"Wahy" -- you say it like the question word "why"-- is a Classic Period word. (You may also come across places that spell it "way.") It is the name for a certain kind of demon or spirit being that it looks like ancient Maya believed in and thought some people could use. Other names you may come across for this being include alter ego, tona, co-essence, nagual, familiar, and spirit companion or even wahy demon and wahy creature.
Appearance
When it came to appearance, wahys had a lot of diversity. For example, there were animals, skeletons and wahys made up of different kinds of animals -- this last type being a large part of the known images of wahys. Wahys' appearances seem to have limited the kinds of things they could do. Wahys whose form looked weak tended to be underlings. But wahys that looked strong got more impressive things to do.
Types
So far, it looks like there were two types of wahy. One type was connected to dynasties. The second type may have been supernatural beings of diseases, with a different wahy for a each disease. (Another view I found on a description of a vase in the Metropolitan Museum's online image collection says that it's common for a wahy to be a living form of a disease or another thing that makes people unhappy, like death.)
Who Owned Them
It looks like wahys were spirits that people like rulers, who had the right inborn ability, were able to keep inside their bodies and control. When asleep, wahys would come out of their owners -- using their mouths as a door -- to do things for them. And these people could get more than one wahy.
It also looks like the Maya believed that if a wahy was hurt, the person who owned it died. Before dying, that person would become hurt just like the wahy had been.
Purpose
Wahys in the first type mentioned in the last section could have been mascots for the dynasties that owned them. A different function they may have had was as a sort of protector of their dynasties. They may also have been used like the second type, the wahys who may be beings of diseases.
This second type of wahy was thought to hurt or kill their owners' enemies for them when their owners were sleeping. The ancient Maya may also have believed that if someone's wahy killed an enemy, then that wahy would become that person's wahy.
This second type of wahy was thought to hurt or kill their owners' enemies for them when their owners were sleeping. The ancient Maya may also have believed that if someone's wahy killed an enemy, then that wahy would become that person's wahy.
References:
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 16, No. 4: "The Ocellated Turkey in Maya Thought"; Ana Luisa Izquierdo y de la Cueva, Mari/a Elena Vega Villalobos; 2016
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 16, No. 2: "For Love of the Game:The Ballplayer Panels of Tipan Chen Uitzin Light of Late Classic Athletic Hegemony"; Christophe Helmke, Christopher R. Andres, Shawn G. Morton, Gabriel D. Wrobel; 2015
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 15, No.4: "Once and Future Kings: Classic MayaGeopolitics and Mythic History on theVase of the Initial Series from Uaxactun"; Nicholas P. Carter; 2015
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 16, No. 4: "The Ocellated Turkey in Maya Thought"; Ana Luisa Izquierdo y de la Cueva, Mari/a Elena Vega Villalobos; 2016
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 16, No. 2: "For Love of the Game:The Ballplayer Panels of Tipan Chen Uitzin Light of Late Classic Athletic Hegemony"; Christophe Helmke, Christopher R. Andres, Shawn G. Morton, Gabriel D. Wrobel; 2015
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 15, No.4: "Once and Future Kings: Classic MayaGeopolitics and Mythic History on theVase of the Initial Series from Uaxactun"; Nicholas P. Carter; 2015
"Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: rituals of body and soul"; Andrew K. Scherer; 2015
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 14, No. 4: "Beans and Glyphs: A Possible IB Logogram in the Classic Maya Script"; Alexandre Tokovinine; 2014
"Lightning in the Andes and Mesoamerica: Pre-Columbian, Colonial, and Contemporary Perspectives"; John E. Staller, Brian Stross; 2013
Mesoweb: "The Updated Preliminary Classic Maya - English, English - Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings"; Erik Boot; April 2009 (version 2009.01)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Collection: Vessel, Mythological Scene
Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography: Category Archives: "Maya Spooks"; David Stuart; October 26, 2012
Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography: "Excerpt from: David Stuart, 2005. Glyphs on Pots: Decoding Classic Maya Ceramics, Sourcebook for the 2005 Maya Meetings at Texas, Department of Art and Art History, UT-Austin, Austin.": "19. The Way Beings"
Mesoweb: "The PARI Journal" Volume 14, No. 4: "Beans and Glyphs: A Possible IB Logogram in the Classic Maya Script"; Alexandre Tokovinine; 2014
"Lightning in the Andes and Mesoamerica: Pre-Columbian, Colonial, and Contemporary Perspectives"; John E. Staller, Brian Stross; 2013
Mesoweb: "The Updated Preliminary Classic Maya - English, English - Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings"; Erik Boot; April 2009 (version 2009.01)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Collection: Vessel, Mythological Scene
Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography: Category Archives: "Maya Spooks"; David Stuart; October 26, 2012
Maya Decipherment: Ideas on Ancient Maya Writing and Iconography: "Excerpt from: David Stuart, 2005. Glyphs on Pots: Decoding Classic Maya Ceramics, Sourcebook for the 2005 Maya Meetings at Texas, Department of Art and Art History, UT-Austin, Austin.": "19. The Way Beings"
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