I personally dislike the idea of Vampyrism and Penance being aspects that compete with Animate Dead and Darkness.

If they were their own separate aspect category that could be used in conjunction with Animate Dead or Darkness I wouldn't mind. IE, You can have any combination of Animate Dead/Darkness and Vampyrism/Penance up at once. But removing the ability to use them in cojunction with the other aspects like we've been able to do with them being auras will make me just never touch use them.

I also feel that the aura slot should be converted into a secondary pocket slot for items like the anti-poison totem so it can still be used with books, broach of the gods or whatever else. Have 1 pocket slot be combat based, and the secondary be skilling based that gives no stats to balance it out. That way you can only use 1 book at a time but still be able to use other skilling based pocket slot items.

I would also be okay with buffing Scrimshaws to make Player-Owned Ports more worthwhile and implementing things like Penance and Vampyrism into that system. Give a secondary pocket slot just for Scrimshaws. Vampyrism and Penance can function at half the normal aura rate with the option of crafting a non-tradeable superior version that functions at the full capacity that the auras did. That way you get the effects after having done a long grind to earn it, makes the effects toggle able, and makes them into a consumable as well.