Rift: What the heck are Synergy Crystals?

Patch 1.3 has introduced a new slot for synergy crystals.  So what the heck are synergy crystals?  They are Rift's fix to the problem of armor sets.  Normally in MMOs there are sets of armor that are visually related in some way which give bonuses to the classes.  In other words, your helmet and leggings and shield and such are all the same color, have the same symbols on them, etc. and when you collect the whole set, it provides stat bonuses for this or that character type.  In Rift there are so many character types possible through mixing souls, developers haven't been able to produce an armor set for each class.  The armor bonuses that work for one type of mage will mean nothing to another type.  Synergy crystals provide a way around this problem.  I'm going to quote from the article in the link below to explain.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/22/rift’s-1-3-patch-adds-set-items-to-telara/

"In order to avoid this potential problem, Trion found a clever workaround: Rift’s Armor Sets are still defined by your class, but the extra bonuses given for collecting multiple pieces of gear in that Set aren’t on the items themselves. Instead, those meta-bonuses will be applied through a new, compeltely separate item that will show up in the Character pane when 1.3 launches. They’re called a Synergy Crystals, and each one (there will be 32 different ones at patch launch) gives bonuses to different stats–but only once you’ve collected enough pieces of your Armor Set. Alone, the Crystal doesn’t do anything, but with each Set Item that is equipped, it provides more and more stat bonuses.

For example, a Warrior Riftblade will want to get a Crystal that gives bonuses to Crit, Hit, and Damage, while a Warrior Warlord will be searching for one that enhances his Health and Armor. They’ll both be rolling on the same Plate armor pieces to collect the same Armor Set when they drop from the new Hammerknell content, but the two players will be using them to activate and empower their own, distinct Synergy Crystals–getting completely different bonuses out of the Armor Set. There’s a Snyergy Crystal for each Soul in the game, so there should be at least one good option for every single combination of Souls.

UPDATE: To help clarify, we asked Krausnick if we’ll be able to swap out Synergy Crystals and he confirmed: 'Synergy Crystals work like any other item in the game, too, meaning players can switch them out to get different benefits if they wish. That way, when a Warrior changes from his DPS Role to his Tank Role, he can change the bonus his set gives.'

Naturally, more Armor Sets and Synergy Crystals will be added with future updates, expanding on the foundation laid in tomorrow’s patch. In the meantime, having only four sets (and 32 Crystals) should make things much easier to start, while still letting players enhance their highly-customized characters."

So where do you get synergy crystals? The new armor sets come from the new Hammerknell content while at least the Transplanar synergy sets are purchased from vendors.
http://rift.zam.com/wiki/Synergy_Crystals_(Rift)

The bottom message on this forum posting talks about the various sets.
http://rift.zam.com/forum.html?forum=222&mid=13087559308393621&h=50

Since there are 36 souls if you count all the PvP ones, apparently there aren't any synergy crystals for PvP yet.

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