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Cover image depicting Julie by https://twitter.com/ShonTheRabbit

Outlander is a Dragon Age fanfic which focuses on United Nations peacekeeper Sam Hunt, as he is thrust into the world of Thedas two to three years prior to the events of Inquisition. The story is told in an in-universe autobiography "Outlander: The Peacekeeper's Tale" by the eponymous main character.

The story deliberately downplays on Self-Insert fanfic tropes by depicting the main character as having no idea about the Dragon Age franchise and the events to come.

There is now an audiobook version available

It has also been translated into Russian

The list below contains spoilers.


Outlander contains examples of:

  • Action Girl: Julie, Tam, Ciara, and Leha.
  • Altar Diplomacy: This is Tiberius' reasons for approaching to Sam, an outlander and already a noble, in order to add his powers to his family by arranging a political marriage between him and his granddaughter Aurelia. Sam is unsurprisingly stunned and repulsed by the concept. Though Tiberius understands Sam's reactions, but he also points out this is beneficial as an alliance with Tevinter will protect Sam from future retaliations from threats that he and his friends had made such as Orlais and the Templars. He is later forced to take the marriage in return for aid.
    Sam: I can't have children with someone I don't love, it's... nasty. What the hell do we tell the kids themselves? Sorry, Mom and Dad are only on diplomatic terms with one another? Oh, and here's the woman I really love? Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.
  • An Ass-Kicking Christmas: On Christmas Eve, the Templars launch a night attack on Hearth, forcing Sam, his friends, and his people to defend themselves. Explosions, swordfights and a Big Damn Heroes moment by a Tevinter magister follow..
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Subverted: At first, Sam doesn't believe in the existence of demons, despite others who keep saying otherwise. He believes more and more as time goes on, eventually coming to expect things that are fictional in our world to show up.
    • Soprano is skeptical of "flying machines" such as the helicopter Sam arrived in. She is rebutted by Sam, who points out the other technological advancements he has in his possession that seem even more unlikely.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Sam gets his first experience with Orlesian culture after being arrested by a very snobbish chevalier. Julie generally sees any noble this way, with few exceptions.
    • Later subverted with other nobles such as Pierre des Arbes, and Maurice and Louise de Villars.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sam was tried in the Orlesian court for murder, apostasy, and "insulting the dignity of a noble". The latter two charges were dismissed after cross-examination.
  • As the Good Book Says...: Sam names his horse Bellona (translation: "war"), and quotes from the Book of Revelation to justify it note . He explains the name's origin to McNulty and Julie with the rephrased passage from Revelations 6:4. McNulty was deeply disturbed by that passage.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: Defied. Due to political infighting, Sam is forced to temporarily take power under a military coup until fresh elections can be held. Unfortunately this quickly results in others naming him emperor and giving the appropriate honorifics, something he is incensed and repulsed by.
  • Battle Harem: Julie and Tam.
  • Badass Army: The Free Army has no real equal in direct battle within the human nations of Thedas thanks to their superior firepower, communication, and discipline. Their, very few, losses are caused by superior strategic moves by their opposition to outmaneuver them.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Being a noble in the Dales, Sam applies modern day morals towards his vassals. His removal of feudal loyalties in favour of waged contracts, and his utmost tolerance of non-human races and mages earns him admiration and loyalty from the people of Hearth and abroad, in stark contrast to the nobles of Orlais who are busy killing and plotting against each other.
    • Could also apply to Sam, Julie and Tam as a group towards each other.
    • Sam manages to turn a Viddasala of the Qun to his side because of this, giving him extremely valuable information and intel, as well as very powerful warrior.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Sam strongly suspected that Andraste (real name Mac Elderath) was an outlander from Scotland during the Dark Ages.
  • Berserk Button: Sam does not react well when Velarana asks if he will respect the vote if Julie loses.
  • Big Bad:
    • Denam in Volume One.
    • Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons is apparently becoming one in Volume Two, and it is implied that he was responsible for backing Denam's Templars.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • The introduction of Titus Tiberius Pansa, military attaché to the Tevinter ambassador of Orlais, arriving with an army of Tevinter mages and mercenaries, routing the Templars away from Hearth.
    • Just as Sam's army are soon to be overwhelmed by more Darkspawns, they are rescue at the nick of time by the Legion of the Dead.
  • Boring, but Practical: Sam's ability as a general. He's not a strategic genius, or skilled at commanding a large army tactically, but he as excellent drill instructor, skilled with logistics, and has a good eye for talent.
  • Broken Masquerade: Sam publicly reveals his origins and immunity to the Fade by ordering a hundred mages to kill him, in order to prove that he was capable of containing whatever dangers they might represent. The unintended result is that everyone believed him either to be The Chosen One sent by The Maker, or a demon.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Sam's guns are referred to as "firelances" and pistols as "handcannons".
  • Cincinnatus: What Sam aims for after being forced to take over due to infighting. Get the cabinet to finish drafting the constitution, hold fresh elections, and step down as soon as possible.
  • Clarke's Third Law: Sam is mistaken for a mage by many at first, due to his possession of long weapons that seem to spit fire and metal. He has to explain that his technology is not magical in nature.
  • Clueless Chick-Magnet: Sam, for several reasons. Some are attracted due to the way he treats others, some for the power and authority he has, some because Outlanders produce powerful mage children with other mages. Some even for the fact that having grown up in a modern society with good health and nutrition, his physical characteristics such as skin and teeth are better than the average population. He seems to struggle to understand why so many are interested in him.
  • Continuity Nod: Several of Sam's companions confirmed what they knew of the Hero of Ferelden and the Fifth Blight. The Hero was a Circle Mage who survived slaying the Archdemon, fell in love with Morrigan, and mysteriously disappeared. Sten became Arishok and happens to be Tam's favorite pupil. Alistair is the current King of Ferelden.
  • Cool Versus Awesome: A UN peacekeeper with modern weapons versus medieval age knights, mages, and dragons.
    • Before Sam, there was a Imperial Japanese soldier who fought alongside with a mage from a Byzantine-like empire against towering Scary Dogmatic Aliens. Even before them, the first outlander is a Roman legionnaire who initially fights Roman-expy mages and influenced said Roman-expy civilization into becoming one of the most powerful empires in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture world.
  • Cult of Personality: Sam inadvertently manages to foster this, to the point where he notes the biggest threat to the fledgling democracy he helped create is himself. The admiration he ends up receiving from his victories, as well as the way he treats others ends up in a situation where he could declare himself emperor and everyone would accept it, not out of fear or force, but because they would genuinely want him in such a role. This is of course completely antithetical to his values.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Whenever Sam start unleashing 21st century machine guns and plastic explosives on medieval-level knights and soldiers.
    • Sam and his group of four mauled Milo Duval's army with well placed Claymore mines on a narrow hillside path.
    • The Templars suffers heavy casualties during their attack on Hearth when Sam prevents them from overwhelming him with a light-machine gun, and then luring the Templars into a deadly trap of explosive charges.
    • The first outlander vs. thirty-two Tevinter mages. Though they outnumbered the outlander, the mages were paid dearly for going up against a being that is completely immune to magic and a experienced Roman Centurion.
    • Later on the Qunari suffer one of their worst ever defeats on the field of battle, resulting in the death of Sten as the current Arishok
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Titus Tiberius Pansa is the first friendliest Tevinter encountered by Sam. Tiberius admits that he doesn't mind at all about slavery and blood magic, but he see them to be use for good intentions. Not unlike Dorian Pavus, Tiberius offered shelter, food, and education to those who are poor and homeless in exchange for their servitude, and therefore gaining their loyalty through esteem rather than force. He sees blood magic particularly useful in medicinal use.
  • Defeat Means Friendship:
    • After Sam and his company killed many of Milo Duval's men, they helped the wounded and burned the dead. This created a great deal of trust between Duval and Hunt. Furthermore, it is learned that Duval mistook Sam's group for an enemy, loyalists to Empress Celene. He was originally sent to deal with hostile Sylvans. Without the needed men to handle the latter that could threaten travellers, Sam is guilt tripped into helping Duval, who accepted the help kindly. However, not all of Duval's surviving men are in any way for reconciliation, but kept their words for it.
    • Sam's army defeated an Avvar tribe and they willingly join his side because the Lady of the Skies foretold them of this.
  • Defector from Decadence: Tam became a Tal-Vashoth due to her faith to the Qun is deeply shaken when she was transferred to Seheron to re-educate the un-believers and promoted with the task of essentially lobotomising those who persistently refuse to convert to the Qun with Qamek. Although initially she had no problem with it, as most of the people she dealt with were those who had committed heinous warcrimes, eventually she met a conscripted, lower ranking Tevinter mage who never wanted to be in Seheron and desperately begged her to let her go. She administered the Qamek, an act which regrettably haunted her. She fled from her people, fearing that she would be reeducated or forced to take Qamek herself for losing faith in the Qun.
  • Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Played With: The reason why Sam didn't immediately think he was in a fantasy world even after being attacked by a dragon; there were giant lizards on Earth once upon a time.
  • During the War: Sam arrived in Orlais during early-stages of the Mage-Templar War, as the conflict between Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons and Empress Celene is warming up.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • Sam and company meets the Iron Bull and his Chargers. The encounter ended sourly as Iron Bull (who is a dedicated Ben-Hassrath and haven't been out of Seheron too long at this point) is dead set of apprehending the Peacekeeper due to his knowledge and weapons that could benefit the Qun, which forced Sam and his friends to threaten off Iron Bull at gun point.
    • After the liberation of the mages at Wolf's Lair, Delrin Barris is revealed to be one of the few Templars to survive and surrender peacefully, and (at Leliana's insistence) joins Sam's retinue. He proves his worth by fighting against the extremist members of his order during the attack on Hearth.
    • Leha Cadas is later reveal to be a member of House Cadash and could have been one of the potential Inquisitors (if Sam hadn't arrive).
    • Although she is only mentioned in the war table operations in Inquisition, Tallis leads the Ben-Hassrath in an covert attack on Hearth and tried to capture Sam. She fails and becomes Sam's captive
    • Amund the Avvar Skywatcher is the first named character encountered by Sam in Ferelden. And he is following the prophecy of the Lady of the Skies way ahead of schedule. Except he is foretold to join Sam's journey.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Tam was a Tamassran turned Tal-Vashoth without any given name. Julie shortens her job description into a name. Sam, who doesn't understand Qunari culture at the time and was in the middle of a prison break, rolls with it.
    • After coverting the Viddasala to his cause, Sam names her Asala ("Soul") due to this being too much of a mouthful. The extremely positive connotations of the name, something Sam is initially unaware of, play a large part in cementing her loyalty towards him.
  • Everyone Is Bi: Especially Julie. Almost all Orlesian characters at the very least, reflecting the culture of Orlais and the place of sex as a means of climbing the social ladder as part of The Grand Game. Largely averted with non-Orlesian characters, with Tam being the notable exception due to her Qunari upbringing.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Sam invokes this trope by comparing Thedas' cultures to Earth's, particularly with the languages of Orlais.
    • There is justification for Ancient Tevinter's Roman-like culture due to the first outlander, who was a Roman legionnaire, being largely responsible for and influential in establishing the current Tevinter Imperium.
    • It is heavily implied that the Andrastean religion itself was also outlander-inspired as Andraste came from medieval Europe.
  • Felony Misdemeanor: Julie was arrested and sentenced to life for tax-evasion and striking a chevalier.
  • Fighting for a Homeland: This happens when Sam and his followers are banished from Orlais and moving to find a place to settle and start over.
  • Foregone Conclusion: Sam's goal is trying to find a way back to his world. At the time of the publication of his autobiography it is clear that he has no chance of returning to his world.
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/outlander3.jpg
Sam Hunt, United Nations Mission for Syria and Iraq (UN-SIFOR). British Army escort and RAF crew dead. Natives likely hostile, but technologically regressed.
  • Foreshadowing: The entire story is littered with future foreshadowing due to the framing being told from an autobiography.
    • It's mentioned in the preface that Sam's arrival and actions cause significant changes in Thedas.
    • The "Sky Sundering" incident in Halamshiral that Sam and company witnessed as they left the city. It turns out that Sam and Julie were indirectly responsible for causing the Halamshiral Circle Mages to join the Mage Rebellion.
    • Sam discovered that there are claw marks on the helicopter that brought him to Thedas when it transitioned through the Fade. As shown by the Baroness of Hearth, it was attacked by demons.
    • Iron Bull warns Sam that nothing will end well if the Qun starts looking for him. Indeed they do.
    • Julie is already set as a hardcore anti-nobility firebrand even before reading the works of Thomas Paine, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson. She secretly prepares for an armed revolution in Orlais.
    • Sam will never get along with Cassandra Pentaghast.
    • Sam repaying Duval in compensation to the families of his dead men would become the catalyst for saving the lives of ten thousand people.
    • Sam having a polygamous relationship is mentioned to be something more suitable of an emperor. He's inadvertently forced into becoming one.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Passingly mentions by Sam that some of Earth's popular culture - mostly American ones - eventually became quite popular in Thedas, such as Scooby-Doo and The Wizard of Oz.
  • Girls with Guns: Julie and her Hand Cannon (a Beretta 92). Leha temporarily in the Rebellion volume.
  • Giving Radio to the Romans: Initially averted. Sam makes it clear that he will never give his guns and knowledge of making firearms and explosives away to the Thedasians. This includes to people he feels deserve liberation, such as the mages in the Mage-Templar War. Thedas' societies and militaries are too primitive to know how to use them in his mind, and granting them military and scientific knowledge would cause more death and war, fearing the atrocities that happened on Earth. However, he doesn't mind giving books on non-military Earth subjects to his friends to read; in which he never anticipated that Enlightenment era political and philosophical knowledge inevitably inspired Julie and Armen to plan a revolution in the Orlesian Empire. Nor did he expect that Julie was able to build muskets on her own by sneaking away books on making gunpowder and firearms. Sam is eventually forced to help Julie's revolution and training his soldiers to becoming grenadiers and riflemen.
    • Ironically played straight when Sam gives radio headsets and transmitters to Julie, Tam, Armen and Ciara for communication over distance.
    • It comes up often in Sam's narration that some inventions like the record player are eventually introduced to Thedas.
    • Interesting inverted: an actual Roman legionnaire was summoned in Ancient Tevinter and helped in influencing the foundation of the Tevinter Imperium.
  • God Guise: After Sam's origins and immunity to the Fade became public, the Theodosians either believe him to be sent by the Maker or a demon. In reality, he is not unlike any other outlanders that are exposed to the Fade that gained their magical immunity after being summoned to Thedas by Tevinter mages. It is also implied that Andraste was actually an outlander as well.
  • Half-Human Hybrid:
    • Julie's father was an elf, and she is proud of her mixed heritage. She strongly dislikes people who are prejudiced against elves.
    • Although strictly human, Tiberius and his family are the descendants of a Roman legionnaire from Earth and a Tevinter mage.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Sam at one point needs it explicitly pointed out to him that he's the real power behind the Free Orlais movement. His Tevinter wife is fairly unamused by this.
  • Instant Expert: During the Templar attack on Hearth, Julie is wounded which forced Sam to help her while he gives Julie's pistol to Leha to provide covering fire. Leha proves to be a crack shot.
  • Kissing Cousins: Gaius, Tiberius' grandson, is in love with his cousin Aurelia and is not keen with the idea of having her in a political marriage with Sam. Both Tiberius and Sam frowned on this, especially on how unhealthy it is.
  • Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: Sam deliberately makes lots of pop culture and history references from Earth which are completely unheard of and alien to the people of Thedas, especially when he used cover names like Clint Eastwood, Napoléon Bonaparte and Marquisde La Fayette. At one point, he even refers to his entire group as the Wu-Tang Clan.
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • The huntsman who framed Sam for the negligent murder of his fellow Earthlings gets his comeuppance with an arrow in the back from Tam.
    • During the Templar attack on Hearth lead by Knight-Captain Denam, Sam picks up a sniper rifle and shoots Denam in the gut.
  • A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll":
    • A music player was brought along in the transition and Sam shows some musics to his friends, such as American Pie and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
    • Tam gives a surprising wake up call to Sam by teaching her students to play Preußens Gloria.
  • Lost Roman Legion: A Roman Centurion was the first outlander (accidentally) summoned to Thedas by Tevinter mages two thousand years ago. He fell in love and married to a mage, Lutetia Tiberia Major, and fathering powerful mage children, one of whom is the direct ancestor of Titus Tiberius Pansa.
  • Love at First Sight: The first outlander and Lutetia Tiberia Major; in fact it was Tiberia's appearance that stopped the outlander from killing her after he had slain all thirty-two of her cousins when they attacked him.
  • Metaphorically True: Sam's cover story to people he doesn't know or trust is that he came from another continent, unknown to the peoples there and far to the West. This is technically true.
  • Military Coup: Sam is forced to do this due to political infighting causing a deadlock, while enemies surround Troy on all sides. Unfortunately this ends up playing into Velarana's agenda.
  • Mistaken for Racist: When Sam first saw elves for the first time, his reactions made Julie to assume him that he is racist against elves. But Sam quickly corrects her that he never saw real-life elves and that they are fictional in his world.
  • Mistaken for Subculture: Earlier on, any Theodosians who sees Sam in his UN fatigues assumes him for a noble, which Sam takes advantage of this.
  • No-Sell / Anti-Magic: Sam is highly resistant or almost immune to magic. Any energy drawn directly to or from the Fade dissipates immediately when near his body. Armen hypothesized that it may have something to do with Sam having travelled through the Fade. This serves as a doubled edge sword for Sam, as he cannot be harmed by magic yet cannot be magically healed easilynote . It is later discovered that he is immune and anathema to anything involving the Fade, after Sam effortlessly smashed Sylvans into splinters. The full extent of it is later demonstrated when Sam ordered the liberated mages to kill him with magic before a huge crowd of onlookers. They failed.
    • This is the defining trait for all outlanders like Sam. They gathered the very power of the Fade and cannot be affected by it given that they hailed from a world without magic in which that powers lies dormant within them. However, due to a very specific set of circumstances, their offspring can inherit the parent's dormant Fade powers and becoming incredibly powerful mages.
    • Any female who becomes pregnant by an outlander either gains incredible magical power if a mage, or becomes immune to magic if not. This apparently continues to apply even after the pregnancy ends.
  • Oh, Crap!: The huntsman who framed Sam, upon bumping into Sam again.
    "You're supposed to be in prison! How are you here?!"
  • The Peter Principle: Sam is best as a foot soldier, commanding small tactical groups or acting as a drill sergeant. When placed as the commander of the full free army, he shows himself to be average or below average as a tactical and strategic commander. That said, he largely gets away with it due to the army's extreme advantages in technology, logistics, and discipline.
  • Plunder: Where a good deal of the wealth comes from for all factions.
  • Photographic Memory: Julie, with positive and negative effects. It's the reason for her extreme ability in smithing, engineering and possibly politics too courtesy of her knowledge gained from Earth books, but she also implies that she cannot forget several traumatic events in her life.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The Battle of the Hafter for Ferelden. While they were able to combine inventive magical techniques with longbows and a solid battle plan to counter the free army's gunpowder weapons, their inability to communicate rapidly between their different forces meant that once they were committed to battle they couldn't adjust their battle plan.
    • Subverted with their opposition, who used radios to quickly adjust their lines and commit reserves to counter Alistair's tactics. While they still suffered heavy losses (relative to their small numbers), the outcome was never seriously in doubt.
  • Posthumous Character: Lieutenant Keijiro Okuba of the Imperial Japanese Army who was summoned to Thedas seventy-five years ago and became a longtime companion of Tiberius until dying of old age in the summer of the same year of Sam's arrival. Tiberius later gave Keijiro's personal effects, including weapons and a letter to his family, to Sam.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Sam and company confronts two Templars at gunpoint.
    Tam: Drop your weapons.
    Leha: Or we drop you.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A UN Peacekeeper, an Rivain-born blacksmith who is part elf and has a huge dislike towards the nobility, a rebel mage, a young Dalish huntswoman, a former Tamassran, and a opportunistic dwarf.
  • Rape as Backstory: While she wasn't actually raped, it was only last-second intervention that saved Julie from this during a squabble between nobles. Her perfect memory insures that she can always recall the event, and it is implied to be what drives her in her hatred of all things related to the monarchy.
  • Rape as Drama: Unsurprisingly given the setting, this comes up either via threats, or more overtly.
    • Sam ends up as the victim of this twice, since pregnancies from Outlanders result in powerful mages or magically immune children. Firstly via coercion and drugs after being captured, to produce a child with Mariette and spare his captured troops from being raped and tortured themselves. Mariette for her part, who is already attracted to Sam, volunteers for this as being preferable to being gang raped by pirates. Sam is then later on forced by a pirate mage, who then gets killed when Sam is rescued.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Julie's ultimate goal is to bring an end to the corruption of the Orlaisian nobility and government in a similar vein to the American Revolution. Sam is against this, because of the bloodshed it would cause without any guarantee it would end well. Regardless, Julie intends to go through with it, and she has some justification. Sam underestimates the thirst of the underclasses of Orlais, most especially among disenfranchised elves, with the success of Julie's publication of Le Sens Commun. Ultimately, Sam decided to help Julie.
  • Rock Beats Laser: Averted for the most part, but Sam does realized the fact that his bullets and explosives will run out soon in the future.
  • "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The manor that is to be Sam's new home is alleged to be haunted by ghosts after the original owners were slain by the House of Repose. It turns out that it is inhabited by giant spiders. Subverted later as Sam is visited in his dreams by the ghost of the mansion's owner.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: When Julie loses the election to Velarana, she wastes little time in holding the new leader hostage by demanding she and Leha be repaid for all of the money they had loaned the government while they'd been running things. This allows her to dictate policy despite losing, forcing repayment with interest, the creation of a national bank, and the establishment of Leha as the economic minister. Toys with hypocrisy, as its clear that she would never have demanded her money back had she won.
  • Shout-Out: Sam's recent new allies are Maurice and Louise de Villars.
  • Sole Survivor: Sam is the only survivor of a group of Earth soldiers that arrived in Thedas.
  • Stranded with Edison: Sam has basic knowledge about making homemade firearms and explosives thanks to his previous experience and training dealing with terrorists and insurgents. A large number of books arrived with him as well, shipped with weapons by accident and containing information on a wide variety of political, historical, scientific and military subjects.
  • Take a Third Option:
    • Sam is later recruited by Leliana to rescue a group of pacifistic mages from the Templars. Armen argued against handing the mages over to the Chantry on the basis that they will be executed while Leliana argued that having them under the Chantry's watch will protect them. Sam decided that he doesn't want the mages turning over to the Rebellion or the Chantry, and instead bringing them to his home under his protection and supervision.
    • Sam decided an alternate and quick route for the exiles' journey to Ferelden is through the Deeproads.
  • The Team:
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Julie initially doesn't trust Tam, as she viewed the Qunari as invaders and religious zealots. She was born in Rivain, where Tam's people had invaded and where her father died in a border skirmish. However, she comes to accept Tam and beyond. They began to see eye to eye once it became clear that they both see mages as dangerous, after Armen unexpectedly joined their party.
  • This Is My Boomstick: Assault rifles, pistols, a sniper rifle, shotguns, a machinegun, and several pounds of plastic explosives were brought along in Sam's possessions. Although some of the Thedosian characters are familiar with the concept of gunpowder (or "gaatlok" in Qunari possession), they are nonetheless terrified and/or impressed with modern weapons.
  • Title Drop: When Tiberius describes Sam and other Earthlings who had came to Thedas.
    We call your kind outlanders, and we have never found any alive until Keijiro.
  • Training the Peaceful Villagers: Sam was eventually assigned to this task by Pierre des Arbes to defend Hearth during Orlais' civil war. Over time, Sam's self-made militia became a Badass Army.
    • Both Justified and Subverted: Sam is a veteran of two armies, giving him the experience and knowledge to pull it off, and his immediate subordinates had fighting experience of some kind already.note 
  • Trapped in Another World: This is the fate for every outlander and there is no going back.
  • 20 Minutes into the Future: The Earth where Sam comes from, complete with a Western-led UN peace enforcement mission to Syria and Iraq, in which he helped to oversee military operations and reconstruction efforts.
  • Unexpected Character:
    • Armen makes his first appearance by literally bursting out of a fruit crate.
    • Tallis leads the Qun in an attempt to capture Sam.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Armen revealed to Sam, Julie and Tam that their jailbreak, in which the prison was burned down, was mistaken by the Circle Mages in Halamshiral as a warning signal that the Templars that were about to annul them. The mages initiated their escape plan, blew up the Circle Tower of the city and joined the Mage Rebellion.
  • Wham Episode:
    • "Discoveries": Sam is revealed to be completely immune to magic.
    • "Inquiries": Armen reveals to Sam and Julie that they were indirectly responsible for causing the mages in Halamshiral to rebel.
    • "Spirits in the Sky": A spirit pays Sam a visit in the Fade and shows how he came to Thedas.
    • "Common Sense": The reasons why Armen has been so busy in his labs? He and Julie has been building their versions of muskets and are working in inciting a revolution in Orlais.
    • "Uninvited Guests": A Tevinter force unexpectedly arrives and saves Hearth from the Templars. Their leader Tiberius then shows Sam a war flag of the Imperial Japanese Army, clearly implying that Sam wasn't the first Earthling that came to Thedas.
    • "The Truth": There were other Earthlings throughout the last two thousand years that were summoned to Thedas by Tiberius' family, who they termed them as "outlanders." They are exclusively immune to the Fade and capable of siring powerful mage children. Sam is the recent outlander successfully summoned after Keijiro Okuba and Tiberius offered him a political marriage with his granddaughter.
    • "The Chant of Light": Sam suspects that Andraste was another outlander. Sam finally decides to help make Julie's dreams of a free Orlais to come true while earning the wrath of certain notabilities, such as Grand Duke Gaspard.
    • "Those Who Solve": Tallis leads a Qunari attack on Hearth in an attempt to capture Sam.
  • What the Hell Are You?: Dupont, a mage, has this reaction to Sam when he freaks out that his magic doesn't affect him.
    Dupont: W-what are you! Demon!
    Sam: Not a demon, sorry. If I had to guess, I would say fallen angel. Or dead.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: Sam's American-English accent throws some Theodasians off because, to them, they are surprise to hear a human speaking like a dwarf. Leha even remarks that he sounded like "from the deeps near Orzammar!" In vice-versa, Sam was surprised of how similar the dwarfish accent is to an American accent.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Julie wants to throw down monarchies and replace them with Republican Democracies, regardless of the number of deaths and the amount of misery caused by the wars required to make it happen.
  • You All Meet in a Cell: This is how Sam, Julie, and Tam came together.
  • You and What Army?: Knight-Captain Denam angrily says this to Sam while unaware that Sam already has his army ready to attack the Wolf's Lair after he had blown up the gate and killing and/or wounding many Templars in the process.
    Denam: Throw down your weapon or there will be no mercy, you're outnumbered!
    Sam: You know, that is funny. I was about to say the same thing to you. (cue army calmly marching in.)
  • You Will Be Spared: Completely averted in "Those Who Solve". Sam and his allies convince a surviving group of murderous fanatics to surrender and leave the local chantry unharmed after revealing to them that they were tricked by the Qunari. Once they left the chantry, they are immediately shot.

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