The Cloak and Dagger Podcast

In ancient India, from the peasant fields to the royal palaces, folk would speak in hushed tones of the legendary assassins known as the Visha Kanya - young women of exceptional beauty transformed into living weapons, deadly enough to kill kings and topple empires. Very little is known about these mysterious assassins, but in the wake of Alexander the Great’s death, an opportunistic philosopher wi...

Beginning in the early medieval past of the Middle East, the Assassins of Masyaf rose from chaos to form a quasi kingdom of fortified castles in the hills and mountains of the Levant. From there they played a fierce and active role in the political and military turmoil of the Crusades - allying with neither the Ayyubid Empire nor the Frankish invaders. They stood alone and played each adversary of...