Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24344819-20150118150054/@comment-92.22.102.91-20150316012000

I think various dialogue suggests that Restoration is often overlooked in-universe. It is the slowest raising magic skill (roughly 1/10 of Conjuration), so there are probably few major practicioners of Restoration, and even fewer students. You could basically say that it's dying out, though it's unlikely that it ever will for the sake of gameplay.

I think the "healing" is more of a catalyst for the body repairing itself, or of a more spiritual healing, rather than literal healing, so more serious injuries would take longer to heal. Then again, this is just speculation.

I do think that there should be a very late-game spell that lets you revive an NPC once after death, because them dying and you not noticing after you've saved is really annoying. And really, when is a spell like that actually going to come in handy when the death is the player's fault?