So, going by the terrains vs. Ring of Water post; does this mean that if you play any card that only has delayed effects, they do not count for Rings since that can't have been considered successful until well after the requirements for the Rings?
Delayed effects vs. Rings
A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.
does this mean that if you play any card that only has delayed effects, they do not count for Rings[?]
No this is not what it means. When you try to put a Ring into play, any relevant action - Kiho or Spell for Air, non-Kiho Strategy for the Void, Battle for Water - with any delayed effect (or indefinite conditional effect) that was activated during the resolution of this action, does count because its "effects produced one or more actual changes in the game state" (see Successful): whenever its trigger is met, the effect will apply, so the game state has changed.