The myths are poor human attempts to explain great mythic truths (and generally great events upon the hero plane). They are thus true. They are also imperfect human attempts to explain what happened in mundane terms, frequently obscured by many generations of retelling etc. They are thus false.
Certainly gods have existence apart from their worshippers in some meaningful sense. There is a sun, and the sun is a very important thing in the real world. So the sun is a very important power in the heroplane. Which means a sun god will be powerful. Now, the worshippers shape the specifics of that sun power - it is the worshippers and heroquesters who determine the differences between Yelm and Somash.
Now, lets take pre-Darkness Dara Happa. Was the land literally ruled by the sun god, who ruled over the land from his court in the heavens? Or was the land ruled by sun worshippers, who were able to make manifest the power of their god, and visit him in his court in the sky in a heroquest?
Well, how do you tell? There are quite a few things that could happen that would lead you to conclude that Yelm was a free-willed entity independent of his religion, worshippers, and heroquest paths. Like Yelm turning up on earth, uncalled for, and making entirely new demands of his worshippers. These things didn't happen, though, so its really not possible to tell if the god rules the religion or the religion rules the god - they are never opposed, and when controversy comes to the religion, it comes either from an individual worshipper, or an outside force. Virtually all gods are like this now, and probably always were - this is what is meant by 'gods do not have free will'. Doesn't mean gods aren't real. Just means they aren't sentient the way people are, at least not anymore.
Cheers
David
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #353
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