Help on thinking up an ancient creature race.

[Hand of Evil]

Go Stargate...but make the beings from another plane and tied to death and the afterlife. Lizard, spiders, cats, bugs and all but remember Egypt was not always a desert land and don't forget the Nile!

Not your "normal monster manual" may be of use here, use the stats you want but chenge up the description and background to fit.

NANGE from Liber Bestarius looks interesting...slave race of the Spider Queen that rebeled. Mostly builders their land was turned to desert from warring with the Spider Queen.

 

[Arrellion]

Crocodiles?

Crocodilian - maybe they were a were-type creature and through the misuse of the magic lost the ability to transform and are now stuck as simple crocodiles.
Or
A plague/disease affected them and they "forgot" how to transform. Maybe through exploring your players can discover how to reverse the effects.

 

[Davachido]

One of the other regions of the overall metamap specialises with were creatures so I ain't stealing his thunder. However I do like the crocosphinxes or whatever they are called, probably be using them as some form of intelligent cavalry, alongside the other sphinx creatures.

[MENTION=371]Hand of Evil[/MENTION], I oddly enough did forget about the Nile, most of my region I have just had lots of sands!... Time to add a large river somewhere, maybe one the players have to dig up or some minor arc like that to get water flowing again.

 

[Aeolius]

Desert, eh? How about a Susurrus?

With a few changes... ever heard of Lightning Glass ?

Envision a "race" created by lightning striking the desert sands. These creatures would have a chitinous exoskeleton, the sands turned to glass, and would consist of nothing else save magical sands, inside. Perhaps these magical sands must remain in constant motion, like an hourglass. Perhaps the hardened exoskeleton is translucent, revealing the layered sands within.

I'm betting they would not be expecting that.

 

[Aeolius]

In a sylvan game I've had on the back burner for a decade, the susurrus is made from amber and is animated by a the hivemind of petrified insects encased within; trapped between life and death.

 

[David Howery]

Serpent people are always a good choice! Ala Lovecraft and Howard. They are statted in Pathfinder and Freeport for 3e and True20. Mutants and Masterminds, too! I think Green Ronin even has a 4e conversion on their website!

I did my own version of them for my pseudo-African campaign, with the caveat that there were only a handful of them left, and they were all in a state of magical stasis, waiting for someone foolish enough to wake them... which was a bad idea, since they had a horribly powerful connection to magic, and were capable of overwhelming spellcasting...