It just seems like a lame aspect of the commune. It's not like shamans would quit withering if it suddenly lost the aging affect. Hell, if you want to compensate for removing the aging then add a little extra strength malediction. Or make it a tad harder to save against. It just rubs me the wrong way that another character can reduce the amount of time I can play my character before he/she dies.

I mean, it's not like the current relation of player-hours to character-years is particularly rational. Elves age die around 650 hours and arials around maybe 500, despite elves living about ten times as many "in character" years.