Polstrus

In relation to The Innocence Project Archives

Polstrus is a congenital condition found amongst Addatchians resulting in the individual being born without horns.
The Addatchian people view large and elaborate horns as a beauty standard, making those with small horns or a complete lack of horns commonly viewed as ugly amongst their peers.
The condition, barring its social implications, has no negative effect on the individual’s health or ability and has never been correlated to any other condition.
When a family has a child born with Polstrus there is a high likelihood that the child will not be cared for, either abandoned or otherwise disowned.
A small industry of false horns to hide the condition cropped up as the condition became more widespread. The use and sale of false horns is typically conducted secretively and being found with false horns can have social repercussions.
In some cases, people revealed to suffer from Polstrus who were let go from their employment or otherwise excluded from social clubs, refused service or ignored by their peers.
Due to the harsh treatment of people who have Polstrus there is a larger number of these individuals in the farming and clearing industry than any other sector. Postitions most common for such people will often have them living far from the city proper with limited access to resources.
As the war escalated there was a public push to destigmatize Polstrus in order to reduce defection of Addatchian born citizens to the Silvestra tribes. During these efforts some historical figures were outed as having suffered from the condition, a notable example being Augiendel Paluavey, daughter of Chybalde Norbelien Paluavey, and the second person to hold the position of head of ADL after her father's death. Given the images of her always had her sporting well-groomed and elaborately shaped horns the consensus is that she wore false horns.