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Long ago, the Crystal Exarch came to a fateful conclusion: only a mighty warrior who could defeat the Lightwardens as well as resist their corruption could deliver salvation to Norvrandt. The sole individual he knew capable of such feats — the Warrior of Light — abided in the Source, and thus did he labor to adapt the Crystal Tower’s cross-rift travel capabilities that he might bring the hero unto the First.
Success proved elusive. Even after much time and effort, instead of the Warrior of Light, the Exarch ended up summoning their fellow Scions, and incompletely; only their souls successfully made the journey. Though he could weave for them something akin to corporeal forms, their actual bodies remained locked in slumber in the Source, and the connection between flesh and soul would eventually fail, resulting in death. To wit, it was imperative that he found a way to return his unintended guests safely home.
When teleporting, an individual takes their possessions with them by virtue of recognizing those objects as extensions of the self. It was this mechanism that served as the basis of the solution. Receptacles would be created to hold each of the Scions’ souls, which the Warrior of Light, who had been summoned whole and complete, would then carry back across the rift to the Source. The finished product, the spirit vessel, also drew inspiration from white auracite, Moenbryda’s ingenious invention for capturing an Ascian soul.
However, one other obstacle had to be overcome: the separation of mind and memory. While the two are intrinsically entwined like words writ upon parchment, the latter is wont to fade when the soul is placed into a vessel. In seeking to ensure that their memories remained intact, the companions looked to Allagan memory transference — a technique which required that their spirit vessels be imbued with royal Allagan blood. This blood was provided by the Exarch himself, and it also served to turn these vessels into keys for controlling the Crystal Tower, whose operation was restricted to the ancient empire’s rulers.