Here's Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Unfortunately Persia, which is arguably the only country where things actually happened, is hiding under the bed, so please wait while I bait her with catfood and Cheetos.

Iraq: The Kingdom of Iraq, ruled by the Hashemites since the Arab rebellion, has served as somewhat of a buffer state between the Ottoman Empire and Persia ever since. A poor and mismanaged country despite its immense oil reserves, it has returned to the forefront since the early 70's with the resurgence of its two major neighbors. The first years of the decade saw the Ottoman Empire attempt to take over the country by encouraging the Kurds to rebel, only to have Persia, itself just recently out of its torpor, act decisively against these goals, guaranteeing the Iraqi state's sovereignty and extending citizenship rights to the Shi'a population. Since these events in 1971, the Ottoman Empire has receded from view, engaged in its own civil war, leaving Persia as the main partner of the country. It is slowly growing closer to its protector, both economically and culturally, gaining a bit from it's meteoric expansion, essentially becoming its client state.

Afghanistan: Afghanistan, ever a complex case, remains what it always has been: a proud collection of fierce peoples. The king retains only as much power as the tribes leave him, keeping thanks to political shrewdness and his neighbor's benevolence the land together. Slowly but surely, modern life is installing itself in the city's biggest cities: Kabul, Kandahar, Herat... Keeping rather apart from the surrounding turbulence, it was however forcefully involved in the diplomatic game in 1976, when the UFI, a communist-backed movement, made great inroads in northern India, threatening to reunite the shattered peninsula under Beijing's terms. Persia, in order to intervene, needed access to Afghanistan's few but nevertheless vital highways, and a foothold in the country, which it gained only in exchange for a sizeable contribution to the state's coffers. Aside from that sudden awakening, Afghanistan lays dormant.

Pakistan: Pakistan, as such,does not exist. Part of India until 1971, it has since the collapse of central authority been divided into petty states by warlords, religious leaders and adventurers. Only in October 1976, following the takeover of Bengal by the UFI, was order imposed once again upon the region by the persian military, who occupied the Indus river valley preventively, as UFI forces were nearing on Ahmedabad, in nearby Gujarat. Since the armistice in late 1977, it has been reintegrated into a federal Indian state, with wide autonomy for its constitutive regions, Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkwa.

So actually Pakistan doesn't exist. Woops. I'll correct that on the maps.

Basic map: [img]http://imgur.com/KTKnh26[/img]
Ideological map: [img]http://imgur.com/cHlzYpO[/img]

(Okay, okay, Evan, you won.)

Aaron, by the way, where on earth is the PM conversation we had on the Minecraft forum regarding the terms of the armistice? I can't find it!
EDIT: Found it. Nevermind.