are they effects or are they outside of the realm of effects for some reason

Also while I am asking is giving something like strife a Persistent Effects

dose the earth stance stop all opportunities other than his own from targeting them

Strife is not a persistent effect.

Earth Stance prevents opportunity triggered effects such as Striking as Fire's till next turn increased critical severity and Striking as Water's till next turn reduced physical resistance.

You can still inflict Strife on someone in Earth Stance by spending opportunities while making a Fire, Earth, Air or Void roll.

I had been wondering the same, and someone rightfully pointed out that “persistent effects” are defined on p.108 - and should be limited to that.

What - in my understanding - Earth Stance does, and does not do:

Quote

When other characters make Attack action checks and Scheme action checks that target you, they cannot spend * to inflict critical strikes, conditions, or persistent effects on you.

1. Obviously it only applies in a conflict scene, because that's the only time you're in a 'stance'.
2. It does not apply to anything resulting from the success/failure effect of a check. For example:
   • Flowing Water Strike's "If you succeed, the target suffers the Bleeding condition" does not require you to spend * to trigger, it happens automatically as a result of succeeding, so bypasses Earth Stance.
   • Open Hand Style's "One target of your action per * spent this way must switch to a different stance of your choice and suffers the Immobilized condition" is as a result of spending *, so you cannot choose a target in Earth Stance to affect.
3. It only applies to Critical Strikes, Conditions and Persistent Effects
   • Critical Strikes are as defined on page 168 (e.g. 'Close Call' causing armour damage)
   • Conditions are as defined on page 170 (e.g. 'Bleeding'), and whilst most commonly delivered by a Critical Strike, can be delivered directly by some techniques.
   • Persistent Effects are as defined, as @Franwax notes, on page 108, and are any opportunity effects (not success effects) written as 'this effect persists until', e.g. Striking As Fire/Striking As Water: "This effect persists until the end of your next turn", which aren't already disallowed by being conditions.

Actually on the Open Hand Style, I think you could spend the opportunity on the target to make him change stance, since stance changing is neither a critical strike, nor a persistent effect, nor a condition. You could not inflict the immobilized condition... except that the guy just had to change stance! Given the order in which the effects unfold, I’d say it’s fair game.

This had me open another thread in the Rules Questions to try and find out which uses of opportunities worked vs an Earth stance target...