Elven Youth Syndrome
Causes
Elven Youth Syndrome is a genetic condition in elves which can be exacerbated by lack of access to food during puberty. It appears to be matrilineal, with sons who have mothers with the condition guaranteed to have the condition. With daughters, it's a 50/50 chance if their mother has it but their father doesn't, and guaranteed if both parents have it, which suggests it's sex-linked and recessive.
Symptoms
Elven Youth Syndrome has easy-to-spot expression; sufferers will, well into their adult years, resemble early-to-mid teenagers. While this has some beneficial side-effects, such as prolonged collagen formation, it's also known to negatively affect fertility and aggravates childbirth in female sufferers. In addition, their height will usually be considerably shorter than unaffected individuals, most sufferers not exceeding five feet.
Treatment
There is no treatment for this condition; sufferers unfortunately have to live with it, or perhaps buy platform shoes. It is generally recommended that female sufferers opt to give birth through surgical incision rather than naturally, owing to the narrow hips the condition usually induces.
Prognosis
Sufferers of Elven Youth Syndrome can usually be spotted in their latter years of puberty; by twenty, a sufferer will be obvious. Sometimes developmental delays can be noticeable as early as fourteen.
Affected Groups
Only dark elves and high elves appear to be affected by this condition, with forest elves being naturally shorter by default and Kakajuan elves being more-or-less identical, tall, well-developed women as a whole. Non-elven races aren't known to be affected by it, nor are elven hybrids even with fellow pointy-eared humanoids like seers and beastmasters.
Cultural Reception
While generally unremarked upon unless specifically brought up, Elven Youth Syndrome is often exploited by cabaret bar owners, pimps, and other such unsavoury characters who want their working girls (and working boys, for that matter) to cater to certain seedy demographics at a premium. Otherwise, most sufferers of Elven Youth Syndrome report feelings of distrust and unlovableness, owing to their uncertainty that a lover is attracted to them as a person or are merely fetishising their condition.
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