Uyam Wastes

The Uyam Wastes is an unusual disease which is commonly found in Uyam Trees, especially heirloom varieties. Once thought to be extinct, it made a sudden and ferocious comeback in the recent past. Trees which are afflicted with this condition often die within a season, left gnarled and barren by its curse.

Symptoms

The disease infects a susceptible Uyam Tree via its leaves. The first sign of a potential infection is a powdery down on the leaves, the physical form of the Uyam Wastes prior to being absorbed by a tree. Shortly after, the leaves will crinkle up.
The clearest indicator that the Uyam Tree has gone beyond the point of no return is a tree full of budding Uyam fruits suddenly dropping its payload weeks before they are due to ripen.
After the fruits fall, the entire tree rapidly crinkles up, just like the leaves, trunk and all. By winter, the Uyam Fruit Tree will have died and likely spread its illness to its neighbors.

Treatment

There is currently no cure for the Uyam Wastes. Once a tree is infected, the tree will either live or die depending on the strength and luck of the tree. Instead of depend upon treatment, Yashelin farmers have adapted to the disease via selective breeding for resistant varieties. Although a tree or two may have been lost every season, farmers believed the disease to be virtually extinct in comparison to its previous rampage.

Disease Revival

Unfortunately, the Uyam Wastes returned in force. During the Aravun Civil War, a "wildfire" ripped through the ancient Uyam orchards surrounding the city of Heshi Ariko. The fire destroyed thousands of tree, and those that remained were either damaged or, possibly worse, immunocompromised by the smoke and heat. By the time the farmers had realized the calamity at hand when one tree after another fell to the Uyam Wastes, it was too late to ask for help. Their orchardists with the most experience combating the Uyam Wastes had been exiled without so much as a trial. Much of their knowledge vanished with them.
The disease has thankfully hit an all time low since the post-civil war disaster. New trees have grown in the place of the old, though large gaps remain. Knowledge has also returned to the fields. Some exiles, such as Karat, have returned to lend their aid to the fields. Newer orchardists have also stepped up to fill in the gaps that their more experienced counterparts were forced to leave behind. The future of the orchards appears bright once more, but the fight is far from over.

by Annie Spratt

Type

Degenerative

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Common

Affected Species

• Uyam Trees

Location

The disease exists only on the planet of Aravu

Name Origin

When Heyir saw a tree drop all of its fruit early for the first time, they called it a waste of Uyam. It is also the collective name for the trees infected with the disease.