The Peshawar Lancers/WMG

Yasmini and the other Dreamers are all Time Lords
Or part-Time Lord, or Time Lord clones, or whatever. Besides the fact that no WMG is complete without a Time Lord theory, it actually makes a certain amount of sense. Their Psychic Powers arise from a weak connection to the Time Vortex.

Yasmini is River Tam
Or, more likely, some kind of parallel-universe counterpart thereof. Psychic Powers that cause insanity? Check. Unwilling agent of an evil government? Check. Combat training? Check. Shooting people with eyes closed? Check. Waifish good looks? Check (though Yasmini is blonde whereas River is dark-haired).

The novel takes place in Shinji Ikari's head during Instrumentality
The Fall stands in for Second Impact. Athelstane is Shinji's idealized version of himself (with a dash of Kaji), with Narayan Singh as an imaginary best buddy. Yasmini is obviously Rei, with Gendo as Ignatieff. Ibrahim is Touji (attacks him on first meeting, then becomes a friend), David bar-Elias is Kensuke (with his fondness for blowing things up), Cassandra is Misato, and Sita is Asuka. Charles and Henri are idealized love interests dreamed up for the latter two.
 * This implies that somehow, Shinji's a closet Anglophile.

The whole Malik Nous/Satan thing was suggested by Ivan Braginsky
To say that Russia took a heavy beating from the Fall is an understatement. For it succeeded in breaking whatever was left of Ivan's sanity. Like his people, he felt betrayed by God and turned to madness. So it wasn't surprising when he blabbered to his Czar during the chaos about taking up the Malik Nous cult along with the Sisters. Not only did the Romanovs agree, they even gave Ivan a cover as Malik Nous' "physical guardian." A few generations later, with the implication that his siblings and Baltic chew toys long dead sinking in, he's even more insane.
 * If Count Ignatieff's "piety" is any indication, then it's obvious why Ivan would go for a  After all, if you won't be one with Russia, then.
 * A Satanic cannibalistic cult is too nice to be started by Ivan.

The apocalypse, the psychics, and the Malik Nous cult were all started by different factions of The Mind.
This is another of Their attempts to create a relatively nicer future, but the same bastards who sponsor the CUT in the Emberverse are trying to make it even worse.