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The largest nation in the world is the human empire. It now stands as the only human nation, all others are now provinces of the greater whole. And the legionaries make sure it stays that way.

History
In the ancient days humans lived in small bands, tribes that wandered the lands that now compose the Empire. These tribes reamained mobile at all times, following game and remaining one step ahead of their common enemy: the giants. The earliest human legends tell of how they fought back and destroyed the giants. How the first human hero, the Giantslayer, led his warband against a small giant encampment and won. How he began to attract more warriors, and attack larger camps. And how others began to follow his example, and other warbands fought other giant camps. In time the giants found themselves defeated more often than they won, not that the legends don't tell of many warbands wiped out in giant attacks. Eventually there were no more giants, and the warbands took to fighting other monsters, and each other. The first human lords were sucessful warleaders, who kept their men fed and prepared by collecting what they needed from those they protected. When the threat of giants remained this was given willingly, once it was removed the power of the spear was still there. They became the noble families of their kingdoms, and are now the great houses of the Empire. The Emperor is of the Giantslayer family.
During their war with the giants humans developed rapidly. They learned to build walls and towns, began to domesticate animals and crops, all to keep themselves safe from the giants without running. As the threat of the giants declined humans could afford greater trade with the other races, having more to trade. As the war ended humans were employing new implements, iron spearheads and swords, armor of chain links, pikes and lances. All learned from the elves and dwarves, who desired to see the humans wipe out the giants, which had been a plague on their lands as well. When the giants had been killed off humans quickly learned to put all of this into place permanently, against each other.
Wars between human kingdoms went on and off for centuries, some kingdoms growing smaller, some larger, and some vanishing entirely. During this time the beginning of the empire was founded, as some of the weaker kingdoms united under Giantslayer, the other warleaders pledging their loyalty to that family. Parliament was formed as the body where these leaders could meet, and they agreed to follow Giantslayer and merge their own warbands with his for protection from their larger neighbors. During the centuries that followed the developing empire played one kingdom against another in its constant quest for dominance. During the time of the dragon humanity was finally wholly brought under imperial control, and the emperors that followed began to consolidate their holdings. Building both infrastructure to support their empire, and loyalty to it within the now subject provinces.
But humanity needs projects, something to focus its attention on. Lest discontent within the Empire have nothing to focus on save the Empire itself. Then the dragon was killed and the new frontier exposed. The emperor seized the opportunity for expansion and for new work for humanity's idle hands. The Minstrels' Guild has begun pouring out stories and songs about the slaying of the dragon, the new frontier heros, and the fortune and glory to be found by heading out.

Government
The Empire was not so much created as it evolved. It began much as the individual kingdoms began. The larger Giantslayer family agreed to protect smaller kingdoms in exchange for their loyalty and obedience. The weaker lords considered the continued control of their lands as servants of the stronger family far better than their deaths to some other ambitious lord. These were the first provinces and their Lords composed the first Parliament. Initially the Empire expanded because other weak nations began to seek the same protection, but after the Deco War, when one of the larger nations attacked an imperial province, believing mistakenly that the Empire would not risk war to protect it, the policy was established of Parliament choosing a loyal Lord (preferably, but not always, from the previous ruling family) to rule a conquered province. This further led to Parliament having to approve any replacement for a previous Lord, even his progeny.
The imperial government is largely controlled by Parliament, a body composed of the Lords each province. This is also complicated by the fact that the Lords require the approval of Parliament before taking power, which the Great Houses put to use to gain support from other Houses.
The other ruling body, if it can be called that, is the Coucil of Guildmasters. The Emperor first convened the Council so that he and his generals could be advised on supplies. The Council remained in place to continue providing that advice as other Guilds joined. With the Empire stable and whole so too are the guilds, for each craft there is now but one guild. The level of control they have varies from the strict quality control held by the Smith's Guild, to the loose group of individuals that forms the Farmer's Guild.

The Imperial Academy
There is another organization of significance in the Empire, although it cannot be called a ruling body by any means. The Academy represents both the Empires magical and intellectual center. The main Academy is, naturally, based in the capital, but branch Universities are present in every provincial capital and major city. The Academy's two stated goals are to train and provide future mages to take their place in society, and to act as a center of higher learning and innovation. Beneath these goals, however, is another purpose that the Academy refuses to acknowledge. It serves as a training ground and recruitment center for the Imperial Marshals.
The Marshals act as a military police, elite task force, and the Emperor's personal guard. They are trained in the use of combat magic and in traditional fighting, both with and without weapons. A detachment is sent as backup during particularly dangerous military endeavours and to perform surgical strikes; they have yet to fail in any mission. Likewise they have not yet failed to protect the Emperor from assassins. Which isn't to say no Emperor has ever been assassinated, just never without their approval. In addition to these duties Marshals are also called to act as intelligence and security forces within and around the Empire, they deal with high profile and top secret assignments considered above the realm of local or provincial police authorities.

Legends
The earliest human legends regard the Giants and Giantslayers. Most of the noble families have their own legend about their warleader ancestor. The Minstrel's Guild has gathered these legends and their own quazi-legendary founder, Alessa Songsmith, wrote the Sagas from these legends, each Saga focussing on one warband. Most other legends tell of other heroes, whether they fought monsters, men, or nature; whether they won or lost.
Most commonly these stories feature a single hero, although some of the most loved feature an entire group. For example, most of the Sagas are compossed of Tales featuring the members of the warband that the Saga focuses on, particularly the Giantslayer Saga, since members of Jeoff Giantslayer's warband frequently appear in the other Sagas.

Religion and Myths
The only surviving stories from the time of giants concern how the world came to be. Now considered the definitive work, Songsmith's Beginnings compiled these stories into a single text. Other, differing stories survive in various forms, but all share similar elements with the Beginnings. The first gods created the world, each god adding their own part. Then each god created their own people on the world, so that they would have a part of themselves there. There are many other gods beyond the creators, their children and relatives, and mortals who were deified.
The creator of humans is Jev, god of land and all that walk upon it. Humans, however, worship all the gods. Indeed, worship of Jev is limited to the plains areas. Far more common is worship of the sun goddess, Sola and her brother the moon god, Lor.
The Empire doesn't have a unified church, like the Goblins have. Individual shrines and temples exist to specific gods, or for general use by a specific area. And there are larger organized bodies dedicated to the worship of specific gods, but none of these is powerful in the secular sense. More important for the beliefs of most humans is the Minstrel's Guild, which is responsible for relaying songs and stories, and keeping the histories as pure as possible. Most festivals are kept based on tradition, rather than the oversight of a priest, although certain holy events press the faithful to go to the nearest temple of the god they worship.

Culture
In spite of how much they have developed in the centuries since the Giant Wars, humans are still very tribal in much of their outlook and thoughts. Foremost in human loyalties is the tribe, a fluid entity normally consisting of the extended family and close friends, or in some cases an entire settlement. This is, however, not always the case. Professional soldiers often consider their unit the tribe, priests are encouraged to look at their church, and Minstrels tend to see the Guild as their tribe.
Humans usually have 3 names. Their first name is given them by their parents at birth ("doesn't know their first name" is another way of calling someone a bastard) The second name is given by the tribe when someone reaches maturity. And the last name is the name of the tribe. As the tribes have become less fixed these last two practices have changed. Particularly in the cities old identifications of tribe are less important, many either substitute the name of their parents ("son of-") or region. Members of the Legion are assigned a secondname by their comrades on completing their training (effectively becoming a true soldier) and replace their last name with the identification of their unit. Minstrels are encouraged to invent their own secondname, and are assigned a last name by the Guild based on their abilities, which is known to change. In most crafts a second name is given at the completion of apprenticeship. Many churches insist their priests take new names that reflect aspects of their god.

Relations With Other Races
The Empire currently dares not attack any of its neighbors. Unlike the smaller human kingdoms it slowly consumed by conquest and alliance, these are not isolated groups. Although there is no doubt that the Empire could conquer the dwarves, goblins, or kobolds, there is no way it could hold the territory nor sustain the losses inflicted by its supposed victory. Worse, by attacking any of the three it would be left open for a war with the goblins, kobolds, or both that it could not win.
Though the Empire is preaching to its people its Destiny to unite the world under imperial rule, there is no particular hostility towards other races. Particularly with the promise of the frontier and all attention focused there. The general attitude is that their leaders would do well to accept the benefits that joining the empire has (something elves fervently agree with, since the Empire banned slavery in most forms). But towards individuals of any given race humans are neutral.
Halflings, of course, are an exception. They obey the laws of any region they enter, which as far as the imperial government is concerned makes them nothing to worry about. The human populace always appreciates their arrival. Having no land to take under imperial rule exempts them from its destiny to unite the world.