Tien Chi is facing Ermor. Yes, the battle was epic, and despise good mages and priests siding with Tien Chi, the final outcome was, I think, vastly favorable to Ermor. Apostacy is such a great national spell for Ermor that I can not praise it enough, it insta kill enemy sacreds. And that include priestly mages. Solar Rays did quite a lot of damage to Ermor sacred Vestals, though, so it wasn't a free victory.
Right now in that side of the world war, Ermor has recuperated bassically all their initial territory, but 2 provinces (one of them with a castle). Ermor is recruiting more than he is losing, and seems holding well, although still at numeric disventage when you add up both Tien Chi and Jotun troops. The SC chasis of Jotun Good is quite impressive, and it won't be really easy to face them, but at the very least, Ermor has survived the initial "shock and awe" phase of surprise war, so probably would be a long war.
On your question about Marignon: I bet, like LA Ulm and other Resource Heavy nations, that Knights of Chalice aren't easy to build up. Probably he can recruit 1, maybe 2 in the first few turns. 1 soldier, no matter how good (with maybe the exception of Niefelheim sacreds), can't take province on their own. So Marignon probably was struggling to beat the indies around their capitol slowly. Once he cleared his capitol and got full resources, there's no doubt W9 Knights of the Chalice are a force to reckon. Lots of armies fold to them like there's no hope. Tien Ch'i was wise to surrender 3 provinces to them: armies of composite bows barely scratch them before they annhilate the entire army. Probably Marignon did accept the deal from Tien Ch'i becouse of you. Facing 2 opponents is not fun, and he sealed one of the fronts before facing you with his entire army. Without you in the equation, there is no reason for Marignon to seal a pact with Tien Ch'i for 3 provinces, becouse he could just take those 3 provinces, and everyone after that, before Tien Ch'i could get a proper counter from magic. With you facing him too, his diplomatic movement makes much more sense. You are a big country (biggest right now), so he need to focus all his attention on you, and the best way to do so is with a solid friend in his other side.
PS: Assasinating a giant sized fully armored Jotun Herse with lowly cheap skeletons is sooo dirty and fun
