Info
Page by Br Miller.
Special thanks to SigmaShield,
The Catgirls !, and
ReyDay for their critiques of drafts of this page.
| Voidstone | |
|---|---|
| Voidstone exposed in a wall on Level 92 after explosives were detonated. | |
| Names | Voidstone Black stone (Archaic)1 |
| Chemical Formula | Unknown |
| Appearance | Opaque pitch black solid |
| Density | Unknown |
| Melting Point | ∞ |
| Boiling Point | ∞ |
| Heat Capacity | ∞ |
| Electrical Resistivity | ∞ |
| Ultimate Tensile Stength | ∞ |
| Maximum Contact Conductance | 113 W/m2K |
| Hazards | |
| Main Hazards | Slipping Heat Burns Frostbite |
| Fire Diamond |  |
Object 50, otherwise known as voidstone, is an infinitely strong, perfectly black, and immovable material that is prevalent within the Backrooms. It is found buried within the walls, floors, and ceilings in a number of the levels and is what prevents the millions of square kilometres of rooms from caving in. It can also be used as an infinite source of energy and is known to provide power in most of the levels.
Description
Voidstone is indestructible. It never bends, cracks, degrades, or deforms, and no matter how much force is applied to it, it does not move. This behaviour is similar to how the prison bars in Level 3 or the tiles in Level 37 act.
All visible light that hits voidstone is absorbed. All surfaces of voidstone have the same perfect black colour regardless of the viewing angle, making it impossible to discern corners or edges. Thus, samples of voidstone look two-dimensional.
Other forms of electromagnetic radiation, such as X-rays, will also be absorbed; however, microwaves and radio waves are able to pass through. This allows Wi-Fi to permeate through walls.
Despite absorbing all light that hits it, it will never heat up. Voidstone is a thermal energy reservoir, a substance with a heat capacity so large that it never changes temperature no matter how much heat it absorbs or releases. A block of voidstone at 0 °C will stay at 0 °C even when surrounded by fire. A block of voidstone at 100 °C will stay at 100 °C even if surrounded by ice.
In some locations, voidstone has been found at temperatures of hundreds of degrees. Hot enough that it glows red hot. Analysing the light emitted through an optical spectrometer shows that voidstone glows with a perfect blackbody spectrum.
The surfaces of voidstone are frictionless. If not for air resistance, it would be possible to slide upon its surfaces indefinitely. This also makes it impossible to walk or stand on voidstone.
Voidstone is a perfect electric insulator, is hydrophobic, and does not allow air to pass through. It does not interact with gravity and will levitate stationarily if not supported by anything.
Prevalence
Voidstone is abundant and can be found in many levels, providing structural support to the levels’ rooms. It also serves as a barrier between the exterior of the levels and The Blue Channel. After digging a few metres through the surface-level materials, voidstone surfaces will be encountered. The surrounding concrete may also be reinforced with rebar made from voidstone. If this concrete is dug out, what gets left behind are floating voidstone rods.
It is unclear how voidstone rebar was able to embed itself into concrete given that it is unmoveable. However, this rebar has been there as long as records date back. Whatever process created the Backrooms to begin with may be able to manipulate voidstone and create this rebar.
It is important to note that not all walls contain voidstone, so some walls can be tunnelled through. Likewise, voidstone is not present on all levels.
As the source of Wi-Fi has not been discovered, it is speculated that the source of Wi-Fi is located behind the voidstone walls, out of reach of any human.
Lights and machines within the levels continually produce heat. If there was nowhere for the heat to go, the rooms would heat up to hundreds of degrees. The voidstone serves as a heat reservoir, absorbing excess heat and keeping the levels at a stable temperature. The temperature of the voidstone varies between levels. For instance, the voidstone in Level 0.3 is -10°C, and the voidstone in Level 3 is 18°C.
Rooms with equipment such as boilers or heaters can be significantly hotter than the surrounding voidstone base walls, analogous to how the interior of a house with a heater can be significantly warmer than the outside.
An infographic illustrating voidstone's presence levels is shown below. A cross-section of Level 0 is given as an example.
Cross-section of Level 0, demonstrating the presence of voidstone within the level.
Voidstone is rarely naturally exposed. If it is seen, then it almost certainly once had material covering it that was removed artificially.
Naming
Over the centuries, the various groups within the Backrooms referred to voidstone by different names. This presumably includes The Lost, but there are currently no known references to voidstone in recovered documentation. The first recorded use of the word “voidstone” was in 1952 in a diary of someone who later became a founding member of The Aiding Stragglers. The term was used by Aiding Stragglers members, and its usage spread from there.
No matter how hard I try, I can't get out of this vile place! The further I walk, the more dangerous it gets, and I've tried smashing down the walls and floors with some pickaxes I found in these crates, but all that happens is that I open a hole into some kind of void. Except it is not a void, it is just some slippery black stone. Voidstone I guess? I tried breaking that too, but when the pickaxe does not slip, my pick just shatters.
Practical Applications
Voidstone can be a nuisance as it limits how far walls can be tunnelled through. However, wanderers have found ways to make use of it.
Infinite Source of Energy
Powerlines on the ceiling of Level 1 delivering power to Base Alpha.
As voidstone does not change in temperature when heat is removed, an infinite amount of heat energy can be extracted.
Buried deep behind the surface walls and ceilings in some levels, cubic cavities have been discovered with exposed voidstone walls. One of these walls will have a temperature above 100°C, and the wall on the opposite side will be below 0°C.
Thermoelectric generators, devices that convert heat directly into electricity, will appear in these cavities. Conducting copper rods extend out from the generators and are pushed against the two voidstone walls, generating electricity from the temperature differential between the walls. A temperature differential is required for the generators to work. For example, all the voidstone across the entirety of Level 75 is at 15°C, so none of the generators function.
The generators output direct current which is converted to alternating current through inverters2. Wires from these generators spread the electricity across the level to lights and other equipment.
After several decades of measurements, these walls have had no measurable change in temperature. How these walls got to abnormally high and low temperatures to begin with is not known.
In levels that are indoors, there are very few sources of energy. There is no sunlight, wind, or rivers, and generally no fossil fuels or nuclear material, forcing people who inhabit these levels to derive all their electricity from naturally occurring voidstone electricity generators.
Even though voidstone stores infinite energy, the rate at which energy can be extracted can be quite limited due to the poor contact thermal conductivity of 113 W/m2K.
As of 2025, one square kilometre of Level 1’s ceiling has been rewired to deliver power from 100 different voidstone generators straight to Base Alpha to satisfy the base’s energy needs.
An excerpt from an interview with an anonymous individual currently living in Level 13.
My first job was at Office Space EL3A in Level 2. While getting free accommodation and somewhat edible food was nice, the actual work was exhausting and boring.
I was three hours into my ten-hour shift at Office Space E3LA, and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. I was taking bricks out of minecarts that were freshly mined out of Level 3 and stacking them into small vehicles that were to set off to deliver the bricks to customers.
Suddenly the lights had switched off. I didn’t know if the base was under some kind of entity attack. The power doesn’t usually go out on this level. However, then my manager turned a torch on and told us to keep working in the dark, as this was only a ‘temporary wiring issue’ that would be fixed shortly.
Deliveries of bricks stopped arriving at the base once the power outage started, which meant I had nothing to do. I waited around for hours as they wouldn’t let me leave until they finally told me what was going on.
Turns out the voidstone powering thermoelectric generators had suddenly cooled to room temperature, so now the bloody generators didn’t work anymore, and this cut out the power for most of level 2.
They don’t know why the voidstone went cold because it doesn’t normally do that shit. It is probably because they plugged that sketchy-arse battery into the voidstone electrical system. Man, I don’t freakin know. I was stuck in that base all day before they let us out.
While a key characteristic of voidstone is that its temperature remains constant, in some levels there is a phenomenon called ‘spontaneous temperature change’ where the high temperature walls instantaneously drop to room temperature, before instantaneously returning to their original temperature sometime later.
Without a temperature differential, the generators cannot produce electricity, causing a blackout in the level. Level 2 had a blackout that lasted two years from this effect, with Level 1 and Level 480 still experiencing frequent short lived blackouts; a common occurrence since voidstone generators came into existence.
An excerpt from an interview with an anonymous individual currently living in Base Alpha.
I just moved back into Base Alpha. I had been living there for a few years previously, and it was not great. There were power outages that would happen all time.
They tried running these makeshift generators made in the Scrapyard to power the base while the voidstone generators were offline, but there was no air circulation; they just spread these foul fumes everywhere. Those fumes could have suffocated me!
They now use blue gel batteries for backup power. I will see if things have improved since the last time I lived there…
Mode of Transportation
As voidstone is frictionless, sliding objects across it is a fuel efficient way of transporting people and goods. In principle, a vacuum chamber with a voidstone floor could allow cargo to slide forever without propulsion. However, there are some technical limitations that have limited the usage of voidstone for this purpose.
To access the voidstone base floor, metres of surface-level flooring need to be dug through. There may be voidstone rebar, which is irremovable, leaving behind floating bars. It limits the height of vehicles, as vehicles that are too high will crash into these bars.
A small portion of buildings in Level 11 have a voidstone frame. An artist removed all the non-voidstone components of one of these buildings to create the ‘Void House’.
Wheels do not work on frictionless surfaces, so some other less convenient means of speeding up and slowing down vehicles is required, such as using linear induction motors, thrusters, or having wheels on the sides of the vehicles to push against walls. It is important for vehicles to be able to speed up and slow down easily to make their way through the twisted corridors.
For this reason, voidstone tracks have not been heavily used, which is also why The B.N.T.G. chose to construct train tracks instead in Level 2. However, The M.E.G. has built an experimental voidstone track in Level 1.
Art
Engraving made into a step in a staircase in Level 280 created by an unknown individual. The engraving exposes voidstone inside of the stairs.
Voidstone is darker than any known pigment, making its use for artistic purposes highly appealing.
Carving away naturally occurring structural materials and exposing the voidstone underneath can allow for visually distinctive engravings. Carved text, symbols, and patterns will be pitch black and will have extreme contrast with the surroundings, making them stand out. This is done with no use of black paint, which can peel, so these engravings keep their appearance for hundreds of years, at least until level regeneration destroys them.
Voidstone engravings are among the earliest types of art that appeared in the Backrooms with ancient engravings in unknown languages appearing in various levels.
Removing the layers above the voidstone on walls and ceilings creates surfaces that appear as dark as a void, allowing for highly unique architectural designs. This cannot be done for flooring as it would be too slippery.
Microstructure
An excerpt from an article written by Dr. Laurent on the Backrooms News Network.
Being separated from my family for the past seven years and knowing that I will never see them again has been awful; I hope my kids got into the universities they wanted. But… In all honesty, in a strange way, entering the Backrooms has been the best thing to happen to my career.
On Earth after my PhD, I worked as a material scientist, and I probably spent more time trying to persuade governments and organisations to provide funding for my research than doing actual research. I could have lost my job at any second.
However, after joining The M.E.G., there have been so many strange objects and phenomena to investigate making a real addition to science. Voidstone I find particularly fascinating. It is not like anything that appears in the Frontrooms.
So, I became the lead scientist for the collaborative M.E.G.-Ariane Circle voidstone research team. We started conducting experiments on samples in Hippocrates-1. Looking at it through a microscope, it is perfectly smooth with no microscopic irregularities, and any corrosive chemicals we had thrown at it had no effect. It does not seem to be made of anything that appears on the periodic table.
Floating voidstone samples in a laboratory in Hippocrates-1.
Following remodelling of the naturally occurring environment in Level 1, turning it into the base Hippocrates-1, pieces of unmoveable voidstone rebar were left floating in the laboratories of the base. These fragments were used for various experiments that helped The M.E.G. and the Ariane Circle obtain much of the knowledge we have about voidstone.
Even on a microscopic scale, voidstone surfaces are entirely flat. There is no evidence it is composed of atoms, and what it is made of is still entirely unknown.
Materials normally conduct heat by transferring energy between neighbouring atoms. Without atoms, voidstone instead transfers heat through a ten-micrometre thick field that surrounds it. Atoms within this field will absorb or release kinetic energy to cool down or heat up to the same temperature as the voidstone. As this process is slow, it results in voidstone’s low contact thermal conductance.