Beginning Fulmination
This guide is a supplement/ alternative to fulmination recs (which mostly sorts individual threads or continuities by rough genre/ what itch they scratch) and Fulmination Reading Orders (which goes pretty deeply into how the entire continuity ties together), as well as the Star Wars Peal notes + reading orders and the lightning peal's index and peal-specific reading orders.
This guide, however, is meant to outline where you could start. This is not, strictly, a reading order, but is instead notes/ observations and advice on where the easiest places to dip your toes in are. (There are other ways to sort reading; this isn't a guide to reading in order of publication, for instance, and it assumes the reader likes knowing who the characters are and what the backstory is.) Descriptions try to keep spoilers to a minimum; the other pages linked above have more detailed notes, though.
This page is very much in progress.
Your First Threads
These threads have zero prerequisites except a basic familiarity with the canon, are linear and self contained, and introduce the characters in depth. All of the standalone 'top' threads mentioned in the Reading Orders page would fit here, of course, if one of those catches your eye. But if you're unsure where else to start...
if you like silliness:
This is also a pretty short thread - 25k words. It doesn't peal to anywhere yet, or tie into other plots, but it gives a very solid introduction to the Lily and 2B templates, and a pretty good introduction to Fate and Ellie. It's set in an AU of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, where the video game mechanics are taken literally, and also someone has installed D/S AU, sexy armor, and kemonomimi (catgirl/ doggirl/ etc) mods. Features: twincest, D/S, referenced polyamory, and general crack taken seriously.
This one is really short, at under 10k words. It focuses on Lily/ 2B, with some notable Lily/ Ellie. It's about a magical girl 2B who dies and gets yanked into a reincarnation CYOA... And decides she'd like a vacation, and optimizing the CYOA towards D/S total power exchange kinkiness sounds really fun. Is part of the wider Roses of Villarosa glowfic trend. Not quite explicit, but some parts definitely get pretty racy sexuality-wise.
if you like angst and hurt/ comfort:
learn the rapture of that cruelty
This is a shorter thread, at roughly 11.5k words. This one does still contain plenty of silliness and flirty romance, but has a more serious/ angsty focus in the background. The basic plot is a modern college AU of Carmilla, featuring a lesbian vampire and her unsuspecting roommate. The major characters are Fate and Eridani, and this is a pretty good easy-to-get-into introduction to the Eridani template.
if you like a good long story:
plan for noon and plan for night
This is strongly recommended as a first step. It's a Harry Potter rewrite, set in a single world with a straightforward narrative, featuring multiple native versions of the two main templates (Ellie and Fate) who show different perspectives on their templates. It is, however, about 205k words long. The first seven threads contain fairly minimal need for content warnings (roughly in line with canon), but the eighth thread is explicit and, while it's an epilogue thread unnecessary to understanding the main story, it's referenced in later peals featuring the noon continuity. This continuity does tie into the wider Fulmination 'verse, so it's also a good foundation for focusing on the broader peals.
if you prefer medium length threads...
About villains: all witches burn
This is another good first step, which primarily focuses on the more villainous aspects of the murder gfs. It's set in Harry Potter in the Marauders Era, and is especially recommended as a follow-up to the noon continuity. It's stand-alone, however, so it can be read as a first thread. It's about 45k words, length-wise, and is fully self contained.
About villains-as-heroes: no hands of fate
This is a retelling of the Lay of Leithian/ Tale of Luthien and Beren from Tolkien's works, with a bit of a twist. It includes only one Ellie and one Fate, and is very good for reading an emotionally intense murder gfs story with a burn-time somewhere between 'jump immediately into bed' and 'a novel later...'. It's also about 45k words, length-wise, and is fairly fully self contained, but ends on a mild cliffhanger...
Which is resolved in the next thread: married to the devil
This is a peal of fate-thread and burn-thread. It's pretty short (only 6.6k words), and neatly ties up the hanging threads in the other two. It doesn't yet tie into the wider multiverse, however. See also: Devil Peal
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