Of course it's all a matter of perspective. From Morek's point of view, HD broke away from Morek in the middle of the war, immediately made friends with Luria, and offered to make their realm the refugee realm that Luria was trying to make from Morek land. They then declared wars that very closely aligned them with Luria's politics. The rulers ancient history with Luria was irrelevant, because everyone in morek was new, and none of us knew or cared about it. HD being a Lurian puppet state was more in line with what we needed them to be. And it also made sense, when seen from our angle.
As for Antiqualia, that was even more of a slam dunk. A break away realm that immediately selected a Lurian as their ruler, aligned their politics with Luria, tried their best to keep the northern realms at war, and hosted a guild that the Lurian ambassador was trying to get everyone to join. And, as always, puppet status suited Morek's political needs.
It doesn't matter if the accusations are true or not. The accusations will continue to be made ic, so long as they are not blatantly obviously wrong, because they are politically expedient, and because they make sense to those who are making the claims.
You realize part of the reason people protested in Morek was because some of the Morekians didn't give two !@#$s about giving land we couldn't use anyways to the refugees in Luria, right? Our characters felt that Morek Empire was a bloated realm greedily holding onto lands it didn't have lords for, and nobles such as Helm were too unwilling to give up the lands in order to gain a more secure control over a smaller number of regions.
As for your first point Ossan, a temporary puppet is still a puppet, and not in control of its destiny.
