Shilmer's syndrome was a wasting disease that devoured flesh, capable of destroying the limbs and voice of its victims. Following Lemuel Tharsa, an inspector for the Interstellar Thorilide Guild, becoming infected with it on the planet [Gorse], located in the Inner Rim, he was hospitalized in a local medcenter for a period. He subsequently used extensive full-body cybernetics to reinvent himself as the wealthy Denetrius Vidian. Vidian's subsequent death, which stemmed from his treasonous behavior against the Galactic Empire during the Gorse Conflict, was falsely attributed to a recurrence of Shilmer's syndrome.
The disease Shilmer's syndrome initially appeared in John Jackson Miller's 2014 book, A New Dawn.