Can I skip the Personal Story?
Yes. But at level 10 you get a black lion chest key, and later you get some nice rewards as well. XP is great from the PS, too. You can do it, but when leveling up, I’d recommend it just so you can get the best parts of the story in at low level. Your race specific stories are the best ones, and later all become the same when you’re higher level and accepted into one of the orders.
Yes the personal story is completely optional. The only reason I finally completed it was to get the indicator out of the top corner of the screen.
The Personal Story of our individual characters should be made more important and a virtual must do.
For example joining at Order gives you the right to buy Tier 1 Cultural, overseeing the formation of the Pact gives right to buy Tier 2 and completing the Battle of Fort Trinity gives the right to buy Tier 3.