Dominion of Rin
Until 620, the Dominion of Rin was an unremarkable minor polity in western Elthos, along the southern coast. Then Queen Adize Azenya, only recently ascended to the throne, began to drastically expand the royal guard, to the point that it constituted a small army in its own right, though observers noted that the exchequer of Rin could not possibly hope to bear the burden of maintaining such a force in the long term. This was followed by the sudden and vicious invasion of a number of independent duchies between 623 and 627, the pace of the conquest accelerating each time as Rin's soldiers stripped places of their wealth and Adize recruited more and more mercenaries or avaricious knights to her cause. In 628, she launched an invasion of the far larger but disunified Realm of Zeth, which crumbled before her invading armies.
Within the Imperial Court, there was much talk of intervention, but shoddy relations between the Empire and the Realm of Intis to its west, in the wake of the taking of the Duchy of Greenwood by House Salfeld and its allies, meant that the Empire simply had no feasible way to move an army to face Rin. Other larger powers on Elthos declined to intervene either. In the Kingdom of Wend, the king is preoccupied with centralising his own power. The Realm of Westelth, mighty though it is, rarely acts as one, with its many houses often preoccupied with courtly intrigue that might almost eclipse that of the empire, and with their endless tournaments; when it does act beyond its borders, it is apparently due to a sign sent from the deity worshipped by Westelthian nobility, the Prince, who clearly sent no sign or portent relating to Rin.
Rin completed its conquest of Zeth in early 630, then through the course of 631, subjugated several more independent duchies and counties. Adize's agents have stripped all the fresh conquests of wealth and she has been open about calling more mercenaries to her banner. Disquieted reports indicate that she is even taking ogres and hobgoblins from the arid steppes of the Southlands, just across the Sea Between, and dragonspawn from the Scorchlands.
It is not clear where Adize will next turn. It is clear that the more she conquers, the faster she can conquer. Rumour holds that the Lightbearer, the pontiff of the Church of Siegfried's Light and ruler of the Divine Assembly, is likely to call for an armed pilgrimage to scour Rin of all evil, though success in such an undertaking seems improbable - the Divine Assembly is a small realm. Wend and Westelth are as yet making no moves against Rin, not that anyone expects Westelth to stir from its centuries of isolation. The king of Intis has instructed his vassals to prepare for war, but by now, Rin's strength dwarfs that of Intis.
As for the Empire? The matter remains a major talking point in the Imperial Court.