Suppose I have Twelve Gates in my territory and I make a RA with a royal human (non-meek) whom my opponent blocks with Athaliah, Usurper Queen. Based on the following quote from the REG, I would assume that when Athaliath's discard ability triggers, my hero is still in the field of battle and thus not under the protection of Twelve Gates:
“After battle” means “At the end of battle”. “Following your rescue attempt” means “At the end of your rescue attempt”.
Along a similar line of thought, suppose my opponent blocked with a pale green evil character instead and played Incurable. In this scenario, since the hero is being withdrawn before the paralysis occurs, wouldn't Twelve Gates then be able to protect my hero from the paralysis?