Ability and Effect Lifecycle Boundaries

Abilities model grants, activation attempts, activation decisions, active activation state, commitment, ending, cancellation, rollback, and revocation.

Effects model application, execution, active instances, advancement, removal, and expiration.

The boundary between them is caller-owned. In the RPG example, ability commitment chooses which effects to apply. Slash commits into an instant damage effect. Quickened Strikes commits into a duration attack-speed buff and a cooldown. Fortify commits into a duration max-health buff.

This separation keeps the ability lifecycle from assuming that every ability is a spell, attack, card, command, or animation. It also keeps the effect pipeline from assuming that every effect was caused by an ability.