Kalidor

The capes weren't even in the game at all at launch. It was, as some have pointed out, due to the hardware limitations of everyone having a cape. When they finally got around to adding them they still wanted to minimize the amount of people who could have them all at once so they came up with the level 20 lock with the backstory that explained it. My game hasn't downloaded yet but I'm happy to know that's no longer the case.