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Back when I was new to PK, I had it explained to me something like this, and it made sense to me then.
Imagine the following scenario: You are part of an Order and someone has defiled one of your deity's shrines/someone attacks you in some way for some reason. That means you have PK cause on said someone. You decide to go after said someone, and it turns out that they have a friend who defends them.

If you kill both the offender and their friend, it does -not- mean that you get to go back and kill the friend again later, because you already dealt with that during the initial clash. Neither does the offender's friend get to PK you later, because they made the choice to involve themselves in a fight that was not their own. The offender does not get PK cause on you for going after them after they have defiled. They were the aggressors, after all. If they decide to come PK you for PKing them, they start a new conflict (back to square one).

If you end up dying at the hands of the offender and their friend, your cause against the offender remains (meaning you are free to -die- as many times as you like to try to avenge the slight against you/your chosen deity, but you can only kill the offender once for that reason), and you also have cause on the friend, who attacked you despite it not being their fight (because they made the choice to open themselves up to PK when defending).

Again, you can go die to that friend however many times you like to try to avenge your death, but you can only kill them once for killing you. You can even bring friends to kill either of them, but if you do, the same thing applies to your friends as did the first offender's friend (meaning, they choose to open themselves up to PK for joining in your fight).

I think the fundamental problem here is there actually 3 different levels of things people can do:
1) Things that are entirely legal and you can't get revenge for later; e.g. killing someone in an open PK area like Vortex or Iernian Fracture or in a lesser
2) Things that are entirely illegal and will get you punished by the admins; e.g. killing someone then rezzing them so you can kill them over and over
3) Things that are in between where you can justify it for X reason but will give cause so people can get revenge on you later.

Most things fall under the third, and that is why a lot of the fights in recent weeks have broken out into full tether vs tether fights, because we all have a million different reasons we could use to justify killing people from the other side - all it means is we're potentially giving them cause to go after us later. Unless it's specifically made to be against the rules (i.e. #2 in the options above) - like with holy wars - it's eventually just going to go back to the tether vs tether fights that fall under #3.

TLDR: If they use getting killed after involving themselves in a fight that was not their own as a reason to PK you, that's when you involve Admin, because that's not a valid reason at all. Simply jumping into a fight that is not their own is still their choice, and they have to face the consequences of it.

I don't think you're getting the point of the question. Your scenario is something that already happens all the time. According to these new rules, Whirran is not allowed to interfere, as he is not of Tanixalthas' order or congregation. Yet he does so anyway, hence breaking the rules. Are you now forced to fight an unfair 2v1, or are you allowed to call someone to help you to make things fair, hence having your friend break the rules too? Are these new rules admin-enforced like holy wars or player-enforced? Is it up to you to just suck it up and go claim cause on Whirran later or can you issue him and call it a day because we all know he should not be getting involved and that is blatant rule-breaking?

Essentially - is admin punishment going to be severe and swift enough to deter people from turning fights into tether vs tether instead of order vs order, or is it still largely player-enforced and we have to continue going in circles figuring out who has cause on who to duke it out later?

ETA - After some discussion, I think further clarification is required, so I'm just going to ask it this way: Is it permissible to defend someone who's getting attacked by people of the order they defiled, for having an aura of defilement? We're not allowed to bring attackers from outside the order, but the person with defilement aura is not disallowed from having all the defenders they want.

1/16/2022 at 3:08
Ictinus, the Architect
Everyone
Defilement Aura


As a consequence of this, defilement aura now only confers PK cause on the order or congregation whose shrines you have defiled. It is no longer a carte blanche open PK status to everyone in the game.

Enjoy!

Penned by my hand on Gosday, the 16th of Ios, in the year 500 MA.

Just by looking at this sentence makes me feel as though what I wrote is still pertinent. If someone who is -not- part of the Order/congregation, then they are to be seen as aggressors starting a new conflict. If they die during the initial clash, they have already died and so does the PK cause against them. If they manage to kill you, you have a right to avenge that death (once) in a later setting. If they keep coming after you for killing them when they got involved, then I suppose they need to be informed of the consequences of getting involved in a fight not theirs, because they cannot use that as a reason for PK. If they don't listen, that's when you involve Admin.

So, as an example, if I defile Tanixalthas' shrine and Toz finds out it was me, he can PK me. He brings Whirran along (because I am so mighty and powerful that even Toz can't kill me on his own), because Whirran secretly loves Dragonmom, even though he is in Bamathis' Order. Somehow, likely due to extreme lag on their side, I miraculously escape! This means that I have PK on Whirran, because the bastard attacked me for nor justifiable reason (he did not have PK cause as per the quote above). I don't really have PK cause to kill Toz, though, since I was a bad person to begin with by defiling the shrine of his Dragon.

If I somehow manage to kill both Toz and Whirran (because their game froze, their systems crashed and I stumbled on a good day), Toz is free to come after me again, because he still has PK cause on me. Whirran does not, so he can't unless he wants to give me another reason to kill him and possibly bring it to an Issue for being PKd for no cause more than once. Neither can I go after Whirran again later, because I already bested him.

TLDR: If they use getting killed after involving themselves in a fight that was not their own as a reason to PK you, that's when you involve Admin, because that's not a valid reason at all. Simply jumping into a fight that is not their own is still their choice, and they have to face the consequences of it.