Sturm Brightblade is a fictional character from the Dragonlance series of role playing games and novels, based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons franchise.

[2] Although Sturm Brightblade is introduced by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984), this and the other core Dragonlance novels do not cover his childhood.

However, in 1987, the year of Love and War's first publication, Tonya R. Carter and Paul B. Thompson finally cover his childhood in a short story.

Michael Williams's novel The Oath and the Measure (1992), fourth in The Meetings Sextet series, gives more information about Sturm's father during Sturm's quest to meet Lord Wilderness,[5] Lord Vertumnus, the only person who informs the true story about the Brightblade castle's fall and his father's death.

Margaret Weis in the novel The Soulforge (1998), reveals how she died when a plague struck Solace, while feeding the poor and tending the sick as written by the Oath and the Measure, the code of conduct every knight must fulfill.

[7] This marks a turning event in Sturm's life as, not bound by an earlier promise to protect his mother anymore, he decides to travel to Solamnia to learn more about his father's whereabouts.

The decision is hinted during the first book of the trilogy, Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984), when the group of friends meet the Forestmaster, the unicorn protecting the mysterious Darken Woods, with the paragraph:[12] "Be at ease, warrior," she said.

"It seemed to Tanis that the Forestmaster's dark eyes went to Sturm as she spoke, and there was a deep sadness in them that filled the half-elf's heart with cold fear.Weis and Hickman had explained, throughout the first two books of the Chronicles series, that a number of factions divided the Knights of Solamnia, making them unable to take decisions to prevent the spread of the invasion by the Dragonarmies of Ansalon, successfully describing a world where hope was almost nonexistent.

However, by using his sacrifice, they were able to put an end to the internal quarrels of the association, turning it into the only armed organization able to stop the forces of evil.

[13][14] In The Annotated Chronicles (1999), Hickman reveals that, while working with the story, he came across a Norse legend in which a king, while standing in the battlements of his fortress, saw an arrow coming his way.

[13] Books refer to Sturm Brightblade as a major hero of the Knights of Solamnia, at the same level of Vinas Solamnus, founder of the knighthood, and Huma Dragonbane, who defeated Takhisis in the final battle at the end of the Age of Dreams.

In Dragons of a Lost Star (2002), the second book of the War of Souls trilogy, Weis and Hickman write that Laurana Kanan, Queen Mother of the Qualinesti elves, prayed to Sturm moments before confronting Beryllinthranox, the green dragon overlord,[16] while in Jeff Crook's The Rose and the Skull (1999), Crysania of Tarinius, head of Paladine's church, name him along with the two previously mentioned heroes.

Lauren Davis of io9 called Sturm a "would-be knight who masks his insecurities behind a strict code of honor", and commented that his flaws make him human and let readers recognize who he is: "an ordinary man who just means to do the right thing".

"[22] Bricken commented that in Dragons of Winter Night, "It's [...] satisfying for Sturm to have things to do in addition to brooding, such as when he's unwillingly caught in the political machinations of the Knights and forced to watch Derek lead most of them away in a failed suicide charge against the armies of Takhisis.