User blog comment:Inept Wiki User/Cosmos in the Lostbelt: Post-Prologue, Pre-Anastasia Information & Speculation/@comment-4802891-20180327155958/@comment-34352073-20180327172128

Kotomine did mention a Tsar during the assault on Chaldea (and IIRC referred to Anastasia as a princess), but I suppose things may have changed since then, with Ivan being removed from his station. This might be Kadoc's plan being put into action (assuming he has one and isn't just along for the ride).

As for the ice and transformations, given that Viy seems to have power over ice it's surely connected to the situation somehow. What I was going for with the adaptation thing was that what made this place a Lostbelt (probably) is at least part of the world freezing over, so there might've been some shenanigans after that in order to survive. Like turning people into wolves to give them more of an affinity for living in the cold.

Still, we'll just have to wait and see.