is bran technically a king?

[thelittledragonthatcould]

Technically, since his brother was declared KITN by the Northerners and they don't recognise the Boltons' authority, what the IT says doesn't matter since they declared their independence so the Boltons' position is just a piece of paper the North is pissing on.

Not quite true.

• House Cerwyn of Cerwyn.
• House Dustin of Barrowton.
• House Hornwood of Hornwood
• House Karstark of Karhold.
• House Locke of Oldcastle.
• House Manderly of White Harbor.
• House Ryswell of the Rills.
• House Stout of Goldgrass.
• House Umber

Have all sworn fealty to the Boltons. Some may not like it, but then again I doubt every House that swore fealty to the Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons etc. liked it.

[TimJames]

Not really; the kingdom of The North was dissolved with the Fall of Riverrun. Arguably it was defunct ever since the Red Wedding Massacre.

Plus, Bran was never formally coronated, as siblings who are presumed to be dead are not counted in the inheritance line.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Mormont#A_Dance_with_Dragons

As stated in the link above, after Stannis takes Deepwood Motte and restores it to House Glover, House Mormont swears fealty to Stannis.

You should go for the primary source. The wiki is wrong here, as it often is. Apart from Aly Mormont having no authority to do that (Maege is the Lady of Bear Island), she never swore fealty. Accompagny Stannis, acknowledge him as the supreme commander of their alliance? Yes. But not swearing fealty.

Not quite true.

• House Cerwyn of Cerwyn.
• House Dustin of Barrowton.
• House Hornwood of Hornwood
• House Karstark of Karhold.
• House Locke of Oldcastle.
• House Manderly of White Harbor.
• House Ryswell of the Rills.
• House Stout of Goldgrass.
• House Umber

Have all sworn fealty to the Boltons. Some may not like it, but then again I doubt every House that swore fealty to the Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons etc. liked it.

House Hornwood's heir (whoever that is going to be in the end) didn't swear fealty. Neither did Lord Harrion Karstark, or if he's dead Lady Alys Karstark. Nor Lord Jon Umber.

[SacredOrderOfGreenMen]

Sure, but remember what George likes to say about Aragorn. We were told at the end that he went on to be a good and wise king. But we don't hear anything of his trade or tax policy.

GRRM's comment about Aragorn doesn't in any way defunct Bran's status as the heir, and I'm not sure what you're trying to say. The main crux of Bran's connections to the Blessed and Arthur is that Winterfell is a literal stone tree, around the heart tree and all weirwoods in the forest that Winterfell was built on top of, and just as ravens are kept in the Tower of London in honor of those mythic kings, hence "there must always be a Stark in Winterfell" (they also supplied magic and knowledge).

“It was the Singers who taught the First Men to send messages by raven… but in those days, the birds would speak the words. The trees remember, but men forget, and so now they write the messages on parchment and tie them round the feet of birds who have never shared their skin.”

Only two individuals are seen with the ability to skinchange ravens and both of them are greenseers. Bran is the most gifted skinchanger we know of, and he tries twice with ravens that have been skingchanged before, which makes it easier, and still failed:

A horse that has known one rider will accept another. Young or old, these birds have all been ridden. Choose one now, and fly.”

When GRRM said of Tolkien, whom he admires, "Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine?" -GRRM also implicitly asked the question: How can human beings, who are flawed and mortal, make for perfect monarchs, as the Fisher King is meant to be? Bran’s story, intertwined with that of his ancestor Brandon the Builder, is his answer to that question. From the very beginning, the Starks were empowered by the Old Gods. Westerosi legend has it that The Builder had the help of giants, and used the magic of the Children of the Forest to build the Wall. When Catelyn looks into the eyes of Winterfell’s heart tree, she thinks that they are “older than Winterfell itself. They had seen Brandon the Builder set the first stone, if the tales were true; watched the castles granite walls rise around them.“ (Catelyn, ACOK)

(TWOIAF alludes to this that Winterfell may have been a series of ringforts, i.e. in a circular formation, like a weirwood grove commonly found in the woods. The reason that Winterfell's ground is not level is because those weirwoods's roots were left in the ground, in deference to the Pact.)

The Stark's Holy Grail is the heart tree, but in the form of a sacred tree like the kind worshiped by the Blessed, who defeated an army of undead with the help of his half-brother. Like Bran, he was wounded and his disembodied head was brought back to his realm where he continued to speak and rule. He promised that as long as his body was kept there, the realm would be safe. ("The must always be a Stark in Winterfell)

Bran is the only character on page to be called "The Stark in Winterfell" and to deal with the mundane matters of ruling a castle, the fact that he is crippled and so isn't the warrior that Aragorn was contributes to this:

Why must he waste his time listening to old men speak of things he only half understood? Because you’re broken, a voice reminded him. A lord on his cushioned chair might be crippled, but not a knight on his destier. Besides, it was his duty. -(Bran, ACOK)

Jojen gazed up at him with his dark green eyes. “There’s nothing here to hurt us,Your Grace.”-(Bran, ASOS)

“You are a prince, remember?”-Jojen to Bran, ASOS

“He’s our prince.”-Meera to Samwell Tarly, ASOS

“By night all cloaks are black, Your Grace.”-(Jojen to Bran, ASOS)

I’m the Prince. I’m the Stark in Winterfell.”

“You are the Stark in Winterfell, and Robb’s heir. You must look princely.” Together they garbed him as befit a lord.

He was the Stark in Winterfell, his father’s son and his brother’s heir, and almost a man grown.

“You are the Stark in the Winterfell, and Robb’s heir.” -(Bran, ACOK)

“You are our prince as well, our lord’s son, and our king’s true heir.” -Meera Reed to Bran, ASOS

Sansa has never ruled anything; she gave fetching orders to servants in the Eyrie, that's it. Her story is a great one, (one of my favorites, in fact), but it's not the story of a ruler, and until I see an analysis otherwise, I'll hold to that position.

Besides, there's a route out of the Cave, Gorne's Way:

“Men should not go wandering in this place,” Leaf warned them. “The river you hear is swift and black, and flows down and down to a sunless sea. And there are passages that go even deeper, bottomless pits and sudden shafts, forgotten ways that lead to the very center of the earth. Even my people have not explored them all, and we have lived here for a thousand thousand of your man-years.”-Leaf, ADWD.

There are hundreds o’ caves in these hills and down deep they all connect. There’s even a way under your Wall. Gorne’s Way.”

“Gorne,” said Jon, “Gorne was King-beyond-the-Wall.”

“Aye,” said, Ygritte, “Together with his brother Gendel, three thousand years ago. They led o’ host of free folk through the caves…”

“Gendel did not die. He cut his way free, through the crows and led his people back north with the wolves howling at their heels. Only Gendel not know the Caves, as Gorne had, and took a wrong turn….Deeper and deeper he went, and when he tried t’ turn back the ways that seemed familiar ended in stone rather than sky…Gendel’s folk were never seen again.”-Jon, ASOS

And the TWOIAF:

It brings to mind a transcription of a wildling song in Maester Herryk’s History of the Kings-Beyond-the-Wall, regarding the brothers Gendel and Gorne. They were called upon to mediate a dispute between a clan of children and a family of giants over the possession of a cavern. Gendel and Gorne, it is said, ultimately resolved the matter through trickery, making both sides disavow any desire for the cavern, after the brothers discovered it was a part of a greater chain of caverns that eventually passed beneath the Wall.