such claims, instead branding themselves as “the Guardians of Christmas Joy.”

Structure

NorthStar Media is a sprawling megacorporation divided into three primary divisions:

• Film & Entertainment Division: The heart of NorthStar, this branch handles blockbuster holiday movie production, TV specials, and animated features. They churn out dozens of titles every year, ensuring constant saturation of the market.
• Merchandising & Licensing Division: Responsible for every NorthStar-branded product, from collectible ornaments to Christmas pajamas. This division also oversees partnerships with major retailers, securing exclusive deals to flood stores with their goods.
• Public Relations & Cultural Affairs Division: The real power behind NorthStar’s throne, this division manipulates public perception, crafts viral marketing campaigns, and quashes dissent. They are also responsible for “holiday outreach programs,” which are thinly veiled propaganda efforts aimed at ensuring NorthStar’s dominance in the public eye.

The corporation’s executive board, known as The Twelve Stars, wields total control over strategy and direction. Each “Star” oversees some aspect of the company’s operations, and their internal politics are as cutthroat as the external competition.

Tactics

NorthStar’s tactics are a seamless blend of corporate ruthlessness and covert operations.

• Media Supremacy: NorthStar dominates the airwaves and internet, ensuring their holiday-themed content outshines and overshadows competitors. Rival releases are buried under marketing onslaughts, and critics who resist are blacklisted.
• Propaganda Warfare: Through carefully curated campaigns, NorthStar manipulates public opinion to portray themselves as the saviors of Christmas. They frame competitors as threats to tradition and ensure their brand becomes synonymous with the holiday.
• Mercenary Forces: Beneath the glossy image, NorthStar employs professional operatives to carry out more direct forms of competition. From sabotaging rival studios’ sets to intimidating dissident creators, their mercenaries are skilled, discrete, and deadly.
• Economic Strangleholds: NorthStar uses its immense resources to undercut competitors, drive them into bankruptcy, and absorb their assets. Entire production companies have vanished after failing to withstand NorthStar’s financial might.

Philosophy

To NorthStar, Christmas is more than a holiday—it’s an institution, and they are its rightful stewards. They believe their vision of Christmas as a cheerful, commercialized spectacle is the only valid one. Anything that threatens this vision is seen as heretical, and NorthStar will go to any lengths to protect their monopoly over the holiday spirit.

Operation Silent Slopes: The Reluctant Eastern European Town

When NorthStar Media chose the picturesque town of Krenshova as the backdrop for their holiday blockbuster The Spirit of Snow, the townsfolk resisted. Krenshova’s mayor and council were adamant about preserving their traditions and refused to grant filming permits. NorthStar deployed a team from their Public Relations & Cultural Affairs Division, backed by a mercenary unit disguised as private contractors.

• Tactics Used:
  • Economic Leverage: NorthStar offered lucrative “renovation grants” to local businesses, subtly creating a divide between the mayor and opportunistic residents.
  • Blackmail: Operatives unearthed incriminating evidence on key council members, forcing their compliance.
  • Covert Sabotage: When negotiations faltered, NorthStar agents orchestrated accidents that disrupted local utilities, forcing the mayor to step aside under public pressure.

By the time filming began, Krenshova was fully under NorthStar’s control. The film’s release earned billions, while the town’s resistance became an urban legend buried by a flood of propaganda.

Operation Tinsel Shadow: The Elliot Steele Scandal

Rival studio Candlelight Pictures posed a growing threat to NorthStar’s box office dominance. Their rising star, Elliot Steele, had an untarnished public image, making him the face of their holiday content. To eliminate this threat, NorthStar launched a covert operation to gather damaging kompromat on Steele.

• Tactics Used:
  • Honeytrap Operations: A NorthStar operative infiltrated Steele’s inner circle, posing as a trusted confidant.
  • Digital Espionage: Hackers from NorthStar’s Intelligence Division accessed Steele’s personal devices, uncovering salacious private correspondence and financial irregularities.
  • Controlled Leak: Rather than release the material outright, NorthStar subtly spread rumors, sowing doubt about Steele’s integrity.

The result was devastating. Steele’s reputation crumbled under relentless media scrutiny, and Candlelight Pictures was forced to shelve two major productions. NorthStar emerged unscathed, their media empire stronger than ever.

Operation Candy Cane Crush: Riot Suppression in Factory 46

At Factory 46, one of NorthStar’s sweatshops in Southeast Asia, intolerable working conditions sparked a workers’ riot. The factory produced limited-edition ornaments tied to an upcoming blockbuster, and a delay threatened millions in merchandise sales. NorthStar responded swiftly and brutally.

• Tactics Used:
  • Strikebreaking Mercenaries: NorthStar deployed private security contractors equipped with riot suppression gear to regain control of the facility.
  • Psy-Ops Campaign: Messages were broadcast across the factory floor, portraying the rioters as saboteurs intent on destroying the workers’ livelihoods.
  • Token Concessions: Once the riot was quelled, NorthStar announced minor wage increases and improved break policies to placate the international media.

Though the factory resumed operations within 48 hours, several workers “disappeared” during the incident. NorthStar’s PR Division spun the event as a “tragic misunderstanding” caused by “third-party agitators,” ensuring no significant fallout.

Beneath the glittering facade of holiday cheer lies a battlefield where studios, political factions, and corporate conglomerates wage a cutthroat war for dominance. Every candy cane is a dagger in disguise, every jingle hides a coded threat, and every smiling Santa masks a shadowy agenda.

The Christmas spirit isn’t just a warm feeling—it’s a weaponized commodity. Studios vie for box office dominance, political factions scheme to reshape holiday traditions, and rogue freelancers risk it all to challenge the system.

Will you uphold the illusion of festive joy or tear it all down?

The world of Tinsel & Treachery is a dystopia where Christmas has become the ultimate global industry. Forget heartwarming tales of family and generosity—this is a world where holiday cheer is sold by the megacorporation and enforced by mercenaries in Santa hats. The sprawling Christmas Movie Industrial Complex (CMIC) governs all aspects of holiday production, from movies and music to gift distribution and decoration manufacturing. This is no longer about spreading joy—it’s about control, profit, and power.

A Holiday Empire Built on Blood and Glitter

At the heart of the CMIC are the Studios, monolithic corporations that churn out endless Christmas content for every market demographic. Their sprawling empires are fueled by sweatshops staffed with overworked laborers, forest-stripping operations for the perfect trees, and ruthless marketing campaigns that leave no room for competing visions of the holiday. Beneath their polished public image lie cutthroat executives, covert operatives, and merciless enforcers who stop at nothing to maintain their dominance.

Beyond the studios, shadowy political interest groups and underground factions fight for their own vision of the holiday season. Some seek to preserve Christmas traditions at any cost, while others aim to burn the entire system to the ground. From eco-terrorists sabotaging fake snow factories to sugar cartels waging covert wars over candy cane distribution, every faction has its agenda—and they all collide in a storm of Tinsel and Treachery.

It’s a world where the stakes are high, and the snow is always red.

Key Features of the Setting

1. Corporate Warfare
   Christmas is big business, and the studios don’t play nice. From NorthStar Media Conglomerate’s propaganda machine to Yuletide Dynamics’ weaponized snow drones, these corporations fight dirty to secure their market share. Espionage, sabotage, and hostile takeovers are just another day at the office.
2. The Moral Frontlines
   Groups like The Tinsel Committee push for a sanitized, “wholesome” version of Christmas, while anarchist factions like The Humbug Underground reject the holiday altogether. The battle isn’t just about money—it’s about controlling the narrative of what Christmas should be.
3. Weaponized Holiday Cheer
   The factions battle not just with guns and mercenaries but also with symbols, slogans, and cinematic spectacles. Films and ads become tools of ideological warfare, shaping public opinion and rallying support for their vision of Christmas. From viral marketing campaigns to cultural boycotts, the fight over holiday traditions is as much about controlling hearts and minds as it is about controlling territory.
4. A World on the Brink
   The commercialization of Christmas has consumed everything. Forests are razed for Christmas tree farms, factories churn out endless supplies of plastic holiday junk, and the labor force—whether retailers, freelancers, or underpaid seasonal workers—is at a breaking point. Beneath the tinsel-covered surface, revolution is brewing.