Those that refuse it are given a good clip 'round the ear by their kin, and told to quit being such a cry-baby... I can't think why it anyone would be motivated to refuse, but so I don't know how obnoxious the clan would find this hypothetical refuse, but it sounds to be much like the next case:
> Those that can't pass are *children*.
Or dead. Modern Heortling initiations aren't terribly Heinleinesque, but there remains some risk. I hear they still do it the Old Scarey Way up on the Starfires...
> It gives no *adventuring* magic power.
Depends what you consider 'adventuring'... But I think I broadly agree; this initiation is fundamentally about becoming an adult, and a full member of your clan, and thus it's magical implications, while great, are largely to do with what it means to be a woman, or a man, in Orlanthi society, not anything more 'specialised' than that. But in practice I think this tends to be somewhat more confused than that, since 15-18 year olds are not blank slates, on which "pantheon initiation" can be stamped. Being either formally initiated to, or informally 'called' by, a deity may happen more or less in parallel, for example. That is, it would not be uncommon to have a transformative experience during one's initiation that has more or different consequences from 'the norm'. But as someone said some time ago, you don't necessarily decide to become a Humakti 'Death Lord' (sick) when one is still struggling with severing oneself from acne.
Also, I think it depends somewhat on which version of the rite is performed. KoS contrasts 'modern, desanctified' versions of the process with more dangerous ones: it seems clear that magical consequences would differ, too. (I'm not sure of the nature of the difference: it might even arise from some author's sloppy "we did all our research on Orlanthi clans withour ever leaving the cities" ((C) and TM, Lunar sages 1602-1625) methodology, for example.
> b) Those that have a relation to a gender role in society can be accessed
> by the opposite gender from a divine point of view but there is a cultural
> bias against it.
I'd say 'bias' was overstated: norm, or perception, perhaps. No-one in Sartar is offended by the "15%" of women that are warriors -- but equally, no-one wants to establish a 50% woman warrior quota system (or gender target, if you prefer). Well, Orlanthi no-one, at least... Sartar may be more equitable/varied/hodge-podge than other Orlanthi lands, mind you, given their notable Esrolian heritage.
> Ex woman warrior in Sartar or man warrior in Esrolia.
Men warrior are by no means uncommon in Esrolia, in fact they're still the 'norm', or at least the majority. Orlanth loses his much of his importance, and his ruler aspect, but not his warrior, husband, storm, fertility, etc, etc, aspects.
[role inversion subcults]
> Some of deities don't have such subcult because no hero created it yet.
That's a very good way of putting it. In Orlanthi society the laws resemble the proverbial 'light regulatory touch' ("No secret murder of clan members or having non-consensual sex with broos, you say? I think I can manage that") but the 'customs and traditions' will bite you on the bum every time. The difficulty of altering a given custom (or ignoring it, or discovering a countervailing precedent, or whatever) may, as they say, vary...
Cheers,
Alex.
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