Origin of 'canni' mechanic?
 

A lot of the classes, races, and class features in EQ came from more-or-less obvious precursors in myth, literature or tabletop games. I've been wondering, though, about the 'cannibalism' mechanic on shamans...does anyone have any information about where that idea came from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagell...cs_and_Mystics

Duh.

Sometimes developers make up game mechanics to match the story, and sometimes they make up story to match game mechanics. I'd guess that the cannabalise mechanic of "let's let Shaman turn their life in to mana" came first, and then they looked around for something vaguely Shamanic to call it (and found "cannabalize").

The terms 'cannibalism' or 'shaman' do not even appear in that wiki page, but thanks for trying.

I've always thought it was poorly named... it's more of a sacrifice of vitality in exchange for spiritual favor. That's not a novel concept...

Move to make un-classic change in renaming "Cannibalize" spells to "Flesh to Spirit"

From that link:

Because practices such as starvation, sleep denial and flagellation are known to induce altered states, flagellation may be used by religious ecstatics and mystics as part of ritualistic practices or ceremonies to achieve unusual states of mind

Going on the basis that the spell canni is "starving" yourself of health to regen mana. the effect and the word cannibalism arent really tied together. Its moreso your eatting yourself away"Cannibalizing"(losing health) to gain enlightenment (mana).

Along the lines of Thulack's description I can see the act of inflicting damage to ones self in exchange for enhanced ability, in this case with mana, as related to cani.

In many mythos and narratives something is gained through sacrifice. Take the biblical story of Adam and Eve or any one of the many stories throughout history and fantasy in which blood is used as a reagent for a spell.

In India, Aghori Sadhus which are similar to shamans eat dead bodies from the funeral pyres. They are a wandering monk who embraces the darker side of life to go beyond duality.

Sure, I get that too, the general idea. But I specifically was wondering if there were any game or popular literature precedents to the idea of self-cannibalism and shamans as a game class.

For instance, D&D apparently has shamans, but no mention of any cannibalistic tendencies.

EQ was based largely on DikuMUD. I'd suggest checking into gameplay of that particular thing to see if it had a cannibalize mechanism.