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An Oration of the Renegade Scholar Acreus, on the subject of Ducal influence over the scholarly field.
(As provided to initiates of the scholarly True Eye Society)

"Brothers and Sisters, while we are united in our being the outcasts of Lullubites Scholarly establishment, we are in common agreement. Our distaste at the existing system in which Lullubite scholarship, and our continued distrust of those lured by ducal subsidisation
However, as we are constantly drawing into our fold, scholarly men and women by the day. People whom concur with our assessments of the moral decay of those institutions, as they are assailed by ducal intrusions. We must on occasion provide concrete examples of in what manner our capabilities as scholars are impeded. In your hands now, is the recollection by one of our founding members. The august scholar Acreus. On how he came to the conclusion, that the intervention of the dukes into the field of scholarship was malicious and self-serving. Allowing us to see the thought process that gravitated him towards this conclusion, as he contemplated a subject that was dear to his heart and central in his scholarly interests.
The history of Lullubum and it’s molestation at the hands of the Grand Dukes and the palatial scholars that they’ve subjugated to their despotic agenda."

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The difficulty in divining the history of the Grand Duchy isn’t through lack of sources, but through the contradiction that those sources have to physical evidence and popular memories of events. Where despite common recurring characters, locations and situations, with physical evidence (Coins, scraps of paper and physical ruins of “mythical” locations) these are actively dismissed wholesale and even purposefully obscured, throughout subsidised Lullubite scholarly sources.
The reasoning behind this scholarly aversion, at least according to my own hypothesising, are the subjects of these common memories. The obscure and seemingly unorthodox founding of the Lullubite state.

One of the primary characters in these historical recollections, is that of a remnant Kostuan official, usually attributed as having held either military or political command over the region under the Kostuan Empire, is everpresent.
Being invariably characterised as cruel, vindictive and dangerously pragmatic. Attributed sometimes to being the initial ruler of a united Lullabite state, employing tactics of terror, fear and military might as a means of ensuring the Lullubite peoples submission to him.
One of the primary memories, a memory that is more widespread and shared amongst nearly all Lullubites, and attested to through a number of place names (Such as Massacre Hill, The Wretches Redoubt, and Tomb of the Chieftains). Tells of how this military despot was able to imprison and massacre a group of rulers of the Lullubites, after having arranged to meet them under the pretences of signing a defence treaty against the “Depthbeasts” undoubtably the initial demonic incursion from the Black Fault.

How this relates to another common memory, one that is irrefutable, and even attested to in the official histories of Ducal Subsidised Libraries. Is The Great Revolt, happening at some point soon after or during the Black Fault’s creation, is attested to as being an uprising of the Lullubite populace against the Kostuan military presence. The sheer convolution everpresent in these legends, different figures, sharing the same roles, at times leading the same battles and being attributed to the same actions, atop ruins from the age being rife with evidence of conflicts, cooperation and even military siege between Kostuan and Lullubite forces. Ensures that even from what I can discern of the historical record we are afforded through our own research, I cannot concretely assert who actually came out on top of the revolt.
This revolt, at least in my opinion, is from where the averseness of scholarly sources on covering this era of Lullubite history, probably arises. As I said, it’s uncertain even without the constraints of ducal influence, on asserting who specifically came out of the revolt on top, and who specifically participated in the revolt.
In some tellings, the revolt resulted in the rise of the Siranet dynasty. Their first concretely attested to ancestor, who is described in many genealogical records of both the mainline ducal Siranets and a number of influential offshoot families, as having through “unsurpassable merit”, founded the contemporary state of Lullubum through lawmaking, philosophising and mediation, settling the Lullubites onto individual homesteads and funding and propagating the earliest iterations of the Knightly Guilds.

Denying the Siranets any involvement in the revolt would be foolish and infantile. To deny this history, even if it would have to be directly dictated from the mouths of the Grand Dukes, would be a denial of reality. The Duke’s control over our society, our near hypocritical acceptance of their rule, and the autocratic situation they have asserted, must have been brought about through an event of incredible political magnitude, and I don’t doubt the Great Revolt would have to be that event. Either asserting their autocratic authority, or establishing a scenario which they exploited to seize it.
Yes, I said assert, as it is in the reality of their existence that we might find some of the truth of the pastThe title of Grand Duke, itself almost certainly derived from the same title present within the Kostuan Empire, and still employed within the Kostuan successor state, the Kingdom of Rolais. Could hint at a hidden nature to our rulers. At best, an effort to emulate the Empire, early, and before our cultural hatred of their Imperial legacy fermented. At worst, a sign that the Great Revolt ultimately, was crushed. And that the forementioned Kostuan military commander, triumphed. Establishing a lineage that, while nativized with time, would still be a heretical affront to everything modern Lullubite culture stood for. Whatever the reality, it is one that the Siranet’s have obscured generationally. Be it out of embarrassment, of an early effort to emulate our former overlords. Or out of fear, that they might be found out, banished to the winds of time, as empire they, in a sense might still represent, ultimately was.

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"Acreus’ revelation, of just how integral this obscuring of our history might be, not only to the legitimisation of the Grand Dukes, but to the justifications behind our contemporary autocratic government. Is perfect for justifying our movement. Showing just how integral control over our intellectual environment has been for the continuation of the Siranet dynasty, and just how integral we, those who refute their control, are.
Remember this quote Initiates, as these words are often attributed to any one of the early Grand Dukes, or important figures adjacent to their courts. “He who controls the past, controls the present.” It's almost incriminating, isn't it. Now, let us begin the hazings..."