“We cannot be slaves forever.
I will either liberate the Türks or die!”
- Bumin wolf-born of the Ashina Türks
Every great empire starts out small.
The Göktürk Chronicles starts with eight-year-old Bumin Ashina of the Türks, a Turkic-speaking tribe of several thousand under vassalge of the mighty Rouran Khaganate, learning a devastating truth: his people aren't slaves after all. They're wolves pretending to be dogs in order to survive under the radar.
That single moment of awakening sets in motion a chain of events that will later create the Göktürk Empire. By the time the story ends, you'll understand why some historians call the Göktürk Empire the forgotten superpower of the medieval world.
For decades, he serves the Rouran Empire while secretly building something they never see coming: a continental alliance network spanning from Chinese trading cities to Byzantine borderlands. Turkic shamans, Sogdian merchants, exiled princes, and forgotten tribes—all bound together by shared suffering and careful promises. When Bumin finally moves against his masters, he doesn't lead a rebellion. He unleashes a revolution that's been twenty years in the making.
Why the steppes? And why the Göktürks?
Because the nomadic world was nothing like what you've been told. These weren't savage barbarians raiding settled civilization. They were sophisticated political operators running regional trade networks, conducting complex diplomacy, and creating governmental systems that would influence empire-building for centuries.
The series pulls from Chinese chronicles, Byzantine histories, and Turkic stone inscriptions to reconstruct a world where shamanic prophecy coexists with realpolitik, where family loyalty can survive decades of apparent betrayal, and where the line between collaboration and resistance becomes impossibly blurred.
Discover the untold story of the first Türk Empire through the eyes of its legendary founder.
The Göktürk Chronicles is an epic historical fiction series following Bumin Ashina's rise from vassal chieftain of the Türks to emperor of the Eurasian steppes.
Set in 6th-century Central Asia, this sweeping saga chronicles 115 years of Central Asian history (515-630 AD), following the Ashina clan's extraordinary journey from Rouran vassalage to imperial glory to tragic collapse.
When the Türk’s biggest enemy is the Türk.
But founding the Göktürk Empire is only the beginning. Bumin dies at the moment of triumph, leaving his brother Istemi to consolidate their impossible victory. What follows is the golden age of the steppes—Turkic cavalry ruling from the broderlands of Korea to the Gates of Byzantium in Crimea, trade routes flowing through nomad camps, diplomatic marriages linking the steppes to settled empires with both Persians and Chinese.
Then it all falls apart. The same family loyalty that built the Göktürk Empire becomes the weakness that destroys it. Brothers turn against brothers, eastern and western halves split into rival kingdoms, and the Chinese Tang Dynasty — led by officials who learned from Göktürk successes — methodically exploits every division until the wolves who once ruled half the world become scattered refugees hiding their identity from their conquerors.
This is the story of how a people went from vassalage to empire to extinction in barely a century… and what survives when everything else is lost.
Six Sagas. One Epic.
The Göktürk Chronicles unfolds across six interconnected sagas with a total of 21 arcs spanning 115 years of Turkic history.
The Wolf's Awakening follows young Bumin's discovery of his true heritage and the brutal education that transforms an idealistic boy into someone capable of impossible choices.
The Hidden Claws reveals the patient construction of a continental conspiracy, as Bumin builds a resistance network spanning from Chinese trading cities to Byzantine borderlands while maintaining perfect loyalty to the very empire he plans to destroy.
Then comes Rise of the Türk, where decades of careful preparation explode into the founding of an empire—but what follows will test whether nomadic peoples can rule the settled world they've conquered.
The Boundless Sky chronicles the intoxicating heights of power and the seeds of destruction that luxury plants in warrior hearts.
The Shattered Crown explores what happens when the family bonds that built an empire become the fault lines that tear it apart.
And finally, The Last Howl asks the ultimate question: what survives when empires fall and peoples scatter, and whether identity can outlast the political structures that once defined it.