A student of mine asked me about servitors and their creation, so it seemed appropriate to talk about this here. His query revolved around my experience and tips - we'll discuss both here, working from the ground up.
This in mind, some of you may be unfamiliar with the term.... A servitor is a manufactured spirit. They can be made by just about anyone, and they must be created with some manner of intention at the core of their being. They can be spun up with the goal of doing pretty much anything you're looking to have done, but that thing you're looking to have done is essentially the animus behind their being. Without it, they have no life purpose, and thus no reason to be created.
This "life's purpose", as it were, serves as the backbone behind their being and acts as the motivator in life long enough for them to achieve your goal. This can be self-focused, as in instances where you want this being to serve you, or it can be created with the goal of doing things on a much larger scale. The choice is yours, and the fabricated entity will be limited, at first, by your creativity and skill.
This is both the reason for their efficacy and use and the cause of failure for many of the magically-inclined who wish to use this tech to their benefit. If you're creating it, your limitations become their limitations until/unless the spirit in question is allowed to learn and grow.
This is where we find the rub: if you limit its ability to learn, it stays limited, but its also more likely to remain loyal and true to its original purpose. Being able to expand its programming can lead to AI-like situations wherein the entity decides that you're part of the problem its trying to solve, and then your life can become a mess in a hurry. Properly created, however, they're fantastic.
There's an inherent complexity to them, however, and that means that I'll have to split this post up a few times.
Stay tuned to learn more about 'em.
-SE