Is Arya Stark the heir to House Whent?

Question

This says that House Whent maybe went extinct. The Whent family was wiped out enough during the War of the Five Kings for their lands to be given away to Janos Slynt as a gift for his help in betraying Ned Stark.

Known members of the house are:

• Lord Walter Whent and Lady Shella Whent, who died without heirs.
• Oswell Whent, who died during Robert's Rebellion. He was Walter Whent's younger brother.
• Lasy Minisa Whent, who died during the birth of Edmure Tully. Minisa Whent married Hoster Tully and gave birth to three children: Catelyn, Lysa, and Edmure.

Catelyn is the oldest, so she might have the best claim to the Whent holdings. She married Lord Eddard Stark and bore five children. Her surviving children are Sansa Stark, Bran Stark, and Arya Stark. Assuming that Sansa Stark does not claim the Whent family holdings because she is Queen of the North, and that Bran Stark does not claim the Whent family holdings because he is King of the Six Kingdoms, then the next claimant would be Arya Stark.

There are reasons why Arya might have no claim.

• Unlike the North which allows a woman to inherit a noble title (such as Lady Alys Karstark or Lady Lyanna Mormont), the nobles of the Riverlands might only pass title through a male line.
• There might be other survivors of House Whent.
• Edmure Tully or Robyn Arryn might try to press their claim to the Whent lands.
• Arya's two older siblings might claim title ahead of her. (Sansa Stark is Queen of the North, but that is now a foreign land, but this is like how William the Conqueror claimed the titles of both King of England and Duke of Normandy at the same time. And if a person can claim multiple titles in Westeros, then Bran Stark could also claim to be King of the Six Kingdoms and Lord of Whent.)

If the answers to these three questions are all "no", then it seems Arya Stark is the next Lady Whent.

• Is there anything in the books that says noble titles in the Riverlands can only be inherited by men?
• Are there other survivors of the Whent family? (Including legitimized children born out of wedlock.)
• Are there rules forbidding a person from claiming multiple noble titles?

Although I mention events from the last episode of the TV series, which are not yet mentioned in the books, I am looking for answers to my questions from the books first, then other canon sources, and lastly the TV series.

Answer 1

I am going to take your questions one by one...

Is there anything in the books that says noble titles in the Riverlands can only be inherited by men?

There is nothing that says a woman can't inherit lands/titles. It is just very rare. Almost all houses are going to look to the male line first. Walter Whent did have four sons, but they all perished with unknown status if they had any children. The same goes for his only daughter. Walter's brother Oswell was a member of the Kings Guard and also slain at the Tower of Joy. So. Walter's line is broken once Shelia is killed.

Are there other survivors of the Whent family? (Including legitimized children born out of wedlock.)

The only other known members of House Whent are:

• Minisa Whent, deceased wife of Lord Hoster Tully, and mother to Catelyn, Lysa and Edmure Tully.
• Sarya Whent, fifth wife of Lord Walder Frey. Deceased with no progeny.
• Wynafrei Whent, married to the ninth son of Lord Walder Frey, Ser Danwell. She has no progeny yet, only many stillbirths and miscarriages so far.

So without any other known members, all the direct line deceased or having no progeny, we would refer back to the first question and find the nearest male relative, Edmure Tully.

Are there rules forbidding a person from claiming multiple noble titles?

Not at all, in fact, Petyr Baelish holds many titles in the books, which I do believe holds true through the show. With Littefinger's fate in the show, Lord Paramount of the Trident would pass back to Edmure Tully.

To summarize...

Being male, a direct Whent descendant, and being their liege lord, Edmure Tully would be the one to decide who would inherit House Whent's lands. Since the House is extinct he could effectively give to whomever he pleases (like how Bronn was set to inherit Highgarden in the show).

This would not likely be Arya, she is of the North, not the Riverlands. Edmure will have other vassals to appease or even keep the lands with the Tully's since their line was also devastated by the wars.