Tekuo is an Earth-like planet, inhabited by sentient hominids. It is a little smaller than our world and orbits its sun in 352.7 Earth days (356.33 local days). Its leading civilisations, like Mohai, are at a slightly higher level of development than ours.
Travel
The exact location of Tekuo is currently unclear. It may be in our universe or in a parallel one. For the majority of Earth-dwellers travel to Tekuo remains impossible. However, it is possible if you have access to a means of hyperspace teleportation, such as a quantum entangled object linked to another on Tekuo.
Side effects of your journey are likely to include nausea and dizziness. You would also need time to adapt to local conditions such as climate, air pressure, gravity and the length of the day.
Planet
In many ways, Tekuo is a similar planet to Earth, so adaptation would not be too difficult. Tekuo is around 95% the size of Earth, so it has slightly weaker gravity and air pressure. These present some difficulties, for a human from our world.
Like Earth, it lies in the habitable zone of its solar system, so experiences similar temperatures. Tekuo is warmer and wetter than Earth. (Only 21% of it is land, compared with 29% of Earth). It receives as much sunlight as Earth but has no land at the poles to harbour large ice fields.
It has an axial tilt of 24 degrees. This makes the polar and tropical climate zones of Tekuo a little larger than those of Earth. Mid-latitude climate zones are correspondingly smaller. There is less land and more water and hence, less desert.
Continents
The planet has a simple geological plate structure. There are just three continents. These are close together, but drifting slowly apart after a Pangaea. All are drifting north and west, but at different rates and in slightly different directions.
On most maps, the continent of Aheku is shown in the south-east. It is shaped rather like the island of Borneo and extends from Equatorial regions into the southern hemisphere. The island of Mohai lies off its east coast.
The continent of Umãka is conventionally shown in the north of Tekuo, so north-west of Aheku.
Teohiti lies to the west of the other two continents. It is shaped a bit like Sumatra but aligned north-west to south-east. Most of its land lies in the southern hemisphere.
Beyond the continents, lies the Great Ocean (also known as the World Ocean). It contains several notable island groups. Most of these are near plate boundaries.
Lifeforms
The similarity of Tekuo to Earth means that its lifeforms evolved in similar conditions and hence display a marked degree of convergent evolution to the creatures we are familiar with.
Nonetheless, there are some striking differences. The greatest difference is the presence of what we would call supernatural beings.
The proximity of the continents means that lifeforms, languages and cultures vary less from place to place on Tekuo than they do on Earth.
Tekuo has a class of mammals, including a species of sentient hominid: the Ike. The Ike are like the humans of Earth, but shorter and more slight. They are the most advanced of Tekuo’s natural creatures, but they lack the powers of the supernaturals.
Parts of this post are currently non-canonical. It will be updated soon.
This piece has now been aligned with the latest thinking and changes to the Lemohai orthography.
A person might reasonably ask: how come I claim to know so much about Tekuo? Ah, well now… that would be telling wouldn’t it?
This piece was first posted in June 2015. It has now been extensively revised to reflect the new scenario. Tekuo is no longer a parallel Earth, but a totally different planet.