Blackfyre looks and features (Varys/Illyrio and Serra)

[Lord Varys]

A lot of people seem to think that the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of Daemon Blackfyre would still look very much Valyrian. That is somewhat odd, and perhaps even a stretch:

1. We don't yet know who Daemon I Blackfyre's wife was. He did not marry a sister, and the chances that Daeron II allowed him to marry one of Elaena's daughters are also not exactly that high.

2. Even if Daemon got a bride with Valyrian blood, the chances are not exactly that good that the Blackfyres-in-exile could marry into pure-blooded Valyrian families from the Free Cities. Bittersteel and Daemon's sons apparently were based in Tyrosh for some of their time, and Tyrosh is not known for its pure-blooded Valyrian nobility (that's Lys and Volantis).

3. We know that Daemon had seven sons and an unknown number of daughters. There were five years between Daemon's eldest sons, the twins Aegon and Aemon, and the third son Daemon II (Daemon II was seven when the twins died at the age of 12). This strongly indicates that 1-2 daughters were born between the twins and Daemon II.

Daemon II looks like a prototypical Targaryen, and even if Daemon's wife had no Valyrian blood, this is not all that surprising since Daemon I was the son of two Targaryens.

4. It's very likely that some of Daemon's daughters were used as coin to cement political alliances both in Westeros (prior to the First Rebellion) and in Essos (in Tyrosh, for instance). But I can see Bittersteel marrying Daemon's younger brother Haegon - the best candidate for the Blackfyre pretender during the Third Rebellion - to one of his sisters. Thus the grandchildren of Daemon I through Haegon could have been prototypical Valyrians, too. Daemon III Blackfyre, the pretender during the Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion in 236 AC obviously was a grandson of Daemon I, and my guess is that he was Haegon's eldest son. He suffered a crushing defeat and was killed by Ser Duncan the Tall, but my guess is that Bittersteel would not have even tried if he had not looked the part.

5. The chances that Daemon's three younger sons had the chance to marry sisters are not all that good, which, in turn, makes it very unlikely that their children or grandchildren retained any or all the Valyrian features (I don't see any reason why the pure-blooded Valyrian nobility of the Free Cities should want to marry into House Blackfyre at this point - they were exiles with no land and no influence/wealth). As of yet, we have no clue how Maelys looked like - at least as far as I know - but we do know that he most likely came to lead the Golden Company due to his ferocious strength, not because of his Valyrian looks.

6. All we know is that - according to Illyrio - House Blackfyre is not extinct in the female line. Many people seem to take this as proof that the last Blackfyre pretenders had sisters or daughters from which Varys, Illyrio, and/or Serra are descended, but the truth could be much more mundane. It could be that the only surviving branches of House Blackfyre are the descendants of the daughters of Daemon I who did not marry into House Blackfyre (i.e. those daughters who were used to cement political alliances). If that's the case, then the remaining 'Blackfyres' would have even less Blackfyre blood than the Baratheons have Targaryen blood.

7. With that in mind, it would be very surprised indeed if Varys and Illyrio - assuming that they are descended from different branches of the Blackfyre/dragon tree - would retain any prominent Valyrian features. Illyrio is blond but does not have violet/purple eyes, and Varys has brown eyes (but he could have the silver-gold hair). Keeping that in mind, it would be very likely that Serra was nothing but a poor pawn in the whole game, whose only purpose was to ensure that Illyrio, whose Blackfyre blood was very much diluted (if we assume that he is the great-grandson of one of Daemon's daughters), could father a child with Valyrian features.

Any thoughts about that? Does this sound more plausible than the contrived theory that Serra was Varys' sister (and they themselves the children of Maelys' supposed sister)?

[Maia]

Bittersteel and Daemon's sons apparently were based in Tyrosh for some of their time, and Tyrosh is not known for its pure-blooded Valyrian nobility (that's Lys and Volantis).

Nothing prevented them from chosing brides from these 2 cities. Appearance would have been very important for them to have any chance of claiming the throne. In fact, I strongly suspect that Daemon I would have had much less support if Crown Prince Baelor had looked the part of Targaryen. Ditto Rhaenyra and her sons would have had even more support if her boys had Targaryen looks. Perception is important.

Re: Daemon's daughters being married off for the sake of alliances - possible, of course, but we just don't know. Also, if they and their offspring remained in Westeros, Targaryens would have had an excellent reason to marry them back into the royal line.

I don't see any reason why the pure-blooded Valyrian nobility of the Free Cities should want to marry into House Blackfyre at this point - they were exiles with no land and no influence/wealth).

The Golden Company was source of power and wealth for the Blackfyres, while Bittersteel and they retained control of it. And there are ancient and pure-blooded, but impoverished nobles of Valyrian extraction too, like the mother of Shiera Seastar.

And, of course, much would have depended on gender distribution among the offspring of Daemon's sons. In fact, it is quite possible for the last Blackfyres to have much more Targaryen blood than the last Targaryens did/do, if they have been in position to practice incest and cousinly marriages, whilst Daeron II and most of his descendants who continued the royal line didn't.

BTW, let's not discount Bittersteel himself as a source of Targ-blooded girls for Daemon's descendants to marry. He may have married and procreated, after losing any hope of ever winning Shiera.

If that's the case, then the remaining 'Blackfyres' would have even less Blackfyre blood than the Baratheons have Targaryen blood.

It is very likely that Egg's daughter Rhaelle had much less Targaryen blood than contemporary Blackfyres, so no.

Illyrio is blond but does not have violet/purple eyes, and Varys has brown eyes (but he could have the silver-gold hair)

Illyrio may be dyeing or toning his hair and color of his eyes was never mentioned, IIRC. Alternatively, according to Dany's prophetic dream in AGoT, her Targaryen ancestors had "hair of silver, _gold_ and platinum white" (paraphrasing), so Illyrio might fit as is.

Varys's eye color is never mentioned either, IIRC.

Of course, if either or both had obviously Valyrian-looking purple eyes it should have been mentioned - it would feel very contrived and implausible to trot it out 5 books in without anybody commenting on it previously. But in a world where glamours and FM magic exist, who can be sure if even something like eye color would be impossible to conceal? Anyway, they don't necessarily have to have the eye-color - some Targaryens didn't.

Keeping that in mind, it would be very likely that Serra was nothing but a poor pawn in the whole game, whose only purpose was to ensure that Illyrio, whose Blackfyre blood was very much diluted (if we assume that he is the great-grandson of one of Daemon's daughters), could father a child with Valyrian features.

Well, Serra could still be a poor pawn, regardless. Personally, I think that she was likely the most pure-blooded and well-known Blackfyre descendant, and that Aerys sent the Baratheons (and Tywin before them?) to find her for Rhaegar. But Varys and Illyrio spirited her away, married her to Illyrio and publicized a backstory for her, that ensured that she could never appear in high society of Pentos and possibly be recognized, or attract attention.

Whether she was on board with all of this, or was even aware of her other options would be an open question.

Any thoughts about that? Does this sound more plausible than the contrived theory that Serra was Varys' sister (and they themselves the children of Maelys' supposed sister)?

I don't think that Varys and Serra were siblings. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Varys was a bastard. Perhaps even that of Maelys himself. Or he and Illyrio could be collateral-line descendants of Haegon's younger brothers and/or Bittersteel.

[Mithras]

“There are pleasure houses in Lys and Tyrosh where men would pay handsomely to bed the last Targaryen.”

“Or would you sooner be a courtesan, and have songs sung of your beauty? Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk. You will sleep on rose petals and wear silken skirts that rustle when you walk, and great lords will beggar themselves for your maiden’s blood.”

“A maiden? I know the way of that.” Illyrio thrust his right hand up his left sleeve and drew out a silver locket. Inside was a painted likeness of a woman with big blue eyes and pale golden hair streaked by silver. “Serra. I found her in a Lysene pillow house and brought her home to warm my bed, but in the end I wed her. Me, whose first wife had been a cousin of the Prince of Pentos. The palace gates were closed to me thereafter, but I did not care. The price was small enough, for Serra.”

Doreah was older, almost twenty. Magister Illyrio had found her in a pleasure house in Lys.

The Lysene girl had hair the color of honey, and eyes like the summer sky.

The Lyseni became especially loathed, for they claimed more than coin from passing ships, taking off women, girls, and comely young boys to serve in their pleasure gardens and pillow houses. (Amongst those thus enslaved was Lady Johanna Swann, a fifteen-year-old niece of the Lord of Stonehelm. When her infamously niggardly uncle refused to pay the ransom, she was sold to a pillow house, where she rose to become the celebrated courtesan known as the Black Swan, and ruler of Lys in all but name. Alas, her tale, however fascinating, has no bearing upon our present history).

I hope this helps.

[Maia]

IMHO, things that Illyro tells about Serra are lies woven with some few truths. For instance, he probably truly came to love her and was sad about her death. However, his claims of her origins are more than dubious. It is like Jorah told Tyrion when he captured him - once you are presented as a slave, nobody questions it or wonders about your identity, etc.

And there is the fact that the Baratheons were looking for a bride for Rhaegar in the Free Cities and they weren't just looking for a noble of Valyrian blood, because there is no shortage of those there. No, they were looking for somebody specific - Serra. YMMV.

I also have my suspicions about Illyrio first meeting Varys after he escaped Myr. It just felt like Illyrio thinking on his feet and quickly incorporating Tyrion's convictions about Varys's background (provided by Varys himself) into his story. If Tyrion hadn't insisted to Illyrio that Varys was from Myr, we may have heard something different.

Anyway, if Serra had been an attraction of Lyseni brothels as "the last Blackfyre", she would have been reasonably widely known and not an obscure bedwarmer that Illyrio insisted she was ;). No, this whole story is obfuscation atop obfuscation.

[Lord Varys]

Maia,

well, you paint a rather glamorous picture of the exiles and the Golden Company. I don't think that's accurate, consider how much Jon Connington despises the proud exiles among the Golden Company. He was a true lord before his exile, and he remembers what it means to be truly powerful and rich. The Golden Company was nothing but a tool to bind the exiles together - and it worked.

But its members are nothing but sellswords. Powerful and wealthy sellswords, yes, but still nothing but sellswords. And that makes them the tools and servants of the rulers of the Free Cities, not their equals. Oh, I know that Bittersteel once sacked Qohor when the Qohorik broke a contract (according to the App), but this doesn't mean that the leaders of the company were considered members of the elite among the rulers of the Free Cities (most likely the opposite, actually).

I guess if Haegon did not marry one of his sisters, he and some of his younger brothers could have chosen brides from the Tyroshi nobility, but I really don't see why the Lyseni or the Volantene noble families should have wanted to marry their precious children to the children of a pretender who are based in Tyrosh. Lys and Tyrosh - and Tyrosh and Volantis - are not exactly allies. And the fact that Bittersteel went there and not another Free City could be a hint that some match had been made between the Blackfyres and Tyroshi nobility (either before or after the Redgrass Field).

I'm not sure about the purity of the Blackfyre blood (or the dilution of the Targaryen blood). Daemon is the son of Daena and Aegon IV. Daena's mother Daenaera is a Velaryon, but almost certainly not a daughter of Baela or Rhaena, and thus most likely from a cadet branch with less Targaryen blood - I'd imagine she descends from a younger brother of Corlys (not Vaemond, nor his tongueless children, but from a younger brother still). So she would have about as much Targaryen blood as Corlys, diluted by the infusions from whatever match a younger son and grandson of House Velaryon could make...

Viserys II's wife is as of yet unknown, but he most likely married a Valyrian bride, since all his children have very prominent Valyrian features (at least Aegon IV and Naerys). Only Daeron II took a non-Valyrian bride - Baelor Breakspear, Aerys, Rhaegel, and Maekar most likely married according to tradition. Especially if you are right - which I believe you are - that Baelor's looks may have helped Daemon to stage his rebellion. Valarr looks more Valyrian than his father, with strongly suggests that his mother was either one of Baelor's sisters, or some other Valyrian bride. If Daeron II had a daughter who could marry Aerys I, there must have been a suitable bride for Baelor and Maekar, too. Especially since Aerys was not exactly interested in women - or sex in general.

Of Maekar's children only Daeron the Drunk seems to look common (we don't really know if Aemon had purple eyes or silver-gold hair in his youth), and even he has blond hair - which seems to suggest that his wife was also a Targaryen (or Velaryon). Egg may have taken a non-Targaryen wife, but we don't know yet if she was no Valyrian. And Jaehaerys almost certainly had a fair-haired/Valyrian wife since his children and grandchildren all look very much like prototypical Targaryens.

But I digress here, I'm not trying to say that some Blackfyres might have practiced incest. I'd be very surprised indeed if Haegon did not marry one of his sisters. I'm trying to say that it's very unlikely that any present-day Blackfyre descendants are descendants of the main line of the pretenders (i.e. of Haegon/Daemon III/Maelys), and that this could mean that they look very much less Valyrian than those members of the family whose spouses were chosen for their Valyrian features.

Haegon (and perhaps even his younger brother) could have gotten a sister or a noblewoman with some Valyrian blood, but about the two youngest sons? And what about all the grandsons?

Varys' eye color is known from the official portraits. They are brown.

Illyrio's statue does not seem to depict him with silver-gold hair. The boy is blond. I guess the prominent artist would have depicted him as he truly looked like, since that whole thing seems to be quite important for Illyrio. I don't doubt that Illyrio dyes his beard, but my guess is that he does so because he has already gray hair.

[Maia]

I don't think that's accurate, consider how much Jon Connington despises the proud exiles among the Golden Company. He was a true lord before his exile, and he remembers what it means to be truly powerful and rich.

So? Tyrion despises Illyrio for a "cheesemonger", and Tywin used to look down on the whole aristocracy of the Free Cities, for a variety of reasons, ranging from relying too much on trade to not being warlike enough. Doesn't mean that they weren't/aren't powerful. Westerosi nobles are just entitled shits.

Several thousands of trained, disciplined soldiers _are_ a source of power and I dare say that the golden Company used to be somewhat different under Bittersteel/Blackfyres, than it was in Connington's day.

But its members are nothing but sellswords. Powerful and wealthy sellswords, yes, but still nothing but sellswords. And that makes them the tools and servants of the rulers of the Free Cities, not their equals.

IRL, powerful and wealthy sellswords sometimes became rulers. In Italy, in particular, which the Free Cities remind me of, with the feuding city-states, etc. In any case, they merited serious consideration and were far more than mere "tools". Worth occasional noble marriages and stuff, if they were big and powerful enough.

Oh, I know that Bittersteel once sacked Qohor when the Qohorik broke a contract (according to the App)

Very interesting... is it explained why he didn't try to keep it?

And the fact that Bittersteel went there and not another Free City could be a hint that some match had been made between the Blackfyres and Tyroshi nobility (either before or after the Redgrass Field).

Or that Tyrosh had some beef with the 7 Kingdoms at the time. But the alliances are ever shifting among the Free Cities. 20 years later, Lys or Volantis may have been allied with or friendly towards Tyrosh and in dire need of the Golden Company... heck, if somebody wanted to become a triarch or needed to fend off a dangerous military attack, I could easily see how it could have been worth a daughter to them.

Viserys II's wife is as of yet unknown, but he most likely married a Valyrian bride, since all his children have very prominent Valyrian features

I disagree with this assertion. It is entirely possible for Targaryens to have Valyrian-looking children with non-Valyrian brides. Alicent's whole brood, half of Myriah's sons, possibly Princess Rhaenys The Queen who never was, etc. And isn't there word of GRRM that Viserys I wasn't married to a relative? He may have had a better idea since, of course, but until the world book comes out or identity of his wife is revealed in the app, that's all we know.

Ditto wives of the sons of Daeron II - we just don't know at this point.

If Daeron II had a daughter who could marry Aerys I, there must have been a suitable bride for Baelor and Maekar, too.

Not necessarily. Maekar was the fourth son, yet he had grown sons before Aerys even got married. Much would depend on the ages and availability of Targaryen-blooded prospective brides, about which we know nothing. Aelinor must have been pretty young, to still be unmarried. Possibly a couple of decades younger than some of her brothers.

Of Maekar's children only Daeron the Drunk seems to look common (we don't really know if Aemon had purple eyes or silver-gold hair in his youth), and even he has blond hair - which seems to suggest that his wife was also a Targaryen (or Velaryon).

Why? Targaryen looks are clearly dominant. They are not like iRL blonds (and even iRL light coloring can be dominant among some animals - it just didn't happen that way with humans).

Egg may have taken a non-Targaryen wife, but we don't know yet if she was no Valyrian.

Egg's and Jaehaerys's wives were supposed to be somewhat unsuitable. If they had been Valyrians, that wouldn't have been the case, as precedent for Targaryens choosing Valyrian brides has been very strongly established.

Varys' eye color is known from the official portraits. They are brown.

Do you mean Amoka's portraits? Did GRRM give him a description of Varys, like he did with various Targaryens or is it just that he didn't protest his brown eyes?

Illyrio's statue could have been subtly changed once Illyrio acquired it. But whatever, I don't insist. It is just that I had a very strong impression that he was dyeing his hair and beard and I thought that there might be a better reason for it than going grey. After all, why would something like that bother a man, who has already lost his former beauty?

[Crowford]

You are playing a bit loose with genetics here. The thing is, genes don't get "diluted". They get passed on, or they don't. And if they get passed on, it may result in a distinctive phenotype (purple eyes and silver hair in this case), or it may not. People like to brag(?) about being "one-quarter X" or "one-sixteenth Y", but then again, most people are stupid. You are genetically never going to be a quarter-anything.

Which means that it's completely possible that a Targaryan marries someone with no Targaryan ancestry (and thus no genetic material for the purple/silver-phenotype), has a child with no Targaryan features, who again marries someone with no Targaryan ancestry, and their child suddenly has the Targaryan phenotype again. Now, of course, every time such a union occurs there is a chance of the required genes not being passed on at all, so your argument is still valid insofar as it's quite a low probability that the phenotype would show up after many generations if there was only one carrier of it in every generation. But that's probably not the case, because not only were there a handful of Blackfyres available (who all descended from a carrier, i.e. Daemon I), they also would have no qualms marrying siblings, thus greatly increasing the phenotypes survivability.

And every time you've "successfully" passed the gene over to the next generation, the probability is reset, because as I said, genes are not "diluted", just passed on dominantly, recessively, or not at all.

[Lord Varys]

I know how genetics work, but GRRM's genetics don't behave like real genetics. There seems to be magic involved in a lot of them, not just the Targaryens. The black hair - and stormy temper - of the Durrandons/Baratheon, the Stark looks (and their skinchanger genes), the golden hair the members of House Lannister are famed for centuries.

Maia,

well, I guess Bittersteel did not keep Qohor because he could not/would not because he commanded a sellsword company. Who the hell would want to live in Qohor, anyway? My guess is that the Golden Company grew in fame, reputation, and power over the decades. It was most certainly not 10,000 men strong when Bittersteel founded it. The company had to earn its reputation over a longer period of time. And it was also not founded directly after the Redgrass Field - Bittersteel served among the Second Sons at first. In fact, we don't even know if the Golden Company existed during TSS and TMK (I doubt it, since no one mentions it in the stories).

Bittersteel only came up with the idea to found a company to keep the exiles together when the Blackfyre cause alone could no longer do that - at least that's my impression. And he was alive to see the Fourth Rebellion in 236 AC. That mean that the Blackfyres had only time for roughly two decades to lead the company - if they did so.

You think Aerys I was not married to Aelinor for a long time when he ascended the Iron Throne? That's nowhere stated - in fact I very much doubt that Daeron II would have forced Aerys into a marriage if Baelor, Maekar, and Rhaegel had already children of their own at that time. It's much more likely that Aerys and Aelinor were married in their late teens or so, around the same time Baelor married, to ensure that the dragon line would continue. Aerys I would most certainly have not married as king.

All we know is that Egg married for love, i.e. that he most likely did not marry Daella. We also know that Egg's three sons all broke arranged betrothals to important houses to follow their heards - which caused trouble for king and crown. No one ever said that all of them followed Duncan's lead and married a commoner (or a woman who may have been a commoner). Only Duncan had to forfeit his claim to the Iron Throne. And although we know very little about Jaehaerys II, it is striking that he forced Aerys and Rhaella to marry each other. We all assume that he did not marry a sister because he was marrying for love, but there are people out there who actually believe that the Dragonknight and Naerys were romantically involved, so the thought is not completely ridiculous.

[assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar]

I actually come down on the opposite side that you do. I think it'd be far easier to find other Valyrian families with Valyrian features to marry into in Essos. The Targaryen looks have been passed on in Westeros reasonably decently, and this is with quite a few out-marriages. So I don't see any good reason to guess that the Blackfyres' looks in Essos, which has a bigger pool of actual Valyrian-descended people, would be any markedly less Valyrian than the modern-day Targs'.

[Crowford]

I know how genetics work, but GRRM's genetics don't behave like real genetics. There seems to be magic involved in a lot of them, not just the Targaryens. The black hair - and stormy temper - of the Durrandons/Baratheon, the Stark looks (and their skinchanger genes), the golden hair the members of House Lannister are famed for centuries.

I am aware of that, but there is still little evidence that would support a view of "Targaryaness" being somehow diluted. If anything, it's the opposite - it suggests that there are some features that have an insanely high probability of being passed on. If we accept the view espoused in TPatQ that only those of Targaryan heritage can tame dragons (although I'd say we should be careful with that assessment), then we know that being able to bond with a dragon was the norm among Targaryan royalty, even when they didn't intermarry, suggesting that one Targaryan parent was enough to pass that feature on. In contrast, the same does not apply to the silver hair and purple eyes, as for example Rhaenyra's older children with (likely) Harwin Strong show - dragonriders, non-Valyrian looks .

Another example would of course be the strange case of the Baratheon black hair (I would strongly dispute the stormy temper as being magical genetics though - if only for the fact that of the four Baratheons of the last two generation only one of them had what could be described as a "stormy temper"). The Stark-looks are, again, actually a counter-argument - given that it's remarked time and time again that half of Ned's and Catelyn's children look more like their mother. They still all apparently inherited the skinchanger ability from their father. I think it's safe to say that there is not so much a Stark-look than a Northerner-look - there was probably very little Northern-non-Northern unions going on before Aegon, and not that many afterward either. Same goes for the Lannisters and the Westerlands. Tywin married his first cousin, and since no one ever remarked on this, it's fair to assume that it was a normal thing to do.

[Lord Varys]

Well, I know that half-Targaryens can ride dragons (Alicent's children and Rhaenyra's sons should that make clear enough), but it's also been proven that non incestuous matches make it very likely that the Targaryen looks don't prevail, at least not for long (Baelor Breakspear, Bittersteel, and the dragonseeds - who are supposed to have a varying degree of Targaryen blood - are proof of that).

I think the dragonlord incest began after the Valyrians realized that it became increasingly unlikely that the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of a dragonlord would become dragonriders, if the dragonlords married ordinary people.

From Aegon I to Rhaenyra we have two confirmed incests (Aegon/Rhaenys, Jaehaerys/Alysanne). We also know that Valaena Velaryon, Aegon's mother, was a half-Targaryen, and Aenys' wife Alyssa may have been a close relation as well. Viserys' first wife Aemma was a cousin, and it's very likely that Baelon Targaryen was married to a sister.

I imagine that repeated incest matches (or marriages to other close kin) can counter or postpone the bad effects an infusion of 'foreign blood' may have on the dragonriding stuff as well as the looks. The looks are obviously not necessary for the dragonbinding process. Say, I guess Alicent's children would have had little or no chance of becoming dragonriders if the Targaryens from Aenys onwards had not practiced incest.

As to the Lannister genes:

Well, we do know that Rohanne Webber was not blond, and yet her descendants - Tytos' children as well as the known descendants of Jason - seem to be predominantly golden-haired/blond. I'd guess that this is also 'magically' to a degree, since it would be very unlikely to assume that the Lannisters had married only blond/golden-haired people since Lann the Clever.

Apple Martini,

well, you have summarized my view. A descendant of Daemon Blackfyre (Illyrio Mopatis) married a Lysene whore with Valyrian features to ensure that his son would look Valyrian, too ;-).

There are more Valyrian looking people in Essos than in Westeros, true, but I'd find it very surprising if the nobles of the Free Cities would want to marry into 'House Blackfyre' - whose cause must have looked completely lost since the failed Third Blackfyre Rebellion, I'd assume. Viserys III does not get all that many offers to marry into powerful noble houses of Essos, so why the hell should the Free Cities treat the Blackfyres any differently?

Especially since the Blackfyres were not royalty (no Blackfyre ever sat on the Iron Throne) and descended from a (legitimized) bastard. I'm pretty sure the nobles of the Free Cities remembered that fact after the First, Second, and Third Rebellion failed. If that was the case, then the Blackfyres could only turn to Valyrian-looking whores (which can be found in Lys and Volantis), but such matches would have completely destroyed their nobility and their credibility. Who the hell in Westeros would want to seat King Whoreson on the Iron Throne?

This is why I believe that the marriage options left for the later Blackfyres were matches with some minor noble families in Essos (with little to no Valyrian blood) or sisters/cousins. Now, we know that Daemon I could not have had that many daughters (2-3) tops. I could see Haegon and another son marrying a sister, but certainly not all of them. Daemon II will most likely die unmarried and without issue, which leaves three Blackfyre sons (and perhaps 1-2 daughters, if they did marry outside the family) to continue the line. If we assume Bittersteel was married, I'd suggest a daughter of Daemon I, and if they had any daughters, Haegon's wife could also have been a daughter of Bittersteel (or the wife of Daemon III, if he lived long enough to marry). Cousin marriages could have occurred among the other grandchildren of Daemon I, but we don't really know how many they were, or if matches were possible (it would have worked if there were only grandsons). We have also no clue as to how many sons and grandsons of Daemon I lived to breed. There are no brave old sellswords, after all, and we should assume that many male Blackfyres - not just the pretenders - fought and died in Westeros during the rebellions. Daemon III may have died childless, and perhaps his brothers - if he had any - died with him during the Fourth Rebellion. Some of the younger sons of Daemon I could have died during the Third Rebellion (which I guess will turn out to be the most dangerous Blackfyre Rebellion - the Second, Fourth and the War of the Ninepenny Kings look like jokes).