This is a question for both sides.
Is anywhere a source mentioning that he used a ritual?
__________________ RealistRacism: "Sheevites, much like the Banites, were meant to increase in power with each member. From Lightsnake to Gideon to Azronger, this was supposed to be the case. However, knowledge must've been lost in some kind of Gravid-like incident, as Az turned out to be a mid-tier debater with a sub-par track record, sh!itting all over Tempest's legacy. Sad."
Registered: Jun 2016
Location: The Throne of the Sheevites
The codex does suggest a ritual, yes. The most favorable interpretation for Failk is that it was left "ambiguous," but saying it was his own power is baseless.
Maybe he fed on the deaths of the Jedi and Sith who killed themselves on Ziost(mind-controlled by him)?
__________________ RealistRacism: "Sheevites, much like the Banites, were meant to increase in power with each member. From Lightsnake to Gideon to Azronger, this was supposed to be the case. However, knowledge must've been lost in some kind of Gravid-like incident, as Az turned out to be a mid-tier debater with a sub-par track record, sh!itting all over Tempest's legacy. Sad."
__________________ RealistRacism: "Sheevites, much like the Banites, were meant to increase in power with each member. From Lightsnake to Gideon to Azronger, this was supposed to be the case. However, knowledge must've been lost in some kind of Gravid-like incident, as Az turned out to be a mid-tier debater with a sub-par track record, sh!itting all over Tempest's legacy. Sad."
I watched it a while ago. From what I.gathered is he needed to cause death and chaos across the planet by doing his possession, feeding on it until eventually he becomes powerful enough to absorb Ziost.
__________________ "Vader's pulse and breathing were machine-regulated, so they could not quicken; but something in his chest became more electric around his meetings with the Emperor; he could not say how. A feeling of fullness, of power, of dark and demon mastery -- of secret lusts, unrestrained passion, wild submission -- all these things were in Vader's heart as he neared his Emperor. These things and more."
__________________ RealistRacism: "Sheevites, much like the Banites, were meant to increase in power with each member. From Lightsnake to Gideon to Azronger, this was supposed to be the case. However, knowledge must've been lost in some kind of Gravid-like incident, as Az turned out to be a mid-tier debater with a sub-par track record, sh!itting all over Tempest's legacy. Sad."
Maybe not a ritual. But it seems he needed to feed on those deaths to unleash that ability.
__________________ RealistRacism: "Sheevites, much like the Banites, were meant to increase in power with each member. From Lightsnake to Gideon to Azronger, this was supposed to be the case. However, knowledge must've been lost in some kind of Gravid-like incident, as Az turned out to be a mid-tier debater with a sub-par track record, sh!itting all over Tempest's legacy. Sad."
'Whispered rumors have persisted of planets snuffed out through intricate Sith rituals or by way of deadly, arcane machines--such as the device Revan sought to employ on Yavin 4--but Ziost represents a clear display of the corrosive power of the dark side of the Force taken to its extreme.'
The text pretty clearly seperates Ziost's destruction from those caused by rituals or machines and suggests its the corrosive power of the dark side that caused it instead. At the very least it doesn't indicate a ritual at all.
Didn't Vitiate need to feed on those Jedi and Sith to unleash that Force blast?
__________________ RealistRacism: "Sheevites, much like the Banites, were meant to increase in power with each member. From Lightsnake to Gideon to Azronger, this was supposed to be the case. However, knowledge must've been lost in some kind of Gravid-like incident, as Az turned out to be a mid-tier debater with a sub-par track record, sh!itting all over Tempest's legacy. Sad."
I honestly don't get the point of this think. Rituals require already having the raw power required to power them as well as the mastery and affinity for the Force to use them. If the point was to say Vitiate can't just randomly use it in combat, that argument is pointless. Drain is already stated to be hard to use in combat for anyone. I think if Bane can get over that limitation, Vitiate can. No one in Star Wars has a presence in the Force comparable to an entire planet's population anyway.