As with many gods, the worship of That Which Was is a fragmented thing. In the absence of direction from their unseen divinity, all branches of its worship have centered on a singular question: what is the sun's nature, and what does it mean to be in the Underground?
Ascenders
The Ascenders are a group rarely named, for they make up the vast majority of the Unseen Sun's worship. The resident Orthodoxy, they maintain that the Sun is a literal orb of divine flame, carried by a chariot around the surface. The stars are its innumerable angels, watching over the mortal world when the Divine is not present. To be in the underground, then, is a trial. That Which Was is a loving god, yes, but one which expects us to grow. The Descent is a coming-of-age on the scale of a civilization. When we have learned, and when we are ready, it will be time to reclaim the surface.
Their rites are like those are most used to: a mixture of historical and religious lessons, blended into a cogent whole. They tend towards sunbursts and sundials in their iconography: reminders of what has been lost, and what can yet be regained.
Redeemers
The Redeemers are the most significant minority in the clergy, and one which predates the Ascender movement. Its roots tie to the very earliest days of Sanctuary, born of the city founders themselves. To have been cast from the surface, the Redeemers say, is a punishment. Mortal Man had made some grave error, and the Descent marks its banishment from the eyes of That Which Was. For them, life in the Underground is an atonement. Every trial which comes from the harshness of life in the abyss is a step closer to forgiveness. To aspire towards taking the surface is an act of supreme hubris: the Dawn will come when we have earned it. All we are to do is endure, reflect on our natures, and improve them.
They preach more often than the Ascenders do, and more fervently: typically on topics of morality and civic duty. They almost universally bear white bars as their favored symbols, due to its symbolic purity.
Flamewatchers
The Flamewatchers are a heresy, so far as the rest of the clergy is considered. One which has no right to exist, and no founding in scriptural truth. And indeed, they do reject the established writings of the faith in large part. Theirs is a faith founded in observation, they say. In the truth stitched into the world around them. To say the Unseen Sun is truly Unseen, just by virtue of the miles of rock overhead, is folly. Look no further than the heat of flame, the heat of the earth. That Which Was -- a name they loathe using -- is a god of Divine Flame, not of the sun. To distinguish the two is a mortal artifice, not a divine truth. There is a great fire which heats the Underground from beneath, that which makes magma bubble and geysers burst, and a blessed glimmer in the roar of every torch, every furnace. Is that not enough?
By the nature of their sect's status, most Flamewatchers do not bear symbols or hold sermons. Those few that do are known to use great bonfires as their altars, fed by ritually-prepared woods and oils.
