From page 96 of the book, BEAST WARS UNIVERSE

Translated from Japanese by Amy Sasaki-Lipkowitz.

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Information from Larry DiTillio

VOK

The Vok are the aliens who were conducting experiments on ancient Earth.
However, their true identity could not truly be called alien to Earth or
to Transformers. The Vok are beings of pure energy and are not affected by
time. They are functionally immortal. Although they seem to have little
regard for individual lives, they are not necessarily evil.

ORIGINS OF THE VOK

The Vok are a mutated form of the energy life form known as the Swarm. The
Swarm traveled through space absorbing other intelligent life forms and
essentially rendering them extinct. Their victims included the G2
Transformers who had created an empire in outer space, the reptilian
species known as the Jadai (sp?) and Earth humans. (The reason that future
humanity does not appear in the future of the Beast Wars series is because
they have been absorbed by the Swarm and are lost.)

During the battle of the Swarm and the Transformers, the original Optimus
Prime shared his core consciousness with the Swarm. Ever since then, the
three absorbed races have been fused as the Vok. The Vok are a combined
consciousness of warm flesh, machine and cold-blooded reptile.

THE VOK EXPERIMENT

The purpose of the Vok's experiment was to create a more perfect humanity
on Earth. Ever since Prime gave them a conscience and transformed them
into the Vok, they have tried to rebuild all the intelligent lifeforms
that they had destroyed up until that point. In the case of Earth, they
attempted to recreate humanity by going back in time and leading the
primitive humans into a unified whole rather than warring tribes. One of
the things that they did was to put pure Energon crystals in the depths of
the Earth. These would eventually mature into Energon cubes. The Vok
planned for this clean energy source to replace fossil fuels, atomic
energy and other energy sources that had the risk of pollution, and when
humanity had sufficiently advanced, they planned to tell them of the
existence of Energon and how to use it, thus speeding up the advance of
high technology as well as the development of humanity.

Another method that was used was religion. The Vok realized that humanity
had an instinctive need for a higher power. In other words, humans need
gods. The Vok planned to play the role of God until humans freed
themselves from their dependency on gods. The flying island [Brigadoon] is
an Olympia or shrine created for that purpose. There were several of these
set up around the planet, and at these shrines, humanity was to learn from
the Vok and be guided in their development until they could go into space
on their own.

THE EXPERIMENT INTERRUPTED

The underground Energon was environmentally friendly, and neither animal
nor plant was affected by it. If anything, it provided nutrients for the
plants and helped the animals who ate those plants to proliferate.
However, there was another side to the use of Energon: if the experiment
were tampered with, the Energon would be used to destroy the planet. The
causes of such tampering would be alien races, specifically space-faring
races with a high level of scientific technology, happening upon the
planet. This is why the Vok were antagonistic towards the Transformers who
arrived on Earth, and set up traps for interlopers at many of their sites.

In order to reach their goal of creating a better-evolved humanity, the
Vok have created and destroyed the Earth many times. If the alien
machine's attack had succeeded, they would have taken several millennia to
terraform the Earth and begin the experiments anew.  (Each time they do
this, the timestream is adjusted accordingly.) But this ended in failure,
and through contact with Tigatron and the others, the Vok became unsure of
how appropriate their actions were.

Next, in order to recreate their experiment, they decided not to attack
the entire planet, but Transformers only. They assisted the Maximals in
getting rid of Megatron, but this was for their own reasons and did not
indicate that they were achieving peace with the Transformers (see
"Timestorm").

THE VOK NEBULA

The Vok Nebula is the spiritual layer or astral plane of the galaxy where
the Vok reside. It is also the true form of the Matrix Dimension, where
Transformers believe they will return after their death. The Spark, which
is a Transformer's soul, is born from the Vok. More accurately, the Vok
themselves break off into small pieces, the good ones going into the
Matrix, the evil ones going into the Pit. The Swarm, which is the former
form of the Vok, contained both evil and good consciousnesses.  The reason
that they divide thusly is because the three races that make up the Vok
have an instinctive desire for individuality and are not naturally a
combined consciousness. By turning into a single Transformer with
intelligence, they are able to be an individual once more. After living
life as a Transformer, the Spark travels through space and returns to the
Vok Nebula, becoming part of the Vok once more. At that time, due to their
experiences living as a Transformer, they are changed as though reborn.

PROTOFORM (page 100)

The Vok's plans are greatly reflected in the birth of the Maximals and
Predacons. In order to make Transformers the ideal mechanical life forms,
the Vok created protoforms. The G1 Transformers investigated the
protoforms and understood that they were a new form of Transformers and
that they awaited birth via the fusion of a robot form and a beast form.
However, the mechanical planet Cybertron did not have animal life forms,
and so the only way to activate the protoforms was to bring animals to
Cybertron or to drop the protoforms themselves on another planet.

In order to resolve this problem, the G1 Transformers developed stasis
pods. These made the protoforms activate as fully-functioning robots, and
furthermore gave the protoform Transformers the function of being
explorers. This coincided with the Transformers' goals of exploring the
depths of space. And so a new generation of Cybertronians, the Maximals
and Predacons, was born!

In the past, the previous generation of G1 Transformers had sought out
other races and attempted to befriend them, but their colossal size was
occasionally a barrier to this. However, the Maximals and Predacons were
smaller and compact, and thus able to have equal footing with other races.
Furthermore, with the transformation into biological life forms (which was
previously impossible), they were better able to interact with other
races. Thusly, Cybertron was able to fulfill the destiny of being
protectors and friends of the galaxy (this being the ideal form of a
mechanical life form, according to the Vok).

Although this is occasionally a controversial topic, most Transformers do
not know about the Vok's plan woven into the existence of protoforms.
However, the important members of the High Council, especially the
original Optimus Prime, understood the truth: that alien powers were
involved, and although these aliens were unknown to them, they felt that
they were working for the greater good and accepted it. However, after
Beast Wars, this position changed.