Khrissalla

Duchess Khrissalla, better known as Khriss, is a worldhopper originally from the country of Elis on the Darkside of Taldain. 
== Appearance and Personality ==
=== Appearance ===
Khriss has brown skin, being from the Darkside of Taldain. She has brown eyes and wears her hair in braids. While on Dayside, Khriss wears a pair of dark, heavy sunglasses as she is not used to the sunlight of Dayside. She also wears a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun's rays from her face.
=== Personality ===
Khriss is a university-educated scholar and is extremely inquisitive. She seeks to understand and find scientific explanations for all that she can. She believes in freedom of information, and is willing to assist any who come to her for help if she perceives their intentions to be good.
== Attributes and Abilities ==
Khriss is one of the most accomplished scholars of investiture in the cosmere. She knows more about the cosmere and its magic systems than Nazh, her assistant, and even Hoid, who has been alive since before the Shattering. She collects her knowledge in the Ars Arcana. The most important question she wants answered is what happens in the Beyond, followed by how to get Stormlight off Roshar.
Khriss has starmarks.
== History ==
=== Taldain ===
Khriss was engaged for a time to Gevalden--or Gevin, as he preferred in informal settings--a Prince of Elis. Before their wedding, Gevalden traveled to Dayside in search of the mythical Sand Mages, where he was shot by Dynasty assassins. His linguist and assistant, Wilheln, wrote to Khriss to report on his death. 
Khriss, determined to seek out what her fiancé was trying to discover, traveled to Dayside with Baon, Allstren Cynder, and Jon Acron and some Elisian soldiers. They arrived in the Kerztian port of Dosha-Har'Ken, on the northwest coast of Dayside, and purchased supplies from a merchant that spoke Dynastic, who also offered the services of his nephew Daazk as a guide to Lossand. 
==== Crisis in the Diem ====
She met Kenton shortly after the Kerztian attack on the sand masters, and he agreed to be her guide to Lossand's capital, Kezare, where they parted ways. In the Darksider district of Lonzare Khriss met with Loaten and attempted to get answers about Gevin's attempt to contact the sand mages, but their meeting was inturrpted by Nilto. She then sought the Taisha, assuming Gevin would have met with them, but failed to get meetings with any of the Taishin before finally discovering Kenton was the Lord Mastrell.
After recovering from her initial anger at his deception, Khriss decided to help Kenton in his mission to preserve the Diem. She reasoned that the Diem's sand masters could not support Elis if they were disbanded, and used her diplomatic skill to help Kenton negotiate with the Lord Artisan. Using a letter of introduction from the Diem, Khriss was also able to meet with Lady Judge Heelis who suggested she speak to the Lord Beggar Nilto to help sway public opinion for the Diem. 
During their meeting, Nilto gives her Prince Gevalden's signet ring and pistol, but refuses to explain how he acquired the items. Because Kenton witheld many details of sand mastery, Khriss attempted to research white sand and the mechanics of Sand Mastery based on observation. Khriss eventually discovered that it was Baon that killed Captain Deral and his lieutenant, and that he was sent to Elis by the Dynasty. Following Baon's departure, Khriss decided to move to the Diem so that she could try to learn sand mastery; but was ultimately unable to display any potential in the sand mastery test. 
Trying to find Baon before he left the city, she asked N'Teese to arrange a meeting with Nilto for her, to ask if he knew Baon's whereabouts. During this meeting Nilto called her "Khriss", causing her to realize his identity as Gevin. She confronted him at the Kezare docks as he was attempting to leave the city when Professor Acron revealed himself as an assassin sent by the Dynasty to kill Gevalden. Acron shot Baon when he interferred to allow Gevin and Khriss to escape. While running from Acron, Khriss used a crane to knock him into the harbor. She asked Gevin to return with her to Darkside, but he refused in favor of continuing to help people on Dayside. Baon returned to her service as bodyguard since there was no conflict with his mission for the Dynasty.
When the Lord Merchant Vey disappeared, she pressured Gevin into using his contacts as Nilto to discover where he had gone if he wanted her to keep silent about his survival. She then traveled with Kenton to Lraezare to find the Lord Merchant, and they returned to Kezare once Kenton made his deal with him. Searching for the Lord General, Khriss was present when they discovered his body in the The Tower's wine cellar.
Khriss was present at the Diem when Kenton dueled Drile, and Baon prevented her from interferring. After the Diem was restored, Khriss returned to Darkside with multiple barrels of white sand and a few sand masters to aid her experiments in making sand mastery work on Darkside.
=== Silverlight ===
At an unknown point after the crisis in the Diem, Khriss discovered how to leave Taldain and began to travel the cosmere. Eventually, she came to find Silverlight, where she was involved in the founding of a university.
=== The Death of Preservation ===
Khriss and Nazh were discovered by Kelsier in the Cognitive Realm of Scadrial in . The pair enlightened Kelsier on how the events on Scadrial were affecting the cosmere. They remained quite vague as to why they were there - although Khriss mentioned wanting to see what the death of a Shard looks like - or about other events elsewhere in the cosmere that were unrelated to the current conflict. Khriss refused his requests for help and they left abruptly after Kelsier told them of his meeting with Drifter. Since then, she has worked with Kelsier on research at least once.
=== The True Desolation ===
On Roshar, over three centuries after the Catacendre, around and during the True Desolation, she took an interest in various figures and concepts. Including fledgling Radiants, such as Kaladin and Shallan Davar; in the nature of Vorin glyphs, in the pattern of the Shattered Plains, and of the Rosharan subastral.
It is unclear if she travelled to Roshar herself, or if she sent Nazh to the planet alone.
=== New Seran ===
After the True Desolation, she appeared at a party in New Seran in post-Catacendre Scadrial, . There she stole a dance with Waxillium Ladrian and asked him questions about his powers and how they related to physics. She was also mentioned in a broadsheet ad, telling people who hear talking tools to contact Khriss and Nazh.
=== Space Age ===
At some point before the overthrowing of the Cinder King on Canticle, within a century of the discovery and proliferation of faster-than-light travel, her theories regarding Investiture and how it operates became popular, with her Laws becoming widely recognized.
== Relationships ==
=== Gevalden ===
Before she left Darkside for the first time, she was engaged to Prince Gevalden of Elis. They appear to have been quite close, enough so that Khriss organized an expedition to fulfill his mission of finding the Sand Mages after his reported death on Dayside. After discovering his identity as Nilto, she asks him to return to Darkside with her. He refuses, saying he will not return after being injured, and that he and Khriss have both changed too much to have a relationship.
=== Nazh ===
The mapmaker Nazh is in her employ. She commonly sends him out to procure maps, documents and other illustrations for her, particularly in high-risk environments. Although the two argue fairly often, they are good friends and Nazh is fiercely loyal to her.
=== Hoid ===
She has some history with Hoid, but the exact nature of her relationship with him is unknown. But it is such that she cursed upon learning he stole a bead of lerasium.
== Trivia ==
* She would be mistaken for being a Makabaki on Roshar, and as a Terriswoman on Scadrial.
== Notes ==
;Footnotes
;References
Category:Viewpoint characters
Category:Taldaini
es:Khrissalla