As we all know, Master is the highest title for an artisan. But what kind of artisan truly deserves the title of Master? Or rather, what qualifies one to be selected for it?
One belief is that the person must have made a significant contribution to the Artisan Guild or led a team that has won multiple Expo awards.
But that's not necessarily the case. The Artisan Guild's closed and rigid system has, in some ways, stifled innovation.

...

Years ago, the guild wasn't so hostile or dismissive toward Imagine Seeds. Back then, a Master-level artisan, Mason Stonecutter, was a strong advocate for Imagine Seed research. Mason believed these seeds could eventually outshine Bapharian Legacies in versatility.

Mason is a legend among artisans. Some say he was taught directly by Webber, and others claim he was Ted's mentor. But what truly secured his place as a Master was his core theory for modifying Bapharian Legacies.

At the time, Legacy artisans were stuck, unable to crack the core mechanisms of the Legacies. Mason, ahead of his time, proposed a bold alternative: Set aside the core tech temporarily and use Legacies as modular components for real-world applications.
This idea massively advanced Legacy modification, leading artisans to re-engineer Legacies into tools for daily life, combat, and transport. The adoption rate of Legacies in Asterleeds now has reached an all-time high, even overloading the Webber Energy Network. Yet the current framework for Legacy modification still follows Mason's ideas.

Even so, Mason faced growing internal skepticism despite his immense contributions to the Artisan Guild. As mentioned earlier, Mason placed great value on the study of Imagine Seeds. Later, he abandoned his Legacy research career and devoted himself entirely to Imagine Seed studies. However, the research yielded no tangible results after consuming vast funding.

Eventually, the Guild and Mason had a falling out. The then-Guildmaster cut off funding for the Imagine Seed project.
Enraged, Mason left the Artisan Guild and founded the Imagine Research Institute, where he continues his research in that field. However, his influence is no longer what it once was.