Characters / The Wandering Inn: Erin Solstice

The Wandering Inn Main Character Index
The Wandering Inn (Erin Solstice) | Earthers | Liscor (The Free Antinium) | Adventurers
Continents: Izril (Flooded Waters Tribe | The Five Families | Gnoll Tribes | The Walled Cities | The Necromancer) | Baleros | Chandrar | Terandria | Rhir
Other Individuals and Groups: Wistram Academy | The Antinium Hives | Others
Other Worlds: Avalon | The Deadlands

Erin Solstice

Level 55 [The Wandering Innkeeper], Level 6 [Singer], Level 2 [Warrior], Level 21 [Witch of Second Chances], Level 9 [Dancer]

The main viewpoint protagonist of the story and proprietress of The Wandering Inn. Summoned out of the blue to a whole other world she has no knowledge of, she starts out as an [Innkeeper] in an abandoned inn, gaining popularity as time goes while surviving the various dangers around her. She was a master-class chess player back on Earth and still is one as she demonstrates to others later on.

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• Bar Brawl: Erin gains the [Bar Fighting] Skill, which is noted to be somewhat unusual for an [Innkeeper].
• Beware the Nice Ones: Erin genuinely dislikes violence, but there's a reason the Flooded Waters Tribe of Goblins called her "The Destroyer". She wields a Frying Pan of Doom, jars of acid, an Absurdly Sharp kitchen knife and has a few combat Skills.
• Broken Tears: After Volume 5's conclusion, she has these for weeks. After an Armor-Piercing Question from Numbtongue, she actively goes around Liscor like this to show everyone how bad what happened really was, and remind them of the Goblin deaths.
• Bubble Pipe: She receives one as a gift in Volume 9. While she still firmly believes Smoking Is Not Cool, she enjoys the silliness of making a bubble spell go out of it.
• The Conscience: She's become this to a number of unscrupulous characters and inspired them to find a sense of morality that they thought they wouldn't have, including Rags, the Redfang Five, the Brothers of Serendipitous Meetings, and Calruz; Pisces is a special case since Erin is the first person to not only accept him for being a [Necromancer], but instill within him self-esteem that he reminds himself of in hard times.
  Pisces: Thus far I haven’t found any people worthy of my assistance. Why should I help those who judge me in ignorance and fear?
  Erin: Because you’re a better person than they are.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Not in martial combat, though Calruz does note that she has the talent for it. What battlefield she does dominate is the chessboard, especially in a world where chess is recently introduced. So far, not counting amateur chess players, she has won against then-[Tactician] Olesm, a combined Hive Mind of a hundred Antinium, [Lady] Magnolia (trained by Teriarch), Niers Astoragon, Az'kerash (through Ijvani in disguise), [Grand Strategist] Chaldion, Teriarch himself (as Eldavin), [Earl] Altestiel, Niers's chess-playing students, and Gireulashia.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In the Deadlands, the Dead Gods have consumed Dragons amongst other legends and powerful beings who outstrip every character in the living world by leagues. Erin turns the dead gods' own gifts as well as the memory of Excalibur against them, forcing them to run away screaming in fear.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: An unintentional example; Erin makes a deal with the Fae to make them a banquet, only for the gold she was paid with to turn into flowers in the morning. While initially frustrated, she plants the flowers, and begins to discover several uses for the highly magical plants. Several fairies debate taking the flowers back in exchange for a large pile of actual gold as this was not what they intended.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Not so much a nickname but finds her middle name 'Summer' embarrassing. Antherr Twotwentyonethree Herodotus silently begs to disagree.
• Emotion Bomb: Erin's Volume 7 Skill, [Like Fire, Memory] produces Technicolor Fire from her emotions that has a variety of magical properties, including inducing the emotion in whoever sees it.
• Foil:
  • Erin and Larracel:
    • 9.21, 9.24 and 9.25 make plenty of comparisons between the two, like being low-profile [Innkeepers], having friends that became famous, and are capable of magic both of the [Mage] and metaphorical wonder kind. In terms of differences, Erin has been in Innworld for little over a year where Larra has years over her; Erin is an Earther and Larra a native; Erin started as an [Innkeeper] where Larra used to be a Named-rank Adventurer [Mage]; The Wandering Inn ironically does not move on its own (unless you count its influence connecting to other places through its Portal Door) while The Adventurer’s Haven does; and the former suffers somewhat from Perpetual Poverty while the latter is rich, if extravagant in financing its many advanced facilities. Finally, their treatment of guests differ: Erin is always willing to make anyone a friend and guest of the Inn however she could, thus her network of friends is always growing, but she’s not afraid of intervening in their life even if they don’t appreciate it (like introducing Pisces as a [Necromancer] first to others); Larra is content to passively indulge the friends she already has, like letting Valeterisa have all the food she wants and not curbing Deniusth‘s fit in killing Adventurers who stole his loot—even her inn is a means to earning money for a paradise just for them by focusing on rich nobles’ pockets.
    • Their respective head employees, Ishkr and Barnethei, are also a reflection of their workplaces. Though both started out as ordinary [Servers], Barnethei (the Technician) saw his work as work and guests as guests, nothing more, leading to Skills that are more effective but limited in time; this is because he expects a reward for his hard work at the end of a task. For Ishkr (the Performer) however, the job is the reward, if not his life, so his low-leveled Skills last as long as needed to complete his tasks, and some are based off big incidents he lived through and guests he had the honor of serving.
      Ishkr (to Barnethei): Your Skills help you work better. Mine? Mine make me happy.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Erin's usual weapon of choice for her [Bar Fighter] Skill.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: In a world full of people with powerful Classes like [Mage], [Emperor], [General], and [Lord]/[Lady], she is an [Innkeeper], which causes her to be ignored or even outright scorned at times by people who view her as weak. However, the combination of her Class and personality allow her to bridge divides, form friendships between different peoples, and achieve feats that those with more 'powerful' classes are simply unable to do because the power of their Class means they aren't trusted. She even manages to foil plans like that of Az'kerash's, the likes of which killed [General] Zel Shivertail and defeated [Lady] Magnolia Reinhart, both of whom are exemplars of their Class type.
• Hypocrite: Can also be seen as her Fatal Flaw; she has free reign to voice her ideals as an outsider to certain problems, especially as an Earther, but it's when things get personal that she backpedals.
  • When the Council debates on what to do with the surviving Raskghar, finding it unethical to simply execute all of them, let alone the children, they turn to Erin for answers. Except, she's had people close to her harmed by the Raskghar so she's inclined to see them as monsters; Zevara even calls this out on Erin, the one who did not see Goblins as such, yet is now doing just that. The rest of the chapter then focuses on Erin wrestling with her morality until she creates a flame of mercy, which harms those who feel it—even the Raskghar, which proves that there's at least something worth saving inside them.
  • She once told the Redfang Goblins in Volume 5 that even if people at large believes they're just monsters, what matters is what they do now, rather than what they did in the past. This lends to her belief in second chances, to the point she became a [Witch of Second Chances]. Tyrion Veltras, the man who spearheaded the siege on Liscor and the ensuing Goblin massacre, and now remarkably changed into someone more lenient after his sons' poisoning and meeting Ryoka, should be living proof of that belief, yet Erin remains hostile and unwilling to see him for who he is now.
  • Played for Laughs in regards to her negative opinion on smoking and drugs. Her friends point out that she uses Faerie Flowers, which themselves have a similar psychedelic effect that she can't defend herself for.
• I Am the Noun: A reoccurring gag is that when threatened with consequences, her response is "I am the consequences!"
• Jeanne d'Archétype: After feeding, housing, and otherwise being kind to various Goblins, she accidentally becomes this to many of them. A coalition of at least three Goblin Tribes name themselves the "Solstice Goblins", and join her in attacking the vastly larger Goblin Lord force to defend Liscor.
• Knighting: After a manner by declaring Rabbiteater her knight through [Boon of the Guest] in 8.46G, then does a classic one with Normen in 9.07.
• Messianic Archetype: Becomes this to the Antinium after introducing them to the concept of religion. Gets to the point where her Inn is considered a holy place and she is worshiped as the Sky which represents heaven. This belief becomes so entrenched within many of the Antinium they actually gain faith based classes not seen since the Dead Gods disappeared.
• Monster Rights Movement: Despite several bad encounters with them, Erin maintains that Goblins are sentient people, and should not be hunted as pests. She has a "No Killing Goblins" sign outside her inn, and is friends with Antinium. Basically, if it has (or can gain) sentience, it should be treated as a person, no matter what.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Though Erin is genuinely airheaded and scatterbrained at times, she does knowingly play it up to throw off others and get them to underestimate her.
  Erin: You see Lyonette, there’s one good way to make angry people less angry at you and that’s to pretend to be as stupid as they think you are. Like a dumb Human tourist.
• Or Was It a Dream?: Enters Avalon in her dream in Volume 2 where she comes close to taking Excalibur. It's confirmed to have actually happened when Ryoka goes there in Volume 7 and finds the Arthurs remembering Erin doing so, saying that had it gone through, she would have become a "king of innkeepers".
• Power-Up Food: Her [Wondrous Fare] Skill allows her to make food with effects similar to alchemical potions. Some creations can grant temporary cold resistance, induce nostalgic memory hallucinations, hardened skin, or cause other effects.
• Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "My name is Erin Solstice. This is my inn. And. You. Are. Trespassing."
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: After the Face-Eater moths are successfully driven off from Liscor, to a straggler moth left crawling in the rain:
  Erin: Welcome to Liscor. [squishes the moth]
• The Prophecy: While not outright stated like with Ryoka it is heavily implied when The dead god Kasigna says that she was supposed to be wondrous among those summoned because she was the first.
• A Quest Giver Is You: By the end of Volume 8 and used in Volume 9, she unlocks the ability for all [Innkeepers] to give out system-backed quests that reward people who complete them. They have five tiers, in order from lowest to highest: <Basic Quest>, <Rare Quest>, <Heroic Quest>, <Mythical Quest>, and <Legendary Quest>. Likely because Erin unlocked it and having the prerequisite information and rewards to create said Quests, she is given the highest tier possible as opposed to other [Innkeepers] her Level being unable to post <Mythical> and <Legendary Quests>.
• Rags to Riches: She starts out in an abandoned inn with no Levels or advantages to her name, not helped by being an average sheltered city girl in another world she has to learn about bit by bit from the nearby locals of Liscor and her patrons. Only later on with the help of using recipes and ideas unique to Earth, making connections with figures and friends of varying importance in society, and causing and/or seeing through many incidents Liscor gets involved in does she become famous throughout Izril by the events of Volume 7. That said, there's rarely a scene where Lyonette doesn't bemoan the inn's low finances.
• Rousseau Was Right: She is a firm believer in this, even to the point of being genuinely nice to Goblins who had attacked her on several occasions, and taking on twenty Gnolls barehanded to protect Lyonette. Usually, she's proved right.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: She's not above bringing out several high-level politicians, craftsmen, and adventurers to intimidate Celum's corrupt officials. Keldrass calls her out for subverting the rule of law so brazenly, even for a good cause.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: While the inn faces a few of these throughout the series, such as Joseph and co. being unable to pay their bill when they first arrived at the inn, the biggest one to date is Tekshia coming up to her with a bill for the cost of (unintentionally) destroying the Adventurer's Guild by nailing Quest papers onto its wall.
• The Slacker:
  • It's been observed by many people around her that Erin is only motivated by things she's inclined to do, especially for other people, but not when it comes to herself. This is discussed in chapters where this trait of hers gets brought up, such as not seeing the point in being fancy with food when it'll just get eaten in the end (which she got rightly ribbed for in the Foody Discussions Interlude)—in essence, if everything you did was for nothing, why do it at all? And this is coming from someone who did a lot of good even though there was no guarantee of them going well.
  • Deconstructed during Volume 9 when she tries to rehabilitate her body after she returns to life. Though Grimalkin tries to make her, she dodges around the painful effort by using healing potions and Bulkup Bisque to get back to walking immediately. Later chapters make it clear that she's developed a reliance on it, the consequences of which rears its head in 9.29 when she nearly defeats the First Flute attempting to kill Tesy by using her inn's doors... only for the bisque to stop working at the last moment and let her be taken hostage by Symphony. This then leads to her being extorted for a Quest, after which a regretful Erin takes her rehabilitation more seriously.
• Smart People Play Chess: Played with. Erin is a chess prodigy and capable of beating various skilled players, among them being Niers Astoragon (the best [Strategist] in the world) and [Lady] Magnolia (who was effectively reading her mind at the time). However, she is clueless about many aspects about life, and often acts rather air-headed.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: She has a long-running argument with Palt about his smoking habit, earning her something of a reputation as The Teetotaler, despite literally owning an inn with a bar.
• Spanner in the Works: Human [Lords], five Antinium [Queens], and the Necromancer all had their own plans for the siege of Liscor. Then, Erin walked out in front of the Goblin Lord's army with a white flag asking for peace. The ensuing Goblin civil war ruined the plans of several of the most powerful people on the continent, and saved Liscor.
• Supporting Leader: Erin is a rare sort of protagonist who uses 'soft power' as opposed to 'hard power', in that for most of the events she becomes an impetus for, she's usually providing assistance from behind the scenes rather than being there in person. This usually takes the form of prodding people she knows into action, leading to them falling onto people they know to chip in, causing a domino effect where her actions ripple into a huge cause of effect.
  • When hearing about Esthelm's call for help, she suggests the idea to help the city to her guests, which eventually leads to a coalition of wagon drivers and Antinium coming to help with restoration.
  • During Ryoka's delivery of a cure for the poisoned Hethon and Sammial, Erin mobilizes various people who have the combat power to break the Assassins' lockdown on Invrisil. This includes Liscor's forces including Olesm, the Brothers of Serendipitous Meetings, an army of Pallass on Chaldion's orders, Pawn and the Painted Antinium, Human [Lord] Toldos Everight and his retainers, and a couple of Adventurers amongst others.
  • In 9.41, she manages to push leaders around the world for a rescue of all places in trouble from the unusually heavy winter. More personally in Part 2, when she saw Sir Normen and [Wagon Driver] Zanze are getting mobbed by augmented Snow Golems, she asked her guests for volunteers; a group of them—Antherr, Vess, and Jewel—arrive in time. And at the very end when Rittane was on the verge of death, she casts [Boon of the Guest: Mrsha] to help the girl live.
• Time Stands Still: Her Skill, [Immortal Moment], distorts time around a meaningful event, such as a good chess game, an important conversation, or the mourning period of a funeral. In the Deadlands, Zineryr points out in awe the implied power it really has when it activates and freezes even those who notice its effects—and catches the attention of the Timewalker.
• Tournament Arc: Subverted. In 9.29, she posts a quest—Zeladona’s Trial of a Thousand Blades—that she described as a fighting tournament. It leads to 9.30, where the people assumed it meant a bracket tournament and all the other features classic to it, only for Erin's rushed lack of organization and people's grudges between each other to devolve into a bloody free-for-all. It thankfully ends quick in one morning (and one chapter).
• Underestimating Badassery: After being scammed, Erin is challenged to a game of chess against a Level 22 [Tactician] to win her money back. Her friends tell her she is an idiot for taking the bet. It turns out that she is probably the best chess player in the world.
• Verbal Judo: Over time she becomes a deft hand at manipulating social situations to her favor that Grimalkin compares her to Magnolia Reinhart. She's insistent it's not manipulation though, just helping people interact in certain ways.
• Weirdness Magnet: Whenever anything unusual happens around Liscor, everyone assumes she did something. There are even bets going on, usually about whether she blows something up or not.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Erin is widely known as "That Crazy Human" partially for her antics, but also because she insists that people treat Goblins and Antinium as people, especially when they're on her property. Deconstructed later on, however, as when Liscor is trying to figure out what to do about the imprisoned Raskghar, the Council specifically seeks her out to find a moral justification. Erin—who has had people she cares about personally affected by their attacks—is unable to see them as anything but monsters and is greatly conflicted about it until she awakens a flame of mercy, which proves that the prisoners do know it, however debauched they are.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: She has definite shades of this, and tries to bring fun and, well, magic to people's lives.
• The Wonka: Her eccentricities qualify her as this. A young human woman came out of nowhere in Drake territory; started an Inn in monster-infested wilderness; hired a skeleton, a thief, a mad Antinium, and several Hobgoblins as staff; held her ground in the face of several large-scale attacks; served as a [General] in a goblin civil war; formed a trading coalition of human Lords; has bear teeth and apparently can shoot blood; and is by all accounts wildly successful and high-level as an [Innkeeper].