Something I noticed while doing the sidequests to unlock flight in Urqopacha:



Nopli is referring to corrupted crystals, which he purchased from an Ul'dahn merchant. These crystals are visually identical to the ones seen in Eastern Thanalan, which are notably only a fraction of the surface-level remnants of the battle between Bahamut and Phoenix, iirc. By that I mean there's also a colossal amount of corrupted crystals beneath the continent's surface, see: Binding Coils of Bahamut.

The thing is, the practical use Nopli suggests for them? It's word for word how Electrope functions. Because of this, I believe Electrope's origin may have been similar. In fact, the way both function and their respective origins suggests to me that they may actually be akin to a planetary defense mechanism. Like, an auto-immune response to dangerously high levels of a singular element.