Starfield & Gnosticism

Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a diverse set of religious and philosophical beliefs, heavily influenced by Middle Platonism, that first emerged among Christian sects in the early centuries of the Common Era.
Gnostics generally believed that the physical (material) world is a false reality meant to imprison the soul, woven together by a false God known as the Demiurge. It was believed that the flawed creator Demiurge deployed lesser cosmic rulers known as Archons to keep humanity trapped in ignorance and material existence.  Above the Demiurge exists the unknowable, True God (or the Manod) and His divine plane. The Manod is all-knowing, benevolent, and perfect. It is the goal of the Gnostics to reconnect with the Manod and His divinity. It was believed that within some people existed the "inner light" or "divine spark", which can be awakened to transcend the material world through the acquisition of hidden esoteric knowledge—or Gnosis. One of the main principles of Gnosticism was that, unlike mainstream Christianity: salvation is found through knowledge, not faith.
You're probably already putting the pieces together, but let's lay it out.
Starfield & Gnosticism
In Starfield, you are a Gnostic who sets out on a pilgrimage, a quest to uncover esoteric knowledge hidden within shrines, sacred places, and the Artifacts—in the hopes that you will uncover hidden truths about the universe. The temples and Artifacts grant you metaversal and reality-bending abilities, a glimpse beyond the material world, gradually awakening your "inner light". They represent Gnosis.
The Demiurge is Unity. It deploys Archons—Starborn, to suppress not only humanity's efforts in escaping their prison of ignorance, but themselves. Most Starborn become easily corrupted by power, succumb to their own in-fighting, and perpetuate their own ignorance in their quest to liberate themselves from the cycle through knowledge.
Aquilus has realized that the aims of the Starborn are wrong. No amount of knowledge will lead the Starborn to salvation—there is a perpetual epistemological barrier that will forever keep them chasing answers to questions that will never stop being asked (ad infinitum). The true road to salvation is through faith. as laid out in the volumes of Sanctum Universum (I transcribed and summarized this here).
There's more to this, but I don't have time to expand further. I will later.