Kris was born in a mining town in the mountains of Frostholm, where the winters are long and every family depends on iron. His mother died when he was young, and he was raised in the forge by his uncle, a stern blacksmith who made tools for the miners and, when war called, spearheads for the northern levies. Kris learned to work the bellows before he could lift a hammer, and by the age of sixteen he was shaping horseshoes, nails and hinges on his own.

When the Fading reached the north, the ore from the mines began to change. Iron came out brittle and full of rot, and blades forged from it snapped at the first strike. Miners were hurt when their tools broke, and many blamed the smiths. As work vanished and the town emptied, his uncle refused to leave the forge he had built. Before Kris departed, the old man gave him his best hammer and told him to "find honest iron and make something worth keeping."

Kris crossed the Great Sea with a handful of other northerners and arrived in Umbria with little more than that hammer and a heavy leather apron. He hopes to build a forge in Alphos and prove that Frostholm steel can be born again in new lands. He has no love for politics, but he knows that every settlement needs tools, locks and, sooner or later, weapons, and he intends to be the man who makes them.