No artificer in the country of Breland receives training without hearing a few rumors about a secret creation forge that Baron Merrix supposedly hides in the bowels of one of Sharn’s many towers. But not only does Merrix continue to produce more warforged, the artifice-mad maker is relentless in his research concerning the disposition of any and all schemas. While not a few schemas might yet lie in the blowing wastes of the Mournland, Merrix also seeks schemas from the lands that originally birthed them: Xen’drik. To this end, he sometimes dispatches groups to that southern continent (usually by proxy) to stir up schemas or news of the same.
Any artificer would give her left hand to be able to spend but one day in Merrix’s forge and subsidiary study, library, and laboratory. His understanding of artifice magic is a generation ahead of that of any other master who now studies in the field, and the tools and infusions he employs on a daily basis are said to surpass (or at least equal) those lost when Cyre was destroyed and the premier Cannith facility, Whitehearth, was lost.
At the most basic level, Baron Merrix uses infusions that are not widely known, and artificers who gain access to his resources might gain access to new sources of power.