There is a broad history, deeply developped culture within the races, metaphors for the good the bad and the ugly moments of real life, any number of quests that affect your fame, rare and unique rewards for completing those quests, and yes, there is an on-going story to the game that advances through cutscenes as you perform missions for your nation...

Unless you choose to be ignorant of all the things that make this game awesome, forego them and just walk around fighting crap... Then that's pretty much all there is.