The founding generation of the khaganate: the family that ruled it, the three sons who reigned in turn, and the assembly at which the house broke. The path begins with the lineage and ends with the state as a whole, so that the persons in between are read as members of something.
- Ashina The family, its names, and the three incompatible accounts of where it came from.
- Bumin Khan The founder's single year as khan.
- Issik Khan The eldest son finishes the Rouran on the Ordos and dies within the year.
- Mukan Khan Nineteen years: the Kirghiz, the Khitan, the war with the Qi, a daughter for an emperor.
- Taspar Khan The khaganate at its greatest extent, a Buddhist khan, and a wish the nobility refused.
- Succession crisis of 581 The assembly at Ötüken, the election, the abdication, and the road to civil war.
- First Göktürk Khaganate The whole state, from 552 to 630, with the sources it rests on.