It's an interesting idea for a campaign feature, if your group accepts the core premise. It's probably not the broad solution to an age-old problem that the designer argues, as designers sometimes are wont to do for their work.

I can't help but wonder, if each character possesses this 'influence', why it needs to reside in a piece of equipment. This assumption seems to complicate the idea quite considerably, judging by the space devoted to special rules for the process of influence. Generally could be more concise and better expressed.