Gap between Valkorion and Vitiate?

DC77 (Reborn) wrote:Pretty damn big.

The Ellimist wrote:Why?

PeraltaEagle45 wrote:Relatively small. The Ziost drain, contrary to what others are saying above, was done while vastly weakened. The main purpose of said drain was to "restore" Vitiate to his prior strength. While he may have gained some small amount of power from the ordeal, nothing suggests he added much to his pool. Any theories that he grew substantially are just that -- theories. The actual evidence we have points to the gap being fairly small.

BreakofDawn wrote:

PeraltaEagle45 wrote:Relatively small. The Ziost drain, contrary to what others are saying above, was done while vastly weakened. The main purpose of said drain was to "restore" Vitiate to his prior strength. While he may have gained some small amount of power from the ordeal, nothing suggests he added much to his pool. Any theories that he grew substantially are just that -- theories. The actual evidence we have points to the gap being fairly small.

Not true, actually. Vitiate had to reach a certain threshold to actually drain Ziost, hence why he started by controlling people and feeding off their deaths. He had to reach a certain level to then consume the entire planet without even using a ritual, suggesting he’d regained a considerable amount of his power before even draining the planet and thus amplifying his power yet again.

PeraltaEagle45 wrote:Relatively small. The Ziost drain, contrary to what others are saying above, was done while vastly weakened. The main purpose of said drain was to "restore" Vitiate to his prior strength. While he may have gained some small amount of power from the ordeal, nothing suggests he added much to his pool. Any theories that he grew substantially are just that -- theories. The actual evidence we have points to the gap being fairly small.

Azronger wrote:

PeraltaEagle45 wrote:Relatively small. The Ziost drain, contrary to what others are saying above, was done while vastly weakened. The main purpose of said drain was to "restore" Vitiate to his prior strength. While he may have gained some small amount of power from the ordeal, nothing suggests he added much to his pool. Any theories that he grew substantially are just that -- theories. The actual evidence we have points to the gap being fairly small.

What is this evidence of it being small?

BreakofDawn wrote:

Azronger wrote:

PeraltaEagle45 wrote:Relatively small. The Ziost drain, contrary to what others are saying above, was done while vastly weakened. The main purpose of said drain was to "restore" Vitiate to his prior strength. While he may have gained some small amount of power from the ordeal, nothing suggests he added much to his pool. Any theories that he grew substantially are just that -- theories. The actual evidence we have points to the gap being fairly small.

What is this evidence of it being small?

There isn't any. It's pure speculation contradicted by Vitiate's stages during the expansion (tagging you in this so I can answer yours at the same time, @PeraltaEagle45):

Step 1: Start controlling people to replenish his diminished strength. Kovach explains it best: "Using the outpost's resources, our former Emperor can massacre the defenceless to fuel him. The more powerful he becomes, the more people he can control."

Step 2: Increase the scale of the possessions, enabling him to restore his former strength to its full potential. Lana also supports the idea that his power was growing considerably before even draining the planet in her description of the monoliths: "They're made from Sith alchemy. A sign of Vitiate's growing power. Extremely strong, next to impossible to kill." The possessions also began in New Adasta before spreading across the entire planet, indicating Vitiate had already started nearing full strength once again.

Step 3: Upon regaining his full strength, he completely drains the planet to augment his power further. If Vitiate could have, he would have drained the planet the moment he arrived there. However, he had to replenish much of his strength by having his victims kill each other before even thinking of draining the planet.

BreakofDawn wrote:@Azronger It's not, but he'd have to be operating at a level of power necessary to not only control people across an entire planet, but also ultimately drain the planet. He'd have to be operating at a level fairly close to his peak, if not a bit below.