Secretive fortresses. Sacred vows. The promise of death. But who were the Assassins and the Templars, and why do they still grip our imaginations? Returning to Chalke, historian Steve Tibble explores the extraordinary rise and fall of the medieval world’s most legendary rival orders. One, a Shi’ite Muslim sect operating from mountain strongholds; the other, a Christian military order sworn to defend the Holy Land. Bitter enemies, yet uncannily alike in discipline, devotion and their ruthless mastery of fear. Outnumbered and under constant threat, both organisations survived by perfecting a chilling strategy: the calculated use of violence, whether in a thunderous cavalry charge or the silent strike of a dagger. Tibble separates myth from reality to reveal how these two movements reshaped the medieval world, and why their shadow still lingers today in popular culture, conspiracy theories and legend.