High Speech is the symbolic language of the Supernal Realms that all mages learn to speak during their Awakenings. Statements made in it can alter reality itself, increasing a mage’s control over her magic when she invokes it during spellcasting.
Because it consists entirely of the symbols of the Supernal Realms, the Lie conceals its true nature from Sleepers. The un-Awakened perceive it an unfamiliar language, glossolalia, or meaningless gibberish.
High Speech is not a real language, but the Supernal platonic ideal of “language.” It sounds like gibberish to mages, too, but their Peripheral Mage Sight responds to it and they know the information being imparted despite the sounds themselves being nonsense. A minor key has a different emotional effect than a major key, for example, and red evokes different memories and sensations than blue, but neither expresses something that can be directly translated into ordinary language.
High Speech is similarly useless for conveying long messages but very effective at evoking intent or mood. Lies cannot be spoken in High Speech, but it is the only means of fully describing spells.
Magical runes are derived from the shapes Mana makes when mages release it while using Mage Sight. They work in spellcasting like drawing a blueprint works in construction. High Speech as a communication method doesn’t have to be written in runes. A mage can use any alphabet to write High Speech down, safe in the knowledge that only Awakened mages will be able to read it.
Awakened mages see and hear High Speech in all sorts of places they weren’t expecting it — short messages written in the architecture of buildings, warnings in the shape of a motorway seen from the air, advertisements that contain calls to arms, and the sounds of sacred animals making prayers to the Aether. Some of these messages are the result of mages writing things down, or incorporating High Speech into a design.
Most aren’t. The Greek Pythias at Delphi were priestesses who, when exposed to certain fumes, ranted in tongues that the priests interpreted into prophecies. A mage would be able to hear what they were actually saying, even if the Pythia didn’t know herself. The same goes for certain Christian groups and mediums in the modern day — some of them spout High Speech without knowing it.
Are they the makers’ marks of the Exarchs, as so many Seers claim; or are they symbols sent from the Supernal Realms to guide mages to Ascension, as no few Diamond mages believe? Whatever the truth, mages who investigate these inexplicable messages quite often uncover deeper Mysteries behind them.
From the instant of Awakening, all mages can comprehend High Speech, the Supernal symbol of “language” that serves as the platonic ur-tongue. The Orders all teach their students to use High Speech as a Yantra in Spellcasting but it is useable in spoken and written form as a crude form of communication.
Because it’s more the symbol of a language than a real language, though, High Speech has some restrictions — it is very good at communicating facts, but can’t be used to deliberately lie (it’s possible to be mistaken). It also contains no metaphors or symbols, as it is its own Supernal concept. High Speech may be used for Persuasion and Intimidation rolls, but reduces all Expression and Subterfuge rolls to chance dice
Sleepers who hear or read High Speech only perceive gibberish, and their memories of it are subject to Quiescence, although it does not provoke a Breaking Point.