The location of Garlond Ironworks in 1.x?

[Elladie]

I've been trying to track down the physical location of the Garlond Ironworks in 1.x and haven't been able to find anything concrete. I vaguely remember meeting up with Cid a lot at the airship landing in Ul'dah but, on looking back through the MSQ, I think that's just because I was part of the Flames (the quest lines for the other Grand Companies seem to have the PC meet with him at the airship landings in Gridania & Limsa.

Various conversations had with Cid alongside other NPCs do imply that the Garlond Ironworks was actively working on commissions/bits of tinkering during this period, things not connected to Dalamud.
As an example during "Two Vans are Better than One" Ebrelnaux is referred to as Foreman Ebrelnaux; he calls the Ironworks as "our Ironworks"; and, in reference to High Commander Flutaint, he says "This had better not be about another one of his ridiculous inventions...".
He also mentions a Gridanian called Quinquerol in the following quote. "Many Gridanians loathe our Ironworks. They perceive high technology as an enemy of the natural order. Quinquerol is a rare exception. Master Cid embraces the chance to speak with men such as he. The two of them always end up making something when they get together."
I may be reading too much into comments like this, but I have taken them as suggesting that the Ironworks has an actual physical base somewhere, a workshop at the very least. If anyone knows where this was, please could you point me towards the relevant information?

Also I was very intrigued to find references to Allagan tomestones in some of the MSQ dialogue. Cid says "I was sure van Darnus lacked the Allagan tomestones he needed (to build a new lunar transmitter). I didn't think that many were even left! Where in the bloody hells did he find them?"
I inferred from this that the tomestones were to be used as material rather than containing specific instructions on how to make a lunar transmitter otherwise Cid would have specified tomestones of engineering (or whatever). I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this.
They certainly don't sound as plentiful as they have become since the WoL and friends started running level 50+ dungeons ...

Finally I came across a warning that the elementals gave to Kan-E-Senna (Shadow of the Raven) which said "When white wings hie from distant east, a maid of steel to bear/Shall darkling sky shed tears of fire, and veiled ones know despair."
This had me bouncing up and down in my chair. I'd always assumed up until now that Eula van Darnus was a retcon. It pleased me enormously to find this wasn't so!

[Anonymoose]

I've been trying to track down the physical location of the Garlond Ironworks in 1.x and haven't been able to find anything concrete.

I never found a solid citation, either, but I concluded that they were probably based in Ul'dah. When you see them in Gridania or Limsa, they're always travelling or answering a summons, but in Ul'dah they just often tended to general business, and the traitor that stole a bunch of information from them fled via Ul'dah as well. Considering the sultanate has the deepest pockets and Highwind Skyways signed one of Cid's first major contracts (allowing Ul'dah to expand its reputation as a central trade hub), it seems a safe bet it possesses (at least one of) their main workshops.

Also I was very intrigued to find references to Allagan tomestones in some of the MSQ dialogue.

Tomestones are just quartz-based memory storage; the Allagan equivalent of thumbdrives. Whether it was schematics, planetary data, machine programming languages, or what have you, Darnus needed something from them for the Lunar Transmitter to guide Dalamud onto Eorzea with any accuracy. (At least until later...) Darnus assured Baelsar that the tomestones would prevent collateral damage to the Empire. We actually found them first, but were attacked by Gaius (leashed to Darnus's whims by the Emperor) and Cid, assuming the weathered pieces of stone were completely worthless, just gave them to him so he'd leave. Cid was mistaken; the tomestones were fine, he just didn't know anything about them.

This had me bouncing up and down in my chair. I'd always assumed up until now that Eula van Darnus was a retcon. It pleased me enormously to find this wasn't so!

Sorry to be a buzzkill, but your first impression was correct. The dev. team was never given any specific knowledge on what was beneath the helmet (probably because the helmet never came off). The JP team gave Nael a male skeleton base, a male battle grunt pack, and male pronouns were used in every language, and it didn't raise any red flags. Eula came later, and the first few steps towards cleaning it up actually made it worse for a time, lol. But alls well that ends well; it got worked out.

The "maiden of steel to bear" is Nael's halberd, Bradamante, which was allegedly named for a warrior maiden he killed, but this was also brought under the retcon umbrella when the lore book "got more specific" about it.