The story is self contained within the quest and what you do.
Like the Wyrm Hunt quest. They give you more insight as to what you are and what you are doing.
Which is the problem, most people I know often ignore the main story for the majority of the game and focus on sidequests before tackling the game, The sidequests in this game are largely uninspired, they encourage you to travel which is the main draw of the game but in terms of atmosphere, characters and plot it's entirely shallow.