We introduce universal torsion which is defined for L2-acyclic manifolds with torsionfree fundamental group and takes values in certain K_1-groups of a skew field associated to the integral group ring. It encompasses well-know invariants such as the Alexander polynomial and L2-torsion. We discuss also twisted L2-torsion and higher order Alexander polynomials which can also be derived from the universal invariant and assign certain polytopes to the universal torsion. This gives especially in dimension 3 interesting invariants which recover for instance the Thurston norm.