The Wall is defended and held by the Sworn Brothers of the Night's Watch. While there are nineteen castles built into the southern side of the Wall, in the current generation only three are manned by the Night's Watch due to the order's dwindling numbers. The Night's Watch also rules over the Gift, the thinly settled lands immediately south of the Wall, given to their order to support its basic needs. Strictly speaking, the Wall, the Watch's castles along it, and the Gift are not part of the unified realm known as "the Seven Kingdoms", ruled from the Iron Throne in King's Landing. They were also never subject to the rule of Winterfell immediately to the south.