After the fifteenth century in Europe, as production techniques improved, the manufacturing cost of candles—which had once been prohibitively expensive—began to fall. By estimation, a candle cost roughly a common worker's daily wage at the time. Upper-class nobles also began lighting more and more candles when receiving guests to display their wealth. The nighttime masquerade balls exclusive to the upper classes began to rise during that era, and nobles often dressed themselves as lower-class laborers. In the minds of the nobility, laborers were crude, uncultured, and irreverent. They believed that as long as they dressed as the poor, they could freely commit vulgar acts and indulge their desires at the ball. Hammurabi found records of those masquerade balls in a corner of the Praetorian Guard library. It was said that one Queen Regent's masquerade ball in her palace did not permit guests to wear clothes; they could only use jewelry suited to the exhibition hall's theme to cover their bodies. Its extravagance and wanton indulgence were truly appalling.
The Praetorian Guard believed that their sovereign's decision to don black armor and take part in the Ability Enhancer dispute over the "Sokovia Accords" followed the same logic as attending a masquerade ball: concealing his identity to do things his status did not permit. After all, no nation wanted to see the three-meter-tall Emperor of Latveria, clad in golden armor, suddenly appear within its borders. Although everyone knew Latveria possessed teleportation technology, it would stir up the already calming situation in Europe once again. That was something Latveria did not want at present, as it could very well disrupt certain ongoing negotiations.
Because of his sovereign's rather alarming sense of humor, that first set of black armor had been designed to resemble Darth Vader.
After learning of this, Hammurabi spent the entire