Unknown to Sturm, Kitiara later bore him a son named Steel Brightblade. 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, Lord Vertumnus, the only person who informs the true story about the Brightblade castle's fall and his father's death. At the end of the novel, Sturm is formally accepted as a Squire of the Knights of Solamnia. Several books mention Sturm's mother, Anna Brightblade. 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. 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. Importance in Dragonlance Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman had decided, since the conception of the Chronicles Trilogy, that Sturm's appearances would end before any of the other characters, as explained by the authors: According to the Dragonlance timeline defined by the authors, the Knights of Solamnia were an association of honorable knights fell in disgrace as the regular citizens of the fictional world of Krynn blamed them for not being able to stop the Cataclysm, the event in which the Krynnish gods threw a fiery meteor against the world to punish its inhabitants for their pride. The authors determined that Sturm Brightblade, technically a Squire, a knighthood member who is learning the codes and skills needed to be knighted, would restore the honor of the Knights of Solamnia by sacrificing himself during a battle against the Dragonarmies of Ansalon, armies supporting Takhisis, the goddess of darkness. 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: 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