Do wyters have personalities?

[buckwheats]

Hello again,

I recently watched Psycho Pass, which is a near-future anime where "emotion-reading" is possible and deviant thinking can get oneself killed by a special police squad. All of this is made possible through an advanced AI, that pretty much oppresses society.  

Now apart from the mind-reading, which is not a thing in Glorantha, I wondered if a tyrannical chief like for example Harvar Ironfist could have used his clans/tribes wyter to oppress his people.

If so, did the wyter cooperate willingly (because it's a robot) or not?

And now, that the "tyrant" is no more, is the new King of the Vantaros tribe at loggerheads with that wyter? Does it need a heroquest to "cleanse" the spirit? Or do they even have to seek a new wyter altogether because the old one is bent for good?

Could such a bent wyter even exist at all and start to be a negative influence on a community by its own (the dog vs tail conundrum)? I know, that wyters need the community to provide magic points, but what if an upper echelon of nobles or a misguided sect, who profits from an oppressed tribe, would be in league with that malign spirit?

What about the other sub-wyters (other clans, temples, etc.)? Is there something like wyter-on-wyter civil war possible?

Thanks a lot.

[Stew Stansfield]

44 minutes ago, buckwheats said:

Could such a bent wyter even exist at all and start to be a negative influence on a community by its own (the dog vs tail conundrum)?

I think this is a great idea! Wyters tend to be presented as being sympatico with their communities—a magical reflection and summation of them, if you will—and any breakdown in that relationship typically symbolised as the community losing its way, as opposed to the wyter.  But wyters also are dramatic story elements and characters in their own right, and can fall and be redeemed as any participant. That includes being suborned, tricked or perverted. Though that fall may likely mirror or follow some conflict or ill in the community itself, as you have in your examples.

Sounds fun!

As to the specifics, a lot will depend on whether the wyter has INT or not. A wyter might resist acting contrary to its fundamental role, relationship and nature, but that resistance and any subsequent 'cooperation' can take very different forms depending on the wyter's form, and this will change how the story is framed.

It's perhaps not exactly the same as what you mention, but I'm currently playing around with wyters for the durulz (no, really). Three wyters for three counters. One is a fallen Lunar standard that they've scavenged and taken as their own god. They bully the wyter, squawking at it to give them magic, and threatening to bury it in mud or drown it in The Stream if it doesn't. The wyter is biding its time, gathering its strength from their paltry sacrifices for the time when it can break free.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Stew Stansfield
Minor clarification/addition.

[Joerg]

A wyter using a hero or demigod as the pre-existing entity (godling, hero, founder) definitely has passions like "Hate Dara Happans" or "Hate Trolls", and woe to the clan/tribe/warband when they go against one of these.

The creation of the wyter is a contract, and if the obligations of the contract are broken, the wyter may act.

Harvar Ironfist had personal control over at most four wyters - the Alda-chur confederation wyter, the Alda-chur city wyter, the Princeros wyter, his own clan's wyter. Perhaps that of a warband.

The tribal wyters of all the other Aldachuri tribes were never at his disposal. Unless his position as Prince of the Far Point gave him access to Orlanth Rex' Command Priest, but I am not entirely convinced that a priest (tribal king?) under the influence would be able to command a wyter. Let alone to command it to act against the interests of its community.

 

It isn't entirely clear to me which blessings a tribal wyter would bestow on the clans that would be so powerful that removing it would hurt the clan. Calling in the tribal cattle from that clan will hurt economically, but that has nothing to do with the wyter.