Why is it called the Seven Kingdoms if there are nine regions?

The name is a leftover from the eve of Aegon’s Conquest, when Westeros south of the Wall was held by seven sovereigns. Aegon took only six of them; Dorne stayed independent for nearly two more centuries and joined by marriage in 187 AC. The realm that came out of the Conquest is divided into nine regions — the north, the Vale of Arryn, the Iron Islands, the riverlands, the westerlands, the crownlands, the Reach, the stormlands and Dorne — but the older name stuck.

What is a sigil, and how does it differ from a coat of arms?

A sigil is the heraldic device of a Westerosi house — the direwolf of House Stark, the merman of House Manderly — and it works much as a coat of arms does in Europe. The difference is one of law rather than picture: the arms belong to the family, as in Germany or Italy, so every trueborn member may bear them, where English practice grants arms to one person at a time.

Can bastards bear their father’s arms in Westeros?

Sometimes, and with a difference added. Bastards may use their father’s arms marked with a distinction — most often the colours reversed — which is close to the marks of cadency real heralds used to set younger sons and illegitimate lines apart.

Westeros Sigil

House Blackwood of Raventree Hall

An ancient First Men house of the Riverlands, seated at Raventree Hall — a castle named for the great dead weirwood at its centre. Their sigil is a flock of ravens on a scarlet field.

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House Blackwood of Raventree Hall