[@Baklava] I think a covenant is basically a promise to help out if they need to. The way I see it, the spirits test the dudes to see if they're worthy enough to back up, and it seems to rely on how much the spirit likes the summoner. The way the GM pitched it, I figure the summon only helps if it wants to, so both trust and likeability are kind of necessary for a summoner to summon stuff.

Also, not really sure about this part, but it honestly sounds like the spirits don't have a lot to do as they're both revered and taken care of by everything around them, so I figure it wouldn't be too bad. But summoners would probably be pretty rare anyways as you have to find the summon and then fight it.

With that said, I'm not the GM so it's probably best to wait for his input.