system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] How was Darth Nihilus force drain able to crumble people and even buildings to dust?

Had the impression from the game that he simply fed on life energies, but the comic about the devastation of Katarr showed everying crumbling to dust when he began to drain the world.

Update: Have also another question, how were Meetra Surik and their companions able to defend themselves against the drain, as the Force was actually the thing that Nihilus was absorbing. The most likely reason is simply plot armor :-) But does anyone have a good in-universe explanation?
gpt
It's likely has something to do with sheer scope of the wound in the Force that Nihilus internalizes. There's no real answer other than "such is his power", but we may speculate that it might affect matter as sort of ranged mass shatterpoint power, just sapping the internal durability and integrity of matter, reducing everything to ash.