So, several times over the last few months I've seen threads asking for advice on how to build desert/Arabian Nights style settings. Seeing as this is a field I am interested in and have a number of books on, I thought I'd post a starter kit of sorts.

Understand that the following is by no means comprehensive. It is intended merely to be a collection of ideas from myth, legend, and traditions that might jog your imagination.

I'm mainly going to focus on 1001 Nights sort of stuff. We'll start with djinn. If you're in a TL;DR mood, now's the time to leave.