The Formless were an advanced extra-dimensional race that once visited the galaxy's Alpha or Beta Quadrants
History and specifications[]
The Formless evolved thousands of years ago, and like many species they evolved to the point where they reached a higher form of life and became four-dimensional beings.
During their many years of experimentation they turned planets into starships and produced quasar olivium as a waste product. Initially, they created massive constructs to track the energy generated by the mineral and re-absorb the by-products, but eventually switched to a sort of automatic probe for the clean-up.
Ten thousand years ago, the Formless decided to retire from the rest of the galaxy and became extra-dimensional beings and stacked all their remaining olivium in Belle Terre's main moon.
Due to their timeless nature, they could relive any moment they wished to and for this reason they became lazy and uninspired and abandoned some of their technologies.
The Formless grew interested in the galaxy's spacefaring races of the Sagittarius Cluster, who reminded them of their species before their evolution. Eventually, they gifted dynadrive, an engine technology akin to warp drive, to the Blood Many and All Kauld. The Blood and Kauld homeworld planets regularly came near one another, with the Formless observing the tendency of the races to fight with sublight spacecraft. The Formless were hoping to relieve them of the cycle of war by giving them more mobility, but instead worsened it as the races then fought even when their planets were not near one another. (TOS - New Earth novel: Challenger)
The Formless then remained passive for the next few decades until they witnessed the United Federation of Planets's surveyor ship Kensington Taylor being destroyed in battle against a Kauld warship as they were scanning for quasar olivium. As they were responsible for the creation of the olivium, they felt guilty about their impending deaths and beamed them aboard their ship to save their lives, causing them to irreversibly become four-dimensional beings themselves. (TOS - New Earth novels: Challenger}, Wagon Train to the Stars)
Due to their growing interest with spacefaring mortal races, they took the decision to journey to a lifeless galaxy to return to such level and become a "young species" again. In order to minimize any damage after their departure, they dispatched several probes to secure their remaining olivium, an action that caused much panic among the Belle Terre colonists and the crew of the USS Enterprise.
When one of their ancient energy absorbing constructs (nicknamed the Cold Factor) became defective and started consuming energy and olivium once again, the Formless became involved with mortal races once again after it destroyed a planet the All Kauld were using to store olivium stolen from Belle Terre and was now en route for the Kauld homeworld. The Formless tasked Mitch Dogan, captain of the late Kensington Taylor, to contact James T. Kirk and explain to him the situation. Kirk managed to convince the Formless to leave the olivium to the Federation and help them stop the Cold Factor before leaving, which they did by temporarily turning the Enterprise into a four-dimensional vessel. (TOS - New Earth novel: Challenger)