Well that escalated quickly.... Why are we speaking about the Erstes/ Elysium conflict here? Furthermore, there's a lot of OOC bitterness I think is unwarranted.
You have to understand the Imperium's position. We had a vassal (Octavius Tarquinian) that basically took control of a bunch of Empire-owned estates and then flipped them under Ryne's allegiance with the most flimsy excuse ever. What he did amounted to theft and treachery. He stole... our territory. You can't expect the Empire to just sit there and take that. We sent word to Ryne requesting that we be allowed to retrieve our estates and take care of the traitor without their or their allies interference. Instead, Ryne dug in its heals, defended the person who betrayed us, claimed all those estates as their own, and then you joined in on their side.
And by the way, that's fine. This game is about conflict and politics, so it's great that this has caused some controversy in-character, even if the timing is absolutely abysmal so far for us. It's perfectly okay for nobility to seize opportunities and take advantage of situations like this. But don't sit there and try to play the victim out-of-character or attack the player behind the Empress in some forum thread (of which has nothing to do with the current conflict so I can't help but think you're FISHING for an excuse to troll), because she was VERY close to quitting due to all this OOC mud-slinging. What Ryne did by protecting a known traitor and taking all of those estates was a much bigger slap in the face to the Empire than any insult you 'suffered' and was bound to cause things to spiral out of control diplomatically. Elysium taking their side wasn't going to put you in EI favor and its naive for you to pretend that it would when you're basically defending an invader.
Imagine this situation in reverse. Would you be okay with the idea of one of your vassals defecting a large portion of estates to Ryne and then when you try to petition them so you can deal with the vassal and take those regions back without external interference, you get denied, threatened, and insulted? You then attempt to retake said estates and wind up with all of Ryne's allies (lets say EI is one for example purposes) suddenly declaring war on you? No, of course you wouldn't be fine with that.
On a related note, let me just say-- well played Ryne and Elysium. You screwed us in the EI but it was a damned awesome move and very cleverly played out. I'll be the first to congratulate you for playing your card, or 'the game' if we want to get Ice and Fire-like, so well. I don't understand why you feel the need to take this personally or try to attack someone OOC but in-game it was a masterfully conducted political move and I admire you for playing it the way you did. Congratulations to Octavius too! What you did took some massive balls and it payed off in dividends for you. My Imperial character will want to place your head on a pike if he ever gets the chance but excellent move, sir. THIS is what I joined Might and Fealty for.