Yes, this is Sturm dead, it's the only good picture of him, don't get mad at me.
(Picture by from The Art of Dragonlance)
Sturm embodies all of the ideas of the knighthood as few others have. He lives by a strict code of honor. "Est Sularus oth Mithas" "My honor is life" He is a skilled fighter, and though stern, he cares for his friends, and helps them in times of trouble.
"'I am a knight of Solamnia,' Sturm said. 'My word is my honor and my honor is my life. I gave my word, back in the Inn, that I would protect you and your lady. If you choose to dispute my word, you dispute my honor and therefore you insult me. I can not allow that insult to remain between us.'" (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, 65)
Name: Sturm Brightblade
Race: human Solamnic knight
Books: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning, Darkness and Light, The Oath and the Measure
Quotes: Sturm's quote page
Family: mother; father, Angriff Brightblade (never seen again after Sturm is a very young child); illegitimate son who he has with Kitiara, Steel
Love(s): Alhana Starbreez, who he knows only a short while, but falls deeply in love with.
Friends: the Companions
Description: Sturm wears the ancient Solamnic armor (with the Order of the Rose on the breastplate) of his anscestors and carries his father's ancient sword; those were all he inherited from his father. He has long, thick moustaches, brown hair already streaking gray during the beginning of the War of the Lance, and calm, cold brown eyes, already wrinkling at the corners at the start of the War of the Lance, when he is just twenty-nine.
History: Sturm is born in Solamnia, but is forced to flee as a child with his mother to Solace. He grows up in Solace and befriends Caramon and the rest of the Companions. They go on many adventures together, but separate five years before the War of the Lance. Sturm heads towards Solamnia with Kitiara, and the two of them end up on a rather strange adventure. Somehow the get into a gnomish flying machine, which brings them to one of the moons, where everyone has rather strange reactions. After fighting a battle, they manage to get back to Krynn, where Sturm and Kitiara separate. Kitiara seduces him at some point on their journey, and they have a kid named Steel Brightblade, who plays a very important role in the Chaos War.
During Chronicles Sturm runs around with the Companions, fighting and acting honorable, and is knighted by Lord Gunther into the lowest rank of the knights, Knights of the Crown. He falls in love with the beautiful Silvanesti princess, Alhana. She gives him a Starjewel, a gift given between elven lovers that forever joins the souls of the giver and given. This is lovely and happy until Sturm dies on the High Clerist Tower. He had to distract the dragons, and he knew that his life would be forfeit. Many fans are angry about Sturm's death, he's a very popular character, but not all the good guys win, not everything is perfect, and people must die sometime (though many of the rest of the Companions still are alive until the War of Souls).
After his death, Sturm is honored by the Knights of Solamnia and given a special tomb. His body remains perfect and undecayed, until his son, Steel visits. When his son visits, he gives him the Starjewel given to him by Alhana during the War of the Lance, and then his body finally begins to decay.
Sturm's death is foreshadowed in Dragons of the Autumn Twilight. While in Darken Wood, the Companions are given a dinner by the Forestmaster. Caramon apologizes to the Forestmaster (a unicorn) for eating deer meet and she gives a message about life and death and looks at Sturm.
"'The deer fulfills his purpose by providing sustenance for the hunter- be it wolf or man. We do not mourn the loss of those who die fulfilling their destinies.'
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." (123-124)
Psychology of Sturm: Sturm lives life starting in early childhood without a father, and his ideals of honor might be a sort of foster-father for him. He can tell himself that he is doing what his father as a Solamnic knight would have wanted- he's living the life that is father would have expected of him. It becomes almost an obsession, and is so ingrained that it doesn't change even when he later realizes that the knighthood is corrupt, and no longer follows these ideals. He is also an outcast, forced out of his home and disliked because of his knighthood, and this makes the code that much more important to him. His life has been, in some ways, ruined by his knighthood, so he has to make the knighthood more important to himself to justify belonging to it at all.