Lysander and the Academy will not be placed directly into the galaxy until a certain point in the game (sort of like system quests for Faction Quests) Instead, to interact with him you must first build an Academy Embassy. Upon meeting him, he will give you one hero of a ROLE of your choosing (Overseer, Counselor, Guardian, or Seeker) after which you can open the Diplomacy menu to talk with him again. You can garner his favor with Influence Points and by completing quests he can give you for Dust (and possibly by assisting minor populations and factions?)


Gaining favor with Lysander will allow you to obtain heroes more quickly, but having good relations with him will also allow you to narrow down specific hero types you may be interested in (You can start by narrowing down hero types, and then political parties or possibly vice versa) this gives players control over the system and also allows them to use their Influence later in the game (assuming the Academy is still standing by the end of it) and removes the random unpredictability of hero generation from the Academy.