((What four things are you thinking of that would create a whole ecosystem, and how many of them generate Belief?))
((Grass, deer, wolves, worms. Not necessarily a good ecosystem, but presumably self-sustaining, no?
((Not really. To pick the most obvious issue, a lack of decomposers. Worms can only do so much, unless we assume that by "worms" you mean "all the worm species that could be needed" rather than "all species of worms needed to fill the roles of breaking down organisms".))
((I don't see why the worms couldn't be generalists, or why you'd need a separate kind for every season and soil depth. Certainly not just to keep your tribe from starving to death assuming they're good hunters, at least.
But sure, let's see a list of every creature or role you think is necessary to have a functioning ecosystem.))
((Because that's boring. Making everything that isn't a humanoid or someone's special poison bird some sort of generic, nondescript tree or assumed carnivore food source doesn't result in a very interesting or immersive world, and it opens up issues with what exactly is out there. Can poison frogs be assumed in a rainforest? Bison on plains? Lions on savannas? Messenger-worthy birds in forests?
((Notice that I didn't request any animals larger than a rat. So, that would disallow bison and lions. As for poison dart frogs and "messenger-worthy" birds (seeing that just about any bird could do with a short enough distance and a small enough message), why not?))
((Because now people are handwaving paralyzing venoms and assassin beetle swarms in, and the ecosystem still doesn't have any trees or large herbivores anyway. What's the point? If you want or need it, create it.))
If the whole focus of the game was on making mythical beasts and leading your human empires against each other, I could see handwaving everything that wasn't magical or wearing armor. Since the focus is to create an entire world, and indeed, possibly more than one world, it doesn't make any sense to just shrug off massive portions of it just because everyone wants to go for the juicy stuff first.))
((Rats are massive? Guppies are massive? Fungi are massive? Bugs are massive? Grass is massive? Bacteria are massive? All I'm basically asking that all be basic stuff needed to make regions work be assumed to exist and not require time, power, and effort to exist, because it's kinda silly to make a "forest" or "grassland" region if you need to make the trees, grass, and all the organisms needed to let them survive separately from the region itself.))
((You're complaining about them and insisting they're absolutely vital, so apparently so.
All you're asking for is me to handwave everything you don't personally find interesting yet. What kind of grass or trees or vermin or diseases a place has can have a huge impact on all that interesting stuff that comes later.
It's not silly to make a grassland area, because you can make the conditions favor grasses; more importantly, it's not silly to make separate, discrete regions with qualities you desire. What is silly is trying to make Schrodinger's Grasslands that have no concrete features beyond being grasslands,
then trying to add interesting things to your generic quantum plains.))
((Really, what's so interesting about making rats, bacteria, and plants just so the world can actually survive? You want to know another reason no one's making these vital aspects of the ecosystem? They've only got a limited time in-game, and want to make something interesting. These little basic building blocks needed for a functioning ecosystem eat into the players' limited resources and don't benefit them.))
((Plenty of people have made or tried to make interesting plants already, so I'd say the answer is the same as everything else- you're creating something. If you don't find creating your own tribe just to have worshipers interesting, that aspect is going to be boring for you, sorry. If you're that set on it, figure out a way around it; otherwise, just create dung beetles or elves or a desert and get it over with.
If you'd like to produce a list of things it's interesting, fun, and beneficial to create, feel free to share that also.
We've been over this already. If you want to immediately make a tribe on someone else's land and then watch them starve to death, be my guest. If you don't find any interest in anything that's not humanoid, my apologies, this will not be a very fun game for you for a few turns at least. If you want to get some free Belief and make future mortals more likely to worship you while laying the foundations for the mortals you really want, there's a fairly obvious and easy way to do that.
Admittedly, the minor gods are in a worse situation with this, because they don't have enough actions to do any framework type stuff. That doesn't mean being the creator of the only grain source on the planet or the most beautiful flowers in the world are wastes of time, it just means they have to be very strategic whether they care about Belief or not.))